Gilles Campedel, CEO of Prodie Santé, The Prodie Program NGO, and Taqadum. He holds 2 Master’s degrees in Economics and Political Science from France. Based in the UAE, he is fluent in French, English, and Spanish.
A Global Healthcare Visionary & Innovator
As CEO of Prodie Santé since 1999, Gilles has built a global network of 400,000 healthcare professionals and collaborated with 3,000 hospitals across 50 countries. For over 27 years, Prodie Santé has managed doctor placements across four continents, mobilized medical teams rapidly, and led initiatives like the Prodie Santé Cuban Doctors Alliance, partnering with the U.S. Department of State to provide ethical, high-quality healthcare worldwide.
Since 2021, Gilles has led The Prodie Program NGO with the belief that “well-educated children are a blessing to humanity, and balanced and enlightened individuals are the best gift to offer to the world. It deploys a global life package through three pillars: children’s education, parents’ empowerment, and community well-being, promoting access to education with humanist principles.
TAQADUM (“progress” in Arabic), launched in 2025, is a hub for global healthcare innovation in Abu Dhabi, supporting pioneering companies driving disruptive innovation in healthcare and technology.
Leading by Example, Driven by Purpose
Convinced that every human being deserves access to healthcare everywhere, anytime, Gilles expanded Prodie Santé internationally, seeking new projects and ideas, and never taking “no” for an answer. His work has meaning, and he derives happiness from it. He likens everything to a game of constant communication and interaction between two borderless worlds – personal and professional – one feeding off the other. “Creativity isn’t confined to the corporate world. It also benefits private life, helping you grow, mature, and understand your own existence. It’s a never-ending, fascinating story,” he reflects.
For Gilles entrepreneurship is a state of mind, a way of interpreting the world, bringing an international dimension to one’s professional and personal life as an extraordinary opportunity, a cultural enrichment, an opening to a world that fosters tolerance, and an act of faith, stepping into the unknown.
Life-Guided Leadership Across Continents
Gilles describes his leadership style as “non-academic,” with its founding pillar as contributing to the health sector, helping physicians find a balance between professional and personal life. His vision for Prodie Santé is adaptable, guided by circumstances, and the capacity to respond. He ensures Prodie Santé stays flexible to adapt to any new challenge. “For those who know how to listen, life always brings blessings,” he muses.
Gilles observes that receiving comes with the responsibility to make the best possible use of those gifts. “When we receive, we put ourselves into the shoes of an alchemist whose duty is to magnify what he received, keeping in mind that some part must be shared or distributed. Prodie Santé is a travel story 27 years later, it’s all about narrating our silent contribution to the world,” he explains.
With the creation of Prodie Santé, Gilles did not know that years later he would create one of the widest medical community in the world, that he would be contacted by thousands of Cuban doctors asking for his help, that the U.S. State Department would consider a direct form of collaboration with him, that he would create healthcare access programs, that he would fight for the defense of endangered healthcare systems and that he would launch various projects such as a philanthropic contribution to bring a tangible response to human being vital needs (“The Prodie Program”)…
“Our work engraves itself into something much bigger” , he says.
“We work hard to ensure that everyone has access to healthcare. Our actions show that we can favorably impact the lives of many individuals without being a State or a billionaire,” he reflects. Prodie Santé works independently of any government or country, with the financial and decisive means to implement programs on a universal scale, with offices in Spain, Singapore, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates.
“When history meets the fairy tale, we give life to what we say and demonstrate, nobility and respect. Our work becomes something much bigger. This is my way to lead teams and projects,” he elaborates.
Driven by Inspired Action and Impact
Gilles remains open to taking inspired action on new ideas while also taking care of day-to-day work and managing urgent matters. He hates meetings, but makes himself fully available to any possibilities, is attentive to team members, and attends unexpected meetings on equally unexpected subjects.
“What I hear, read, or see inspires me. From the moment I get an inspiration, I write and try to find a way to concretize the idea. I find concrete solutions to unexpected situations as soon as I can. My pillars are responsiveness, boldness, and embodiment. It’s all about creativity with this amazing sensation that you make the first track ever in a specific field,” he shares.
Gilles surrounds himself with exceptional and brilliant people, and his team at Prodie Santé possesses a blend of professional skills combined with “humanistic interpersonal skills” so that everyone finds a path for professional and personal growth. These principles align with a dynamic, effective, commercial approach, grounded in a fair balance of power – a win-win-win model. He also thrives on the constant adrenaline rush, adventure, and surprises of the diversity of the solutions they offer and the audiences they serve.
“It’s difficult to recruit people who understand the subtle balance between the social and professional ‘game’ which must be magnificently executed, and with purely humanistic values. Generally, people oppose the two and manifest one or the other,” Gilles observes. “In my opinion, this is a mistake. The two go hand in hand and combine perfectly when you know how to stay focused and not abandon the basic principles of loyalty, and individual responsibility.”
Adapting to Legal Challenges in Healthcare
Gilles recalls a major setback in April 2023, when a French law abruptly ended Prodie Santé’s collaboration with all French public hospitals, cutting off over 20 years of service to nearly 400 facilities. “I’ll let you imagine the brutal consequences of the loss of a valuable service for healthcare facilities and the loss of financial resources for Prodie Santé,” he states. The day after, Prodie Santé launched three major initiatives: strengthening its presence in French private clinics, running awareness campaigns – two of which garnered nearly one million views in days – and filing a legal action with the Council of State, supported by three lawyers.
