As the CEO of Prodie Santé, the Prodie Program NGO, and Taqadum, Gilles Campedel leads global initiatives that combine ethical medical recruitment, humanitarian development, and healthcare innovation. With a master’s degree in Economics and Political Science from France, he brings a strong foundation in international systems, human development, and strategic leadership to his role.
A French national based in the United Arab Emirates, Gilles plays a key role in advancing medical cooperation, social progress, and innovation across regions. Fluent in French, English, and Spanish, he is recognized for his global outlook, commitment to ethical and sustainable healthcare, and ability to unite people and ideas that drive positive change worldwide.
Advancing Global Healthcare Through Innovation
Since 1998, Prodie Santé has been at the forefront of ethical medical recruitment, connecting nearly 400,000 healthcare professionals – doctors, surgeons, and paramedics – across every continent. With operations spanning 50 countries and collaborations with more than 3,000 hospitals and clinics, the organization has earned global recognition for its ability to deploy medical teams quickly and effectively wherever they are needed.
Acting as both a trusted representative and facilitator, Prodie Santé manages locum, permanent, and visiting assignments for doctors, including world-renowned specialists such as the surgeon behind the first successful face transplant. Through the Prodie Santé Cuban Doctors Alliance, it unites thousands of skilled Cuban doctors and nurses, celebrated for their preventive and community-based approach to medicine.
The company’s commitment to ethics and solidarity is reflected in its partnership with the U.S. Department of State and its membership in the United Nations Global Compact, reinforcing its role as a bridge between medical expertise and humanitarian impact.
Prodie Santé also extends its reach beyond hospitals, recruiting healthcare professionals for Family Offices and private households while supporting international practitioner mobility through its legal division. Over the years, it has become a benchmark for excellence in global medical staffing – advocating for a healthcare system where caregivers once again stand at the center of patient well-being and health remains a universal human right.
Launched in 2021, the Prodie Program is the humanitarian arm of Prodie Santé, introduced by French actor Jean Reno. Created to address fundamental human needs, it offers practical solutions in healthcare, clean water, nutrition, housing, and education. Its mission began in Niger and continues to expand, driven by the belief that empowerment and shared humanity can spark lasting change.
The program focuses on three pillars – children’s education, parental empowerment, and community well-being. It sponsors the full education of disadvantaged children, from kindergarten to university, while providing parents with training and digital literacy programs that support long-term independence.
In partnership with Santé Numérique Sans Frontières NGO, it delivers medical missions, mobile dental units, and digital healthcare training programs to strengthen local health systems. Alongside these efforts, the program advances sustainable food, water, and housing projects, guided by an Ethical Charter that upholds human rights and rejects practices like child labor and early marriage.
In 2025, the creation of Taqadum marked a new chapter in global healthcare innovation. Meaning “Progress” in Arabic, it serves as a launchpad in Abu Dhabi for groundbreaking medical and technological ventures designed to transform healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
Functioning as a global accelerator, Taqadum helps innovators bring their projects to market with strategic, legal, and financial guidance, bolstered by the expertise of an international medical and scientific advisory board. It provides a collaborative space for researchers and visionaries to exchange ideas, build partnerships, and advance innovation.
Supported by a multidisciplinary team of medical, corporate, and financial professionals, Taqadum positions the UAE as a key player in global healthcare progress. From state-of-the-art medical devices to biotechnological breakthroughs, it champions the discoveries that are shaping the future of modern medicine.
In April 2026, Gilles will launch the “Prodie Santé Clinic” in Abu Dhabi, a unique concept gathering international top-notch doctors, surgeons and neuro-linguistic programming renowned experts. This clinic will also offer a conference room to welcome visiting doctors conferences, international training academies of ones of the best surgeons in the world and luxury concierge services.
Building Ethical Bridges in Global Healthcare
Prodie Santé, founded with a genuine spirit of service as a bridge between doctors and healthcare facilities, has built a model that benefits everyone. Its work follows a win-win-win approach: hospitals operate with the doctors they provide, doctors gain ethical and transparent opportunities, and patients receive the care they need. Their goal is to support physicians, essential pillars of every society, by helping them find balance between professional and personal fulfillment. Facilities pay Prodie Santé for their services at fair, cost-effective rates, allowing sustainable collaboration.
With 27 years of experience across 50 countries, Prodie Santé has gained a truly global perspective on healthcare and understanding of the needs of both practitioners and institutions. Their Program for the Generalization of Access to Healthcare helps countries implement universal health coverage by addressing shortages of professionals and unequal resource distribution, and developing large-scale plans for medical workforce recruitment, deployment, and mobility in urban and remote regions. Prodie Santé also collaborates with leading practitioners to explore the impact of AI on the future of healthcare, blending technology with human values.
The Prodie Program reaches individuals, builds a vast global medical community with thousands of Cuban doctors, collaborates with the U.S. State Department, defends endangered healthcare systems and meets vital human needs. Through it all, Prodie Santé remains true to its ethics, adapting fees to each region’s financial capacity and working pro bono for NGOs like Doctors Without Borders.
In 2020, thousands of Cuban doctors sought Prodie Santé’s help due to severe working conditions and human rights violations. Their response was to create the Prodie Santé Cuban Doctors Alliance, giving them access to ethical medical missions that comply with international labor standards. Thousands of doctors worldwide joined the alliance, ready to serve anywhere under dignified conditions, in alignment with global efforts by the UN, the EU, and the U.S. to end the exploitation of Cuban practitioners. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prodie Santé offered the services of the Cuban Doctors Alliance to over 50 governments at no cost. End of 2025, Prodie Santé received the green light of a European country to recruit hundred of doctors to fulfill the human resources medical needs of a specific region. As a result, Cuban doctors (among others) will get access to the entirity of their own salary and decent working conditions for the first time in their life.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of State contacted Prodie Santé to learn more about their ethical model, inspiring the launch of The Prodie Program, their NGO in Niger that provides access to healthcare, water, nutrition, housing, education, and social integration. “Prodie Santé’s story is one of travel – each step shaped by what life expects of us. 27 years later, it remains about narrating our silent contribution to the world,” Gilles emphasizes.
