About Us

Bold thinking. Actionable insights. Optimal impact.

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Our mission

Empower decision makers to improve lives through sustainable technology.

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Our vision

A world in which the transformative power of data is fully harnessed to enable thriving societies everywhere.

Our values

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Innovation

We combine state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge to develop cutting-edge solutions.

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Sustainability

We co-create solutions that are long-lasting and scalable.

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Empathy

We seek a deep understanding of our partners’ vision and needs.

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Excellence

We strive to produce the highest quality work that exceeds our partners’ expectations.

What we do

BAO Systems is an industry leader in digital data solutions for health and development. We empower our partners to implement scalable and sustainable solutions that uncover data-driven insights to improve livelihoods, strengthen health systems, and achieve equitable human development.

Our team comprises passionate public health and development practitioners, information system experts, software engineers, system engineers, monitoring and evaluation advisors, and data scientists. We excel in providing a broad spectrum of services and products.

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Our leadership

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Steffen Tengesdal Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder

Steffen has over 15 years of experience in senior-level IT technical and management positions. He has owned and operated several successful IT businesses, including development firms, hosting companies, and an IT consultancy. Steffen has experience serving commercial, government, and non-profit organizations. His expertise is focused on enterprise web application design & development as well as IT operations & infrastructure management in public health and international development.

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Dr. Adebusoye Anifalaje Chief Implementation Officer, Co-Founder

Busoye is a solutions architect with over 10 years of experience in health systems database design, training, and deployment. He has supported the design and implementation of DHIS2 health systems in several countries and worked on multi-country DHIS2 implementation for NGOs. He is an informatics specialist with distinct expertise in effective deployment of teams in the design, implementation, and evaluation of enterprise-level international development projects.

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Lars Helge Øverland Chief Data Officer, Co-Founder

Lars is a software engineer and architect with more than 14 years of experience in building web and integration solutions. He brings deep expertise in systems architecture, databases, data modeling, data analytics, and web API design. He has been the lead developer of DHIS2, the world’s largest information system within the international development domain, since its inception in 2005.

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Katherine Lew Senior Director of Analytics Services

Katherine is a public health professional with over 15 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation, health information systems strengthening, and data analytics, visualization and use. Having worked in multiple countries across Asia and Africa, she has keen insight into the data needs of our partners. Katherine builds and maintains partner relationships, conducts market research, and recommends services and products, helping to drive company strategy and impact.

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Andrew Westdorp Chief Operating Officer

Andrew brings over 25 years of experience delivering innovative Health IT solutions for clients across the public and private sectors. He has successfully managed large, multi-million Health IT initiatives for the US Department of State (PEPFAR), AHRQ, NIAID, NICHD, and NIH OCIO. Andrew brings the right combination of technical expertise, scientific domain knowledge, and client/team management skills along with the process and business focus necessary to successfully capture, deliver, and manage business in the Health IT market.

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Kristin Keller Senior Director, Department of State Operations

For over 25 years, Kristin has been a part of numerous technical and process transformations in both the public and private sectors on the domestic and global levels. She is a process advocate with a pragmatic lens bringing software and project operations together. Kristin’s hands-on experience with multiple Federal Health IT clients helps in her day-to-day oversight of the PEPFAR Program and mission driven BAO team.

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Katja McJilton Director of Human Resources

Katja is a Human Resources professional with almost a decade of HR management experience, specifically in human resource policy and management, training and employee development, human resource forecasting, organizational development, and employee relations. She provides strategic support and oversight for US-based and international staff operations, and is tailoring HR processes to the needs of BAO’s diverse staff. She holds degrees from Frostburg State University in Spanish, International Studies and Cultural Anthropology. Katja has a multicultural background, speaks fluent Spanish and basic Finnish; she grew up overseas in various countries around the world within the international development community.

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Joseph Acheson Chief Financial Officer

Joseph has over 20 years of managing complex financial operations for high-profile companies across domestic and international markets. Before joining BAO Systems, he was a CFO consultant providing finance and accounting leadership to international defense contracting and private companies completing business transactions. Prior to that, he served as the CFO of International Launch Services, Inc. (ILS), which was originally a joint venture with Lockheed Martin. Joseph was able to navigate the financial transition of a joint venture to be a standalone company.

Our offices

Washington, DC
2900 K St. NW
Suite 506
Washington, DC
20007, USA +1 (202) 536-1543
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Oslo
Møllergata 6,
0179 Oslo, Norway
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Abuja
12B Alexandria Crescent,
Wuse 2
Abuja, Nigeria
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Lisbon
Rua Gregório Lopes
Lote 1639, Loja
1400-407 Lisboa, Portugal
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Cambridge
50-60 Station Road
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire,
CB1 2JH, UK
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Cambridge
50-60 Station Road
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire,
CB1 2JH, UK
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Spotlight

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Going beyond the face of DHIS2 – BAO Systems launches two DHIS2 Web API self-paced training courses

These self-paced courses are for practitioners, implementers, and administrators who want to harness the power of DHIS2 and use DHIS2’s API to extend beyond the manual user interface. 
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Send aggregated data directly from Dharma to Salesforce

Sending aggregated data directly from Dharma to Salesforce will allow users to access, analyze, and act on program progress and data within the context of other key indicators and information within Salesforce.
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Us vs them: how BAO Systems fights security breaches and cyber threats

Using our established critical incident response process, BAO Systems took immediate action to protect over 400 managed cloud-based DHIS2 instances from one of the most serious vulnerabilities ever experienced in the digital world.
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Strengthening data use to achieve greater HIV program impact

BAO Systems teamed with FHI 360 and others to develop a standardized tracker metadata package for HIV programs.
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