Stephen Sammut, DBA

During his nearly 30 years as a lecturer at Wharton, Stephen Sammut has created eight courses — including Private Equity in Emerging Markets — that he has taught to over 11,000 students. Steve’s primary areas of research coincide with his venture activity: health care and biotech capacity building in the emerging markets; private equity and venture capital approaches to economic development; and the role of the private sector in addressing needs in global health. Outside of Wharton, Steve is visiting faculty in the Indian School of Business and Strathmore University Business School in Nairobi, Kenya; at both institutions he designed and launched the health care management MBA programs. He chairs the Industry Advisory Board of Alta Semper Capital, a private equity impact fund focused on health care investing in Africa. Steve also had experience as a venture partner at Burrill — Company, a merchant bank and venture capital fund focused on the life sciences and health care. His role there was general management of overseas venture capital funds, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Steve has also consulted with the IFC and World Bank on private equity, technology transfer, and venture capital program assessment. Earlier in his career, he oversaw the private equity and venture capital activity of Teleflex Incorporated and was VP at SR One, Ltd., the venture capital arm of SmithKline Beckman. He holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from Villanova University in biological sciences and philosophy, an MBA from the Wharton School in finance and health care, and a Doctor of Business Administration in organizational behavior related to technology management from Temple University’s Fox School. He holds certificates in fintech from Oxford’s Saïd School, precision medicine from Harvard, and global health innovation from IESE.