Our leadership team

Muktai Panchal

Co-founder & Director

  • Muktai studied public and health policy at the University of Oxford and began her career as a Big 4 consultant before moving into global health. For over a decade, she has worked across India and the UK on infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and health tech. She worked to improve community-based healthcare through India’s ASHA network, helped shape India’s first multisectoral action framework for TB elimination, and led several other national health initiatives in India and the UK – helping to improve diagnosis and care for millions.

  • muktai.panchal@1hm.org

Will Richard

Co-founder & Director

  • A former zoo keeper who studied biology at the University of Oxford, Will has worked in conservation for over 15 years - including for non-profits, intergovernmental organisations, and in the private sector. He has led some of the most high-profile and politically successful campaigns in conservation history, and helped raise millions in investment for communities in the Global South.

  • will.richard@1hm.org

Our story

We came to One Health Mission from two very different places.

Muktai’s professional journey began in India, working on health systems, tech and policy. Will’s began in the UK caring for globally threatened wildlife, and later campaigning and fundraising to protect ecosystems around the world.

In our different sectors, we found that the same problem existed at the core of both our work – that although the health of people, animals and ecosystems depend on each other, the systems designed to protect them rarely work together. This is a problem with profound human, economic and environmental consequences which the COVID-19 pandemic (caused by a virus that passed from bats to people) made impossible to ignore. And the science is clear that unless we develop connected systems to prevent it, the next pandemic may be far worse.

We founded One Health Mission to help develop these systems, but the urgency of One Health is not only about preventing pandemics. Today, international development faces an unprecedented funding crisis, which threatens generations of investment and progress on global health, poverty and environmental protection.

It is our sincere hope that One Health Mission can help governments and communities in the Global South avoid some of the effects of this funding collapse. Because of the proven connections between human, animal and ecosystem health, we believe that One Health offers a new model for international development. One where we can find ways of doing more with less, working across sectors, and ensuring every dollar spent has the greatest possible impact.

Drawing on our combined experiences, we are building projects to strengthen systems and data, and connect public health, conservation and community development programmes so that each delivers across multiple components of One Health. And by taking full advantage of global connectivity and the opportunities of AI, we are creating a new kind of international non-profit with minimal overheads: at least 90% of every dollar One Health Mission receives will be spent on our projects in-country.

Ultimately our aim is to prevent diseases, improve livelihoods for impoverished communities and protect nature simultaneously. All for a fraction of the cost.

Please join us.

Muktai and Will