Womenomics | Ola Orekunrin

Ola Orekunin is a medical doctor, a trainee helicopter pilot and an entrepreneur who founded West Africa’s first indigenous air ambulance service, the Flying Doctors Nigeria which saves hundreds of lives across the region every year. She is extremely passionate about healthcare in Africa and works with various foundations, charities and governments to improve standards of healthcare. Ola was born and bred in the UK. She studied medicine and surgery at the University of York after which she worked in acute medicine across the UK. She then went on to be awarded the Japanese MEXT scholarship which allowed her to further her studies in Tokyo, Japan. She has published two medical textbooks ‘EMQ’s in Paediatrics’ and ‘Pre-Hospital Care For Africa’ as well as articles in the British Medical Journal, New York Times and the Huffington Post. She returned to Nigeria to start the air ambulance service which uses a pool of aircrafts and doctors to save lives across West Africa.