Josh Ruxin (born June 15, 1970) is an American businessman, academic, and writer. As a businessman, he is co-founder and Executive Chairman of GoodLife Pharmacy, an East Africa–based pharmaceuticals chain in Kenya and Uganda, founder of the Rwandan
Health Builders non-profit, and owner of Heaven Restaurant & Boutique Hotel, also in Rwanda.
He was the Truman Scholar for Connecticut, 1990; a Fulbright scholar to Bolivia in 1992; and a Marshall Scholar in 1994. Formerly, Ruxin was on faculty as an assistant clinical professor of public health at the Mailman School of Public Health at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
He is the author of ''A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope, and a Restaurant in Rwanda'' which the ''New York Times'' describes as "an absorbing and affecting narrative, documenting both victories and setbacks."
Personal life
Ruxin was born on June 15, 1970, in
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
. He has lived in East Africa with his wife and three children. In 2008, Ruxin and his wife Alissa opened Heaven Restaurant & Boutique Hotel in the Kiyovu neighborhood of Kigali.
Professional background
In 2013, Ruxin founded Goodlife Pharmacy, an East Africa based pharmaceuticals chain with over 30 stores in Kenya and Uganda. He currently serves as the Executive Chairman of Goodlife. The company provides pharmaceuticals to customers across the region from convenient locations – with a total reach of 1.2 million people. It has plans to expand to more than 100 locations in the East African region.
Ruxin founded Health Builders, an international health NGO that applies business principles to health problems by providing technical management assistance to rural health centers in
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
, and served as the organization's director until 2015. He also directed The Access Project,
founded the Neglected Tropical Disease Control Project, and founded and directed the
Millennium Villages Project
The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) was a demonstration project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the United Nations Development Programme, and Millennium Promise aimed at proving that its integrated approach to rural development c ...
in Rwanda.
Ruxin was on faculty as an assistant clinical professor of public health at the Mailman School of Public Health at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
In 1999, he co-founded and served as a vice president of OTF Group, Inc, a strategy consulting firm.
He was also the Truman Scholar for Connecticut, 1990; a Fulbright Scholar to Bolivia in 1992; and a Marshall Scholar in 1994.
He also serves on the board of directors of
FilmAid International
FilmAid is a non-profit humanitarian organization that uses film to educate and entertain displaced people around the world. FilmAid was founded during the Kosovo War in 1999 by producer Caroline Baron ( Capote, Monsoon Wedding
''Monsoon W ...
and Generation Rwanda and is a faculty member at the Clergy Leadership Project.
Ruxin serves on the board of www.kepler.org.
Published works
*Ruxin, Josh.
A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope, and a Restaurant in Rwanda'. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2013.
*Ruxin, Josh; Antoinette Habinshuti.
, Nature 474: 572–573, June 30, 2011.
* Ruxin, Josh, et al.
Emerging consensus in HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and access to essential medicines, Lancet, 365:618-21, 2005.
* Ruxin, Josh, Agnes Binagwaho and Paul A. Wilson.
Combating AIDS in the Developing World" Earthscan, 2005.
See also
*
Health Builders
Goodlife Pharmacy
References
External links
New York Times On the Ground articlesForbes.com articlesHuffington Post articlesBig Think articles
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruxin, Josh
21st-century American businesspeople
Development specialists
Columbia University faculty
1970 births
Living people