Our Team
Working with high-caliber partners from the public, private, academic, and multilateral sectors, our team includes top-tier educators, writers, researchers, and analysts.
Collaborative Organizations
- National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
- National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
- Tsinghua University School of Public Policy & Management
- Tsinghua University Center for Public-Private Partnerships
- School of Public Health Peking Union Medical College
- WHO Independent High-level Commission on NCDs
- Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health, National Center for Privatization and PPP
- Government of Lesotho Ministry of Health, World Bank
- Global Initiative for Health and the Economy, USCC
Funding for the research, preparation and teaching of the presentations and the KSA Healthcare Advanced Workshop was provided by the Global Initiative for Health and the Economy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Funding for the research and preparation of the case studies, and the Case Development Program and Forums, is provided by Amgen Inc.
Staff
Alan M. Trager
Founder and President
Alan M. Trager is the Founder and President of the PPP Initiative Ltd., where he leads an institutional, collaborative effort to address healthcare issues—primarily in Asia—using public-private partnerships.
Professor Trager has focused on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) for more than 17 years, starting in January 2003 as a Senior Fellow with the Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). Professor Trager joined the HKS faculty in 2005, and was responsible for designing and teaching HKS’s first PPP course. After 10 years at Harvard, he accepted a faculty position at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, where he founded the PPP Initiative Ltd.
As a Senior Research Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Principal Investigator (PI) at Johns Hopkins University, Professor Trager produced “Mapping PPPs Across Countries (China and India),” a 2015 study featured in three specially-organized meetings at the U.S. State Department, in Beijing, and in Geneva from November 2015 to January 2016.
Professor Trager collaborates regularly with the National University of Singapore School of Public Health on educational and policy opportunities for PPPs in southeast Asia—most recently in an all-digital distance-learning workshop entitled “Introduction to Healthcare PPPs.” Additionally, he has collaborated with Stanford University’s Asia Health Policy Program on a series of PPP conferences focused on China’s aging population. Professor Trager was previously a faculty member in the Leadership Academy for Development (LAD), an affiliate of Stanford University, training government officials and business leaders in developing countries.
Professor Trager regularly collaborates with high-level healthcare multilaterals. He served as a Technical Expert on the WHO’s Independent High-Level Commission on NCDs, and continued to work alongside the US Department of Health and Human Services to facilitate its work on the Commission throughout 2019. He has also served as an independent contractor under a sole source procurement for the World Bank, offering advanced PPP negotiation and healthcare programs for the Ministry of Health in Lesotho. He has held numerous PPP roles for the United States Government, the State of New York, Xicheng District in Beijing, and the Riverside Park Conservancy in New York City.
In the private sector, Professor Trager founded and chaired AMT Capital Management, a private investment firm, after serving at Morgan Stanley, where he was a managing director. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was manager of planning for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.
Early in his career, he was a VISTA Volunteer in Texas and worked for mayors in New York City, New Haven, and Boston. Trager holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Ethan Simon
Director of Communications
Ethan Simon’s focus lies in elucidating the complex concepts of PPPs for the diverse audiences that encounter the PPP Initiative. Before joining PPPI, he worked as a Museum Educator at the New York Transit Museum, as a freelance copywriter, and as a full-time touring musician. Ethan graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor’s in English, and a secondary in African-American studies.
Ray Zeng
Senior Research Assistant
Ray Zeng brings diverse cross-sector insights through her work at A.T. Kearney and the Council on Foreign Relations; she has also facilitated cross-cultural business dialogues between China and Europe. Ray graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell College, with double majors in Economics and Psychology, and an Art History minor. She holds an M.A. in International Development and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies and a certificate in Social Enterprise Management & Impact Investing from Middlebury College.
Yuqian Zhang
Research Assistant
Yuqian Zhang graduated from Johns Hopkins SAIS-Tsinghua Dual Degree Masters Program, concentrating on Energy, Resources and Environment and International Economics. Yuqian has extensive interests in global health and healthcare in China. He has completed multiple global health internships at think tanks, academic institutions, and consulting firms.