Sylvana Q. Sinha

Sylvana Q. Sinha is the Founder, Chair, and CEO of Praava Health and a Bangladeshi-American lawyer and entrepreneur. Praava, a leading healthcare company, is Bangladesh’s fastest-growing consumer healthcare brand. Sylvana’s expertise focuses on healthcare, healthcare tech, and value-based health systems, as well as deep insights into emerging markets, where 85% of the world lives. Her experience building an innovative healthcare company from scratch gives a unique view into best practices and innovative approaches in healthcare systems that can be applied around the world.

Prior to founding Praava, Sylvana had over two decades of experience leading diverse, interdisciplinary teams in international law, business, development, and government relations at major international law firms, management consulting firms, the World Bank, and think tanks in the Middle East and South Asia. She conducted research on business and human rights issues for the Special Representative to the UN Secretary General, and served as a foreign policy advisor to the 2008 Presidential campaign of then-Senator Barack Obama.

Sylvana is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the WEF’s UHC2030 Private Sector Constituency, and served on Mount Sinai’s Arnold Institute of Global Health Task Force for Global Advantage. She graduated from Columbia Law School, Harvard's Kennedy School, and Wellesley College, and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford.

Sylvana is a woman of color CEO in a sector where fewer than 15% of US CEOs are women. With her dynamic background, experiences, and successes, Sylvana is particularly passionate about the urgent need for investment in developing and scaling innovative solutions to improve health care infrastructure, access, and equity globally -- to both recover from the Covid pandemic and to be prepared for the next one. Sylvana has appeared on CNBC a number of times, as well as spoken at numerous conferences, including the WEF in Davos.

Sub-specialties:
Global public health (particularly in emerging markets)
Equity & diversity in healthcare
Value-based healthcare
Health tech innovations
Entrepreneurship in emerging markets (particularly South Asia)
Emerging market investment/ impact investing
Bringing healthcare start-ups to scale
Overcoming challenges facing women of color entrepreneurs
Links between health and economic outcomes