Leading with Purpose, Presence, and Flow
Gilles is constantly looking for new projects and ideas, never taking “no” for an answer, and ensuring his team’s work has meaning and they derive happiness from it. Despite being academically trained at two universities, his distinctly “non-academic” leadership style is guided by a clear purpose – to contribute meaningfully to the health sector, the foundation of life.
He sees entrepreneurship as a state of mind – a lifestyle and a way of interpreting the world, and expanding globally as an act of faith – stepping into the unknown to grow. “I choose to write my own path in a world that’s increasingly restrictive and suspicious of difference. That, in itself, is a challenge worth embracing,” he reflects.
For Gilles, personal life and professional adventure are deeply connected, constantly interacting and feeding into each other. “A new professional chapter inevitably influences one’s personal sphere. Creativity isn’t limited to business; it enriches private life, helping us grow, mature, and better understand our existence,” he says.
Gilles allows life to lead his workday, making himself fully available to whatever arises and staying open to new ideas and sparks of inspiration for inspired action. A dislike of meetings, the thrill of making first tracks in unexplored territory, and a love of responsiveness, boldness, and embodiment drive his creativity and ability to find quick, concrete solutions to unexpected situations.
Allowing Prodie Santé to evolve organically, he adapts to what life brings his way, staying flexible, ready to respond to any challenge without a defined destination, just continuous evolution. His leadership is adaptable, inspired by life, and always brings blessings. Playing the role of an alchemist, he strives to magnify what he receives, remembering to share and make the best possible use of those gifts.
Gilles’s ability to flow with life has given rise to extraordinary encounters and actions that create a positive impact across borders, independent of any government. Expanding from France to Spain, Singapore, Canada, and the UAE – one of the world’s most dynamic regions – has helped implement programs globally.
“Our mission is not political or activist – it’s a natural continuation of life’s flow. When history meets the fairy tale, we give real meaning to words like love, respect, peace, and fraternity. Our work is part of something greater – a continuous dialogue with life. This is how I lead teams and projects,” he explains.
“For those who know how to listen, life always brings blessings.”
Turning Setback Into Strength: Rising Like a Phoenix
Over 27 years, Prodie Santé’s winning strategy has been to always remain true to its values: ethics, loyalty, and honoring its commitments. Gilles recounts an instance when they turned a major setback into a breakthrough.
“In April 2023, a French law came into effect. As it was worded, this law effectively made it impossible to continue our collaboration with all French public hospitals overnight. This law therefore put an end to more than 20 years of services provided to nearly 400 hospitals. 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 says.
The day after this law came into effect, Prodie Santé implemented three major initiatives: strengthening its presence in the French private sector (clinics); launching communication campaigns garnering nearly 1 million views to raise awareness of the harmful effects of this law; and launching legal action to obtain a review of the law from the Council of State (the Supreme French Court).
They offered their full range of services to new healthcare facilities and ‘offset’ a significant portion of their losses, while the communications campaigns defended physicians’ interests and strengthened their identity with the medical community. It united the medical community and Prodie Santé’s internal teams in a fight against a law perceived as unfair and illegal.
By the end of 2024, their legal action was recognized by the Council of State, the law was changed from October 1, 2025, and Prodie Santé had developed new markets and services that it hadn’t even considered in 2022. “This situation is a true reflection of what Prodie Santé is: a phoenix that naturally responds to the flow of life,” Gilles reflects.
Integrity and Human Connection in Leadership
Gilles admits that leadership is far from easy, filled with challenges that test resilience, but the acceptance and happiness that come from within are part of the entrepreneurial journey. “The people at Prodie Santé are exceptional – combining professional excellence with deep human values. It’s rare to find individuals who balance both business acumen and empathy, but we’ve built a team that embodies this harmony,” he declares.
Prodie Santé’s foundation rests on loyalty, respect, kindness, and personal responsibility – values that complement its commercial energy. Gilles notes that the team finds both professional and personal fulfillment in this shared journey, while the diversity of their missions and unpredictability of their work creates constant motivation and excitement.
A realist at heart, Gilles believes in accepting reality as it is and not ignoring uncomfortable truths, as selective perception builds fragile foundations. “Facing reality honestly is the first step toward awareness and progress. This isn’t easy, but it’s essential. It’s a lesson worth passing on to future generations. I see every situation as a serious game – one that always reveals a path forward. That path is all you need in life,” he observes.
Gilles’s advice to young leaders in the healthcare industry is to use and integrate AI ethically – to enhance humanity, not replace it. “Used wisely, technology uplifts humanity. Misused, it harms it. The purpose of innovation is human flourishing, not subjugation,” he cautions. He also notes that every victory should respect the dignity of others, as success achieved at the expense of others is not true success.
Conclusion
Gilles Campedel’s vision unites purpose, responsibility, and innovation to shape a more just and compassionate world. He believes true empowerment comes from accountability, where each individual consciously fulfills their role, contributing to meaningful change. Prodie Santé, Taqadum, and the Prodie Program are accelerating groundbreaking healthcare and technology innovations while expanding initiatives in children’s education, parental empowerment, and community well-being. Gilles’s legacy is to make healthcare, education, and human dignity accessible to all, creating a lasting impact for future generations.
