Just Who is Ms. Alisha Moopen and why is she important in the Cayman Islands?
Ms. Alisha Moopen is in fact the Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare in Dubai, but more importantly she is the Lead for International Development, including Aster Cayman Medcity in the Cayman Islands. She is an influential business leader and has been in the news recently having been awarded the accolade of inclusion in the list of Women of Influence in the Arab World 2021.
The list Women of Influence by CEO Middle East magazine is a prestigious and globally respected publication that recognises women for their outstanding leadership, contribution and influence on the world stage. That world stage now brings her from Aster’s original seven countries of operation into the Western Hemisphere and to Grand Cayman, as she spearheads the company’s growth and expansion into new markets. So, who is Ms. Moopen, the individual behind the accolade?
Alisha joined Aster DM Healthcare as a Director in 2013 and is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and development of the company, which includes the expansion of the group into new markets. That expansion includes Aster DM Healthcare’s major step into the West through Aster Cayman Medcity, a multi-phase investment in healthcare, assisted living and medical education designed to serve the growing medical tourism market while providing much needed services to the Cayman Islands’ senior members of society, as well as developing healthcare professionals of the future through a new healthcare university.
Aster DM Healthcare is one of the World’s largest integrated healthcare organisations with a presence across seven countries and a 34-year track record of providing compassionate, affordable care to patients, through its network of over 300 establishments and more than 20,000 employees, or Asterians as they are known. In the Cayman Islands, Alisha will add a tertiary and quaternary hospital to Aster’s growing network, designed to serve as a clinical excellence hub for medical tourism, aimed at Canada, th United States, Central and South America, and also the Caribbean Region, of course.
This recent award is not the first that Ms. Moopen has attracted. She was invited by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader to join the class of 2018 for her past work in healthcare. That included being inducted into a 5-year program with like-minded people who are committed and passionate to tackle the main challenges of the world today, with healthcare being one of them. In the Cayman Islands, those challenges have been brought to fore by the recent pandemic. Whereas the Cayman Islands largely avoided Covid-19 domestically, many Caymanians and residents found it difficult, if not impossible at times to access vital tertiary and quaternary services because of border closures and travel restrictions. This brings home the challenge of providing comprehensive and advanced care services to an Island of 65,000 people. This is just one healthcare challenge Alisha will be helping to address.
She was also recognised as one of the Top 100 World’s Greatest Leaders in Asia and GCC. Forbes Middle East magazine selected Ms. Moopen as one of the Top Next Generation Indian Leaders in 2018. She also won Khaleej Times’ Emerging Leaders Award 2018 for Healthcare.
Alisha the businesswoman is a Chartered Accountant from the ICAS (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland), having graduated from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with distinction in Finance & Accounting and then worked with Ernst & Young. That gives her an understanding of business and finance that bridges both East and West, making her an equally prominent woman of finance, something the Cayman Islands already embraces and recognises for its contribution to our economy and growth.
What about Alisha as an individual? Alisha’s philosophy in life is ‘Healthiness is Happiness’. She wants to enable quality healthcare across the globe through treating people with compassion, precision and excellence. She is dedicated to the cause of women empowerment and mental health. She believes in the diversity of workforce, strength in differences and she is focused on improving the glass ceilings at work for women, ceilings she seems to be raising to new heights herself. She was instrumental in launching the Women in Leadership programme at Aster DM Healthcare, which empowers talented and capable female employees with training and growth opportunities, to shape these women for leadership roles. She is also an active philanthropist as trustee of the Aster DM Foundation and involved in social welfare through the Aster Volunteers programme which bridges the gap between people who would like to help with those in need.
Alisha is dedicated to ensuring that humanity leverages advances in science alongside personal responsibility and care of self, ranging from lifestyle choices to dealing with the external environment, to staying happy and healthy, both physically and mentally. She believes using technology can enable better health outcomes for population management through precision medicine, connected care and AI. This philosophy is evident in throughout Aster DM Healthcare with its commitment to creating institutions that embody a healing environment and is undoubtedly an influence on the decision to maximise open areas, walking paths, parks and green technology evidenced in the recent application for a Planned Area Development for the Aster Cayman Medcity project.
Commenting on the latest award and Ms Alisha generally, Mr Gene Thompson, Project Director for Aster Cayman Medcity, said; “The Cayman Islands has a history of leading in key industries on the global stage, from tourism to financial services and now into medical tourism too. Leading on that stage requires the highest calibre of leadership and so I am delighted at this recognition and we are privileged to have Ms. Alisha behind Aster Cayman Medcity, and the benefits it brings to the Cayman Islands.”
