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President of mPedigree Network one of four winners to receive honor
Salzburg Global Fellow Bright Simons has been named as one of four winners of the 2017 Tällberg Global Leadership Prize.
The award, also known as the Jan Eliasson Prize, is given annually by the Tällberg Foundation to outstanding leaders regardless of country and discipline, whose work is applicable at a global scale, innovative, courageous and rooted in universal values.
Simons, president of mPedigree Network, is a Ghana-based technology innovator, development activist, and social entrepreneur.
He attended Salzburg Global Seminar in 2011 for Session 481 - Health and Healthcare Series III, Innovating for Value in Health Care Delivery: Better Cross-Border Learning, Smarter Adaptation and Adoption.
With mPedigree Network, Simons pioneered a system that enables consumers to instantly authenticate the safety of pharmaceuticals at the point of purchase by sending a free text message via their cell phone.
Simons thinks of himself as part innovator, part entrepreneur and mPedigree as part IT enterprise, part social activist organization. Following his Salzburg experience and the global connections it afforded, Simons and mPedigree have since expanded their focus from Africa to Asia.
The three other winners of the 2017 Tällberg Global Leadership Prize are Instituto Elos co-founder Rodrigo Rubido Alonso, International Refugee Assistance Project co-founder Rebecca Heller, and Fiorenzo Omenetto, who is the Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University.
Alan Stoga, chairman of the Tällberg Foundation, said, "These four amazing leaders are global in their reach, tireless in their efforts, innovative in their approaches, and operate in concert with universal values. They prove that great leaders are rising to the challenges of our times. Our goal in honoring them is not only to draw attention to their work, but also to provoke a conversation about the kinds of leaders needed today.”
All four winners will take part in a public discussion at Columbia University on November 28 as part of the Foundation’s Global Leaders Forum. They will be honored at the Paley Center for Media on November 29.
WATCH: Salzburg Global Fellow Profile - Bright Simons