The Obesity Innovation Lab
WHO WE ARE
The Obesity Innovation Lab, an initiative of the Propel Labs, leverages human centered design, systems thinking and entrepreneurship to address the obesity pandemic. We have partnered with a multi-stakeholder group of leaders, influencers and decision makers to tackle this wicked problem through our first strategy roundtable.
WHY WE EXIST
Innovations
Capital
Lives
By the end of year 1, we expect to have tested and launched 5 innovations, mobilized $25M in capital, and touched 1M lives.
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
WHAT WE DO
We go beyond discussionsto drive action
OUR APPROACH
At the Obesity Innovation Lab, we are designing and propelling solutions for a healthier future.
Food Tech
Given the multifaceted nature of the challenge, the Lab is taking an integrated approach combining not only different approaches but also working with different stakeholders including both the private and public sectors. The lab has been purposefully designed to facilitate this interaction.
Therapy
Recent advancements by leading pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are ushering in an era of new therapies designed to help people that are suffering from obesity. The Lab will work with these and other companies to help increase access to these therapies worldwide.
Behavior Change
A high rate of consumption of unhealthy foods and lack of physical activity are major contributing factors of obesity. The lab will take an integrated approach to drive innovations to nudge behavior change on both of these fronts.
Health Technologies
While food, therapies and behavior change will play a significant role, we believe that activity, food consumption, fitness monitoring, and community-building technologies will also be critical.
MEET THE TEAM
Anish
Anish is a digital health expert, social innovator, and entrepreneur known for driving impactful solutions in healthcare and education. As Managing Director (Asia) at Propel Labs, he leads transformative initiatives that leverage digital solutions to advance global public health.
Anish co-founded GoodEd Technologies, providing education access to over 2 million learners in India, and played a pivotal role in mobilizing healthcare resources during the pandemic through the COVID-19 Crypto Relief initiative. He also led the Gender Alliance initiative, using technology to combat child marriage and empower women, earning praise from Melinda Gates.
A World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Anish champions the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and global collaboration. His entrepreneurial achievements, including being named Most Promising Entrepreneur of the Year by TiE, extend to advising startups on scaling and sustainable growth.
With an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management (Manila), Anish is also the author of four books, including a national bestseller. His work with the Asian Development Research Institute further deepened his expertise in corporate social responsibility and innovation-driven growth.
Dheeraj
Dheeraj Batra is a leading healthcare innovation expert who has built several significant healthcare models globally. He is the founder of Arogya Finance, an award-winning social venture that enables people who cannot therapy to access financing, which has impacted over a million lives globally.
He also launched the Healthy Heart for All program for Medtronic focused on increasing access to healthcare for the underserved which won an Edison award in 2013.
Dheeraj is also the founder and CEO of Propel Labs, a boutique innovation strategy and venture building services firm which works with leading private and public organizations worldwide. Previously, he was a Partner at EY, which he joined when EY acquired his innovation-focused consulting firm in 2017.
Prior to that, he was part of the founding team that launched IDEO in India where he was the Head of Business Design and a Venture Director at Innosight Ventures. He holds a MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jami
Jami Taylor is a recognized leader at the intersection of biotechnology and global public health, advancing technological and programmatic innovations to drive and scale solutions in areas of unmet medical need. In addition to her work with startup and small-cap biotech companies in Silicon Valley, Jami teaches the Economics of Global Health Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management and serves as a Board Advisor to the Health Innovation Exchange.
She is a partner to Propel Labs, where she hosts the “Meet the Innovator” podcast, and is a co-founder of the Obesity Innovation Lab. Earlier in her career, Jami held global leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, where she was a co-founder of the company’s Global Public Health organization and a designated representative to key committees of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; UNAIDS; the Center for Global Development; the Harvard Medical School Global Health and Service Advisory Council; and other organizations with public health as central to their respective missions.
In the U.S., Jami was named to the inaugural class of Cross-Sector Leadership Fellows at the Presidio Institute, a program created by the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation to advance the work of leaders addressing society’s most complex challenges.
She was awarded a Yale Global Justice Fellowship in 2021 and remains an annual lecturer to graduate students there. Jami is an alumna of Northwestern University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Virginia.
Simon Yeung
Simon Yeung is a senior executive experienced in multiple industries and markets. He started in General Electric and gained expertise along the value chain in Dow Chemical, Avery Dennison, Valspar (now Sherwin-Williams), PepsiCo, and most recently Coca-Cola as Chief Technology & Innovation Officer. He is a highly strategic visionary, skilled in R&D, Innovation, Strategy, Supply Chain, Business Finance. Simon forged critical alliances with key senior stakeholders, created and implemented bold strategies and transformations that led to 100+ innovations and new businesses. Simon is particularly interested in strategy, cross-functional collaborations, data science, transformations, innovation, culture, and is a strong DEI champion.
Urvashi Prasad
Urvashi was a Director in the Office of the Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, the Indian government's premier policy think tank. She is currently the British Council’s UK Alumni Ambassador for SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). She has extensive experience in health, nutrition, sanitation, gender and public policy.
Urvashi is the only lateral entrant professional who has worked with all 3 Vice Chairpersons at NITI Aayog. She has been a part of the core team supporting the work of Government of India's Empowered Group 1 for managing the Covid-19 pandemic in India.
Urvashi co-authored India’s first Voluntary National Review presented at the United Nations' High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2017.
Urvashi has over 100 publications to her credit.
Urvashi is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network. She was recognized as one of 75 Indian achievers at the UK parliament on the occasion of 75 years of India's independence.
Urvashi has also been recognized as one of 25 most influential women in healthcare (2023, 2024) and 100 most influential women in India (2023). She has been included in Businessworld magazine’s 40 under 40 list in healthcare (2023, 2024).
Urvashi completed a BSc in Life Sciences (Genetics) from University of Birmingham, UK, followed by an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise from University of Cambridge and an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Vijay
Vijay is a leading social innovator, an author and a WEF Global Leadership Fellow who has launched social innovations across the world including India, Mexico, Bangladesh and Brazil. In particular, he played a key role in launching Healthy Heart for All for Medtronic in India which won an Edison award for best social funding model.
In addition, he was involved in several social innovations including a nationwide social media campaign in Mexico and Brazil to target teenage mothers, a global community of changemakers across 500 cities for the World Economic Forum and India’s first computer animation series for Cartoon Network worldwide to name a few.
Previously, Vijay was the Head of Strategy at the World Economic Forum, Venture Director at Innosight Ventures, Deputy Head of the Global Shapers Community and Creative Director at Crest Animation Studios.
Vijay holds an MBA from the International University of Japan where he was a Monbukagakhusho scholar and a Masters in Global Leadership offered by the World Economic Forum jointly with INSEAD, Columbia, Wharton, London Business School and CEIBS China.
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