Shereen Shabnam meet Alisha Moopen – Executive Director and CEO of ASTER Clinics and Hospitals, GCC

This issue we are delighted to feature Alisha Moopen, Executive Director and CEO of ASTER Clinics and Hospitals, GCC who is leading a number of expansion plans and innovative projects within ASTER DM Healthcare.

Meeting with Alisha was a treat and if I did not have a flight to catch the same afternoon, I could have spent hours talking to her and listening to her talk passionately about growing the ASTER brand across the region.

Alisha Moopen is an expert in the healthcare space and she spearheads a number of innovative projects for ASTER that sets a new benchmark for quality.

Healthcare is expanding at an impressive rate in the region, as it is projected to grow at an annual rate of 12 per cent and reach a value of $69.4 billion by 2018.

Recently ASTER has opened a number of multi-specialty hospitals in the GCC, adopting innovative projects and strategies within the ASTER DM Healthcare Company and Alisha tells us there are plans to open even more hospitals and clinics to improve and enhance the regional healthcare experience.

Alisha always wanted to be a doctor but in fact is a graduate from the University of Michigan, Ann Abor with a concentration in Finance and Accounting she worked with Ernst & Young in England for seven years and qualified as a chartered accountant during the course of her training there.

She worked as Finance Director for Medcare for a year and was posted to look after corporate strategies and affairs for the group. This mainly involved building underlying corporate functions, which can be building blocks between and across the various verticals of DM healthcare.

Alisha looks into areas such as training and development, appraisals, new business opportunities such as MVT, setting up a central purchasing committee and other corporate initiatives.

She is now in a more global role overlooking the Gulf operations of Aster Hospitals and Clinics. Alisha speaks proudly of how ASTER has grown from a single doctor clinic to various hospitals offering everything under one roof, from primary care to heart transplants in three decades.

Alisha confides that their success is also attributed to adopting technology, innovation and healthcare with equal importance.

She also talks about the four main pillars she and her team live by – clinical excellence, service excellence, being compassionate and creating an environment that is comfortable for everyone visiting ASTER.

Service is the primary driver and Alisha maintains that doctors are closely monitored even after their credibility is established and luckily she has doctors on the team who come highly recommended.

Alisha ensures that women get recognised for their contribution in her office and in the healthcare sector. With hospitals in India and GCC plus a large network of clinics, Alisha feels there is a huge scope for women to grow and be major players within ASTER DM Healthcare initiatives.

Aster launched a programme exclusively for women called ‘Tahseen’, which selects high-performing women and exposes them to different functions and challenges. Alisha maintains that with limited time resources, women should prioritise, delegate and do things collectively. The execution of tasks happens at so many levels so its important to motivate that through the different teams.

With Alisha’s positive energy and forward thinking mentality, we know the ASTER DM Healthcare will continue to thrive and realise the plans made for their expansion in the UAE and GCC.