“Focusing on the private sector allowed us to offer the full range of our services to new healthcare facilities and thus offset a significant portion of the losses,” Gilles explains. The company’s communications reinforced its role as a defender of physicians’ interests, uniting the medical community while staying true to its long-held values of ethics, loyalty, and honoring commitments – a strategy Gilles calls “a winning approach over the long term.”
By the end of 2024, the Council of State recognized Prodie Santé’s legal arguments, resulting in a law change effective October 1, 2025. “This ordeal was a tremendous opportunity to unite the medical community and our own internal teams in a fight against a law perceived as both unfair and illegal,” Gilles reflects, adding that the challenge also opened new markets and services, proving that Prodie Santé is “a phoenix that naturally responds to the flow of life.”
Building Trust Through Ethics and Service
Gilles explains that Prodie Santé was established in a pure spirit of service, to serve a profession that is essential to life and well-being: healthcare professionals. As an intermediary between doctors and healthcare facilities, it found a way of doing things that penalizes neither, with operations based on a win-win-win approach.
Thanks to the presence of essential personnel, Prodie Santé enables hospitals or clinics to operate, helps doctors access clear, serious, and ethical employment opportunities (temporary or permanent assignments), and allows patients to receive the care they need. In return, they are paid by the facility for the service they provide on a very cost-effective basis.
“We’ve always remained true to our ethics, and the service we provide daily is of genuine public benefit. Furthermore, we adapt our rates to the financial capabilities of the regions in which we operate. Our fees in the French market differ from those we charge in Vietnam, for example. We recruit on a pro bono basis for NGOs requesting our services (such as Doctors Without Borders). During the COVID-19 pandemic, we graciously offered our Alliance of Cuban Doctors to more than 50 governments around the world,” Gilles shares.
Driving Innovation in Global Healthcare Access
With 27 years of experience working with healthcare institutions in 50 countries, Prodie Santé’s team has a transnational and global view of the mindset and needs of healthcare professionals and hospitals. They have drafted several projects, such as the “Program for the Generalization of Access to Healthcare,” aimed at countries wishing to implement universal health coverage in a given territory.
While universal healthcare access represents a significant societal advancement in any country, serving as a cornerstone for the consolidation of citizenship, many nations face a shortage of healthcare professionals, hindering the development of healthcare facilities and public health systems. Implementing a universal healthcare access program that increases the number of healthcare providers (doctors, surgeons, and paramedics) to meet the World Health Organization’s standard per country can alleviate the pressure on national health systems.
Several challenges, such as doctor shortages, uneven specialist distribution, and urban concentration, create major healthcare disparities that are worsened by retirements and migration. Past government measures, both punitive and incentivizing, have been largely ineffective. Gilles notes that addressing this requires a deep understanding of the medical profession and its operational dynamics.
“This is why some countries are seeking our help to implement a large-scale management plan for the recruitment, deployment, and mobility of medical human resources in large cities and remote areas. Accompanied by high-level practitioners, we also participate in discussions on the future of the healthcare profession with the arrival of AI. Topics combining technology and philosophy,” he shares.
Gaining Global Recognition Through Ethical Advocacy for Cuban Doctors
One of the most transformative initiatives for Prodie Santé’s global impact was the creation of The Prodie Santé Cuban Doctors Alliance in 2020. This helped thousands of Cuban doctors and nurses facing harsh conditions and human rights abuses gain access to ethical medical missions compliant with international labor standards. Prodie Santé helps them intervene in any country in the world and share their expertise in dignified and ethical conditions.
“We’re witnessing a historic moment where the United Nations and the world’s most powerful countries, including the European Union and the United States, are pushing to end the modern slavery of Cuban practitioners,” Gilles observes. In 2024, the U.S. Department of State contacted him to learn about Prodie Santé’s ethical approach towards Cuban exiled doctors. This massive achievement inspired the creation of the Prodie Program, their NGO initiative in Niger that brings access to healthcare, drinking water, nutrition, housing, education, social integration, and individual responsibility.
Resilience Through Reality, Ethics, and Responsibility
Gilles believes in seeing things for what they are – accepting reality as it unfolds before our eyes, not the selective retention of what suits us, which results in a foundation built on sand. “Agreeing to face reality head-on, without sugarcoating it, is the first step to true awareness – the breeding ground for constructive evolution. It represents a noble legacy to be passed on to future generations. I decode every situation as a game that offers a path to follow. This path is all you need in life,” he affirms.
To young leaders in the healthcare industry, Gilles recommends a strong and noble code of conduct to ensure healthcare access anywhere, at any time. His advice: Reflect on the ethical integration of AI, an increasingly essential tool, being mindful that it’s not a conscious, human entity. Enrich yourself and fully utilize its potential without losing your soul. Used wisely, technology can work wonders. Misused, it will destroy lives. Victory should never come at the expense of others. The goal is human flourishing, not subjugation.
Individual accountability is key. Be vigilant and responsible. Don’t shirk your obligations. Failing to act or not speaking out makes us responsible for unfortunate situations with dramatic consequences. Taking responsibility is your greatest gift to humanity. Empowerment is the only way to exercise civic participation within a community.
Conclusion
Gilles Campedel’s approach to leadership blends awareness, ethical conduct, and personal accountability. Through initiatives like Prodie Santé, the Cuban Doctors Alliance, Taqadum, and The Prodie Program, his contributions demonstrate how responsible action can create lasting impact and improve lives worldwide.
