LeapFrog Investments has appointed Dr. Felix Olale, MD, PhD, as a Partner to spearhead the firm’s expansion into healthcare investments in Africa.

Dr. Olale is an entrepreneur, innovator and physician-scientist with wide experience building businesses and investing in healthcare across Africa.

He has led and advised on over $100m of healthcare investments across Africa.

Dr. Olale joins LeapFrog from the Excelsior Group, a US and Kenyan-based advisor and developer of healthcare systems, where he served as Chairman.

He also co-founded Wellness Group, a specialty consultation and medical diagnostics company.

His experience with private equity and healthcare spans across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

Dr. Andrew Kuper, Founder and CEO of LeapFrog, said that Dr. Olale has “a distinctive combination of experience as investors, operators, advisors and medical innovators and has successfully executed at the highest level and across several continents”.

“This formidable leader has what it takes to achieve those high ambitions, shaping industries and changing lives,” he said.

In addition, LeapFrog has announced three expert roles on the global Healthcare team.

Matthew Myers, Director at LeapFrog and a qualified actuary, will play a core role, leading thinking on health insurance into healthcare.

Previously, at Health Monitor Company, South Africa’s largest independent actuarial healthcare consultancy, Myers advised private health insurance schemes and employers on pricing and product development and the management of healthcare funding.

Tom Verghese, an Associate Director, will play a pivotal role in Africa investments.

He previously focused on healthcare transactions for CDC and for Excelsior Group, where he was part of transactions teams, and advised leading private equity firms focused on Africa.

LeapFrog also recently hired Roshni Bandesha, charging her with measurement, reporting, and insights into Healthcare globally.

She was previously a Senior Research Analyst at McKinsey & Co in New Delhi, where she covered healthcare across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and co-wrote a field-defining global health advocacy report.

Healthcare in emerging markets remains both a pressing social need, and a major market opportunity.

LeapFrog’s companies so far serve 52 million people across 21 markets with financial services, and the firm intends to achieve similar large-scale results in healthcare.

“LeapFrog aims to generate the same extraordinary results in Healthcare as we have in Financial Services,” said Kuper.