Gupta Strategists expands into the Middle East

Dutch healthcare management consulting firm Gupta Strategists has opened an office in the Middle East, its first outside of the Netherlands.

To lead the new practice, which will operate as GS Health instead of Gupta Strategists, the specialist consultancy has brought back Mischa van Prooijen to the firm. She spent the past six years working and living in Qatar, and most recently served the healthcare consulting division of Philips as head of the Gulf & Levant. Earlier, between 2010 an 2014, she worked for the consulting firm in the Netherlands. 

“Since I left Gupta Strategists we’ve stayed in touch and always discussed the idea of opening a Middle East office, but I really enjoyed working for Philips and wanted to broaden my perspective and gain more experience first,” Van Prooijen elaborated. “In 2018, I moved to Kuwait and ramped up our business there. After the experience of starting up the business in a new country, I felt ready and excited to start GS Health in the Middle East.” 

Gupta Strategists was founded in 2005 by former Arthur D. Little and Roland Berger consultant Anshu Gupta. The firm provides services to the full spectrum of industry stakeholders – from insurers, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to governments and regulators. In its home market, Gupta Strategists has managed to grow into one of the leading strategic and management consultancies in healthcare, and the firm will now seek to build a same reputation in the Middle East. 

Middle East leader Van Prooijen said that she sees a number of opportunities in the local market. Having been in the region for so long, she has witnessed a strong desire locally to improve the healthcare system. “There is so much eagerness to improve care delivery in this region. I also experienced the motivation that government and healthcare leaders have here to improve.” 

This was recently also illustrated by a report from GS Health which found that, on the back of massive investments, Qatar's healthcare system now ranks as a world-class system, on certain facets comparable to those in the Germany, the UK or the Netherlands. 

Obviously, there however remains a long way to go, both in Qatar and across the region. “There are well written plans and strategies for the coming years. The biggest challenge now is to make those happen; to actually improve the care delivery.” 

Joined by colleague Kees Isendoorn, a ten-year veteran at Gupta Strategists who has relocated to the Middle East, the pair firmly believe they can play a role in the transition. “Together with the people that deliver healthcare here – and know the market well – we can really make a change in the next few years.” 

For more information: Healthcare consulting firm GS Health launches in GCC.