Pfizer Regional President for Africa and Middle East Patrick van der Loo joins Atlantic Council empowerME Conversations host Amjad Ahmad for a conversation about the COVID vaccine rollout in the region, prospects for machine learning and AI to revolutionize healthcare, policies that will promote innovation, and ways companies can nurture women leaders in the workplace.

Key Takeaways:
0:00 Intro
1:30 Patrick talks about his observations of what is happening in Africa and Middle East regions after rolling out the vaccine and other initiatives and what they are focused on
5:33 Patrick talks about the significant areas specifically in the Middle East that they are present in in the 19 country portfolio 
7:39 Patrick talks about how the pandemic has affected their strategy or way of operating in the region
11:11 Patrick talks about the current trends and the role that Pfizer is playing in the SME and entrepreneurship and what he would tell the entrepreneurs to focus more on
15:53 Patrick talks about some of the interesting models of distribution that he is seeing in the Middle East 
17:48 Patrick talks about the establishment of a manufacturing hub for the vaccine and where he sees that playing out during the pandemic 
22:48 Patrick also explains if there is a more important than the other in terms of regulations to drive change in the positive direction
23:59 Patrick talks about what he has found to be interesting managing Middle East and Africa region and he is from Asia 
28:07 Patrick talks about what it is about Pfizer that made him the most attractive place for women in the Middle East to work for and why they actively encourage the exchange of talent
34:30 Patrick talks about policies that are instrumental in allowing for retention of women employees at Pfizer and what other leaders should do 
37:55 Patrick talks about what he thinks the government needs to do to increase the talent base in the Middle East region and specifically in his sector 
41:08 Patrick talks about what he is expecting to see in the near future with regards to new variants of the pandemic popping up and with the manufacturing of the vaccine 

Shows Mentioned:
COVAX: https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/covax 
Glaxo: https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/home/ 
B-Imtiyaz: https://twitter.com/ambalgindc/status/1389283107837186050?lang=en 
African Union: https://au.int/ 
BBBEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad-Based_Black_Economic_Empowerment 
DICO: https://www.dicogroup.com/ 

Quotes Mentioned:
“Breakthroughs change patient lives.”
“Many of our go-to-market initiatives now are not the traditional rep just visiting a doctor model, but it's really driven by the use of A.I.”
“In every business, customers should come first.” 
“We’re constantly searching for solutions that simplify that patient experience.”
“It takes a little bit more time to get also to the right level of vaccination.”
“You need a strong IP culture to help promote medical progress.”
“Many employers don't really listen to what the colleagues have to say.”
“Nobody had made or thought about a covid-19 vaccine until this pandemic.”

Guests Social Media Links: 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-van-der-loo-42048b2/?originalSubdomain=ae 
Company Website: https://www.pfizer.com/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PFJvanderLoo 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanderloopatrick/