We are an independent group of global leaders and experts working towards making the world safer from the impact of health crises.
Gro
Harlem Brundtland, a medical doctor, was Norway’s first woman Prime Minister, serving a total of ten years as head of government between 1981 and 1996. She chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development – known as the Brundtland Commission – which
articulated the principle of sustainable development for the first time at a global level. She was Director-General of the World Health Organization from 1998 to 2003, UN Special Envoy for Climate Change from 2007 to 2010 and, from 2011 to 2012, was a member
of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Sustainability Panel. She is a founding member of The Elders and served as the organisation’s Deputy Chair from 2013 to 2018.
Since
2018 she is co-chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board.
Elhadj As Sy is the Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation Board and Former Secretary General of the IFRC.
He has extensive experience in leadership roles in the humanitarian sector, having previously served at a senior level with UNICEF, UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and other agencies for more than 25 years.
Before joining the IFRC - the world’s largest humanitarian network - Mr. Sy was UNICEF’s Director of Partnerships and Resource Development in New York. He has also served as UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa and Global Emergency Coordinator for the Horn of Africa.
From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Sy was Director, HIV/AIDS Practice with the United Nations Development Programme in New York.
Before that, he worked with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as its Africa Regional Director and later as Director of Operational Partnerships and Country Support in Geneva.
Mr. Sy has also held the position of UNAIDS Representative in New York and Director of the New York Liaison Office. From 1988 to 1997, he served as Director of Health and Development Programmes with Environment and Development Action in the Third World in Dakar, Senegal.
Mr. Sy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Human Sciences from the University of Dakar. He then pursued Master’s studies in Arts and Germanistik at the University of Graz, and graduated from the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna.
He was also awarded a post graduate diploma in Education from the Ecole normale superieure in Dakar . He speaks English, French and German and is a national of Senegal.
Victor J. Dzau, M.D., is the President of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM), and serves as Vice Chair of the US National Research Council. Professor Dzau is Chancellor Emeritus of the Duke University. Previously, he was Chairman of Medicine at Harvard, as well as Stanford Universities. Professor Dzau is highly regarded as a trailblazer in translational research, health innovation, and global health. His seminal work laid the foundation for development of lifesaving drugs known as ACE inhibitors, used globally to treat hypertension and heart failure. Professor Dzau pioneered gene therapy for vascular disease.
As one of the world’s preeminent health leaders, he has served as Chair of the NIH Cardiovascular Disease Advisory Committee and now chairs the NIH Cardiovascular Stem Cell Consortium. Currently he chairs the International Scientific Committee of the Qatar Genome Project and is a member of Health Biomedical Sciences Advisory Council of Singapore. He was on the Board of Health Governors of the World Economic Forum and chairs its Council on Human Longevity and Enhancement. Professor Dzau is active in Global Heath. He founded the Duke Global Health Institute, Duke NUS medical school in Singapore and the Division of Global Health Equity at Harvard. He served on the interim board of CEPI. Leading the National Academy of Medicine, Professor Dzau has launched important initiatives such as the Global Health Risk Framework (2016), the Global Health and the Future Role of the US (2017), Integrating Clinical Research into Epidemic Response: The Ebola Experience (2017); Crossing the Global Quality Chasm (2018), Human Gene Editing (2017) and the NAM Grand Challenge in Healthy Longevity.
Dr Chris Elias, President of the Global Development Program, leads the foundation’s efforts to accelerate the delivery of proven healthcare products and solutions to those who need them most – especially women and children. Focusing on appropriate and sustainable strategies with the potential to improve the health of hundreds of millions of people in underserved communities, the Global Development’s program is focuses on five program areas: Family Planning; Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health; Nutrition; Polio; and Vaccine Delivery.
Dr Elias most recently served as the president and CEO of PATH, an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health of people around the world through the developing innovative health technologies, strengthening healthcare systems, and encouraging healthy behaviors. He serves on various advisory boards, including the Creigton University Board of Trustees, the Advisory Committee to the Director, CDC, and the University of Washington Global Health External Advisory Board. He also represents the Gates Foundation as the chair of the Polio Oversight Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the chair of the Investors Group of the Global Financing Facility, and co-chair of the FP2020 Reference Group.
Dr Elias holds an MD from Creighton University, having completed postgraduate training in internal medicine at the University of California San Francisco, and an MPH from the University of Washington. He was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Creighton University.
Jeremy Farrar is Director of the Wellcome Trust - a politically and financially independent global charitable foundation that exists to improve health by helping big ideas to thrive. Jeremy is a clinician scientist who before joining Wellcome was, for eighteen years, Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Viet Nam, where his research interests were in infectious diseases and global health with a focus on emerging infections. He was named 12th in the Fortune list of 50 World’s Greatest Leaders in 2015. Jeremy was appointed OBE in 2005, awarded the Memorial Medal and Ho Chi Minh City Medal from the Government of Viet Nam and honoured by the Royal College of Physicians UK and the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In 2018 he was awarded the President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award.
He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, National Academies USA and a Fellow of The Royal Society.
Executive Director, UNICEF
Henrietta H. Fore became UNICEF’s seventh Executive Director on 1 January 2018. She has worked to champion economic development, education, health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in a public service, private sector and non-profit leadership career that spans more than four decades.
From 2007 to 2009, Ms. Fore served as the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Director of United States Foreign Assistance. The first woman to serve in these roles, she was responsible for managing $39.5 billion of U.S. foreign assistance annually.
Earlier in her career at USAID, Ms. Fore was appointed Assistant Administrator for Asia and Assistant Administrator for Private Enterprise (1989-1993). In 2009, she received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest award the Secretary of State can bestow.
From 2005 to 2007, Ms. Fore served as Under Secretary of State for Management, the Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Department of State.
From 2001 to 2005, Ms. Fore was the 37th Director of the United States Mint, managing the world's largest manufacturer of coins, medals and coin products.
Immediately prior to her appointment with UNICEF, Ms. Fore was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Holsman International, a manufacturing and investment company. She also served on the boards of a number of domestic and international public corporations.
Ms. Fore has a Bachelor of Arts in History from Wellesley College and a Master of Science in Public Administration from the University of Northern Colorado. She is married and has four children.
Director-General, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC)
Vice President, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Director and Professor, CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Dean, Medical School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
George obtained his PhD (DPhil) degree from Oxford University, UK and did his postdoc work in both Oxford University and Harvard University. Using interdisciplinary methods, including virology, immunology and structural biology, Gao has made remarkable contributions to the study of inter-species pathogen transmission. His work revealed the origin and interspecies transmission mechanism of avian influenza virus including the virus entry mechanism and T-cell molecular recognition. He is a leading figure for the control of infectious diseases in China and a world advocate voice of global public health strategy. He led China Mobile Laboratory Testing Team in the fight against Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014 and continued his leadership in China CDC’s efforts supporting public health capacity strengthening in developing countries in Africa.
George is elected as the foreign associate or corresponding fellow/member of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Third World Academy of Sciences, African Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, European Molecular Biology Organization, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the dean or professor of medical school/universities. He has published more than 490 refereed papers, including papers in Cell, Nature, Science, The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA etc., 10 books or book chapters and holds more than 25 UK, US and Chinese patents.
George was awarded the TWAS Prize in Medical Science in 2012 and the Nikkei Asia Prize in 2014, and with numerous awards and prizes from China, including the recent National Award for the Distinguished Scientist in 2016, the National Science and Technology Award and National Innovation Award in 2017.
CAREER
Sigrid Kaag worked for Shell International in London between 1988 and 1990 and at the UN Political Affairs Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1993. She subsequently held a series of international positions. From 1994 to 1997 she was the Programme Manager and Head of Donor Relations at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jerusalem. She then worked at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva from 1998 to 2004.
In 2004 and 2005 Mrs Kaag was senior UN adviser in Khartoum and Nairobi. She continued her career at UNICEF, where she held various positions between 2005 and 2010, including Deputy Director of the Programme Division and Chief of Staff in New York, and Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa in Amman. Mrs Kaag then served as Assistant Secretary-General for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in New York.
From October 2013 to September 2014 Mrs Kaag, as UN Under-Secretary-General, led the mission to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria. After this mission was completed, in 2015, she became Under-Secretary-General in Lebanon with responsibility for all UN activities in the country, specifically the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
In 2015 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter. She was awarded the Carnegie Wateler Peace Prize in 2016 in recognition of her efforts and the results of her work in the Middle East.
On 26 October 2017, Sigrid Kaag was appointed Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the third Rutte government.
Professor Ilona Kickbusch Professor Ilona Kickbusch is the Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
Professor Kickbusch key interests relate to the political determinants of health, health in all policies and global health. She established the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva. In this context she advises countries on their global health strategies and trains health specialists and diplomats in global health diplomacy. She is engaged in developing a new focus for the centre on the governance of health in the context of digital transformation.
She is a member of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board and the WHO High-Level Independent Commission on NCDS and is co-chair of UHC 2030. She acts as Council Chair to the World Health Summit in Berlin. She has been involved in German G7 and G20 activities relating to global health and chairs the international advisory board for the development of the German global health strategy. She publishes widely and serves on various commissions and boards. She initiated the @wgh300 list of women leaders in global health. She is program chair of the leaders in health network SCIANA.
Professor Kickbusch has had a distinguished career with the World Health Organization. She was a key instigator of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and WHOs Healthy Cities Network and has remained a leader in this field, most recently advising on the WHO activities related to Promoting Health in the SDGs. She was the director of the Global Health Division at Yale University School of Public Health and responsible for the first major Fulbright Programme on global health.
She has recently been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in recognition of her "invaluable contributions to innovation in governance for global health and global health diplomacy".
Minister of Health | Republic of Rwanda
Dr. Ngamije Daniel is the Rwandan Minister of Health since February 2020, he leads the development and execution of the Health Sector Plan. Prior to this role, In June 2018 he joined WHO Country Office as a National Programme Officer and his duties among others were to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health on the development of Malaria and NTDs policies, strategies, guidelines, standards and norms - supporting and assisting to define programme implementation modalities, and providing assistance to conduct periodical program reviews and resource mobilization.
In Feb 2007 - June 2017, he served as the Coordinator of the Project Implementation Unit which later converted into the Single Project Implementation Unit (SPIU), where he coordinated and supported the process of funds mobilization, grant negotiation with partners such as the Global fund, the World Bank and bilateral MOH partners in the USA, UK, and Belgium among others. Additionally, he managed an annual portfolio of approximately 150 Million USD for 10 years as well as successfully coordinated the implementation of project components and periodical disbursement of funds to several implementing agencies and institutions country wide. Finally, he set up and led an M&E system, reviewed and submitted consolidated financial and programmatic reports for approval by MOH Partners before subsequent disbursement of approved budgets.
Prior to the above as well, Dr. Ngamije held various positions at the Ministry of Health that included serving as: Coordinator of the Malaria National Program; Regional Director in Charge of Health and Social affairs in former GITARAMA Province, where he oversaw the Planning and Budgeting Process for all Health Facilities across the province. Here, one of his Health Districts piloted the Community Health Insurance (CBHI) from 1998-2002. Prior to being in managerial positions, Dr. Ngamije served as a Medical Doctor at Kabgayi Hospital from 1995-1997.
Dr. Ngamije has completed a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery at Université de Kinshasa, DRC and a Masters of Medicine in Public Health from Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium.
CURRICULUM VITAE
FORMER MINISTER OF HEALTH OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Born November 1, 1960 in Moscow.
Education
1983: Graduated from the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute. 1985: Completed a Postgraduate Clinical Residency Programme and an Advanced Postgraduate Programme specialising in neuropathology. PhD (Medicine), Professor.
Experience
1988-1997: Senior laboratory technician, assistant, assistant professor at the Neuropathology Department of the Russian State Medical University. 1997-2005: Head of the Fundamental and Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery Department of the Russian State Medical University. 2004: Elected Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. 2005-2008: Director of the Russian Stroke Research Institute. 2008-2012: Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development. Since May 21st, 2012: The Minister of Health of the Russian Federation. 2012-2016: Chairman of the Government Commission on biological and chemical security of the Russian Federation. 2012-2018: Responsible Secretary of the Government Commission on health-related issues. 2017-2018: Chairman of the World Health Assembly.
Professor Skvortsova is Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Vice-president and one of the founders of the National Association for the Fight Against Stroke, Director-at-Large of the World Stroke Organization, Secretary General of the European Council on stroke, a member of the Scientific and Methodological Commissions of the European Federation of Neurological Communities on the problems of neuroprotection, cerebrovascular disease and stroke, intensive therapy in neurology, and diseases of the motor neuron, the main scientific secretary of ‘Journal of Neurology & Psychiatry by SS Korsakov’, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation.
She is a winner of the WSO World Stroke Day 2010 award, Laureate of the N.I. Pirogov’s Russian State Medical University Prize for the best scientific work and the Moscow Government Prize in Medicine, Laureate of the All-Russian public award “Shield and Rose ( 2017), awarded the National Order "For Merit" with the rank of Commander of the Republic of Guinea (2018).
Author of over 400 scientific papers, holder of seven patents.
Former Chief Medical & Global Health Officer
Vice-Minister for Health
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Dr Suzuki was born in 1959. He graduated from School of Medicine, Keio University (MD) in 1984 and trained as neurologist. He received PhD for public health from Keio University in 1996 and two Master's degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health (MPH in 1989 & MSc in 1990).
Dr Suzuki has a professional career at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), Japan for 30 years covering infectious diseases, mental health, environmental health, food safety, international health, ageing & health, and health research policy. He also worked for the World Health Organization as Executive Director for Social Change & Mental Health, later for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals (covering vaccines, immunization and biologicals) from 1998 to 2002.
He is currently the Chief Medical & Global Health Officer, Vice-Minister for Health in MHLW from July 2017.
Dr Suzuki is married and has one daughter.
Dr Jeanette Vega is the Chief Medical and Innovation Officer at Red de Salud UC-Christus, the main private health provider in Chile. She has over 20 years of experience in international health. Her areas of expertise include social determinants of healthy, health equity and health systems.
Former Director of FONASA, the National Chilean Public Health Insurance Agency, as part of President Bachelet´s government, between 2014 and March 2018 and former Vice Minister of health, between 2008 and 2010. She has served as as Managing Director of Health at the Rockefeller Foundation between 2011 and 2014. Previously she was a Director at the World Health Organization in Geneva, where she led the equity in health agenda, and the Commission on Social Determinants of Health Secretariat, established in March 2005 to support countries and global health partners in addressing the social factors leading to ill health and health inequities.
She is a member of many international commissions and boards, including Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and Board member of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program. She is a regular speaker, chair or moderator at global health meetings and a part of organizing major international conferences. Dr Vega has extensively published in peer reviewed journals, including The Lancet and the World Health Organization Bulletin. She has also led the Lancet Series on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Latin America.
Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India
Professor K. VijayRaghavan is the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, succeeding Dr. R. Chidambaram on April 3, 2018 and the Chairperson of Prime Minister’s Science, Technology & Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). He was Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India from January 28, 2013 to February 2, 2018.
The Principal Scientific Adviser works with all arms of the Government, with our States, our citizens, national and international agencies. The goal is that the benefits of science, technology and innovation solutions reach the most needy, for the sustainable development of India and for the well being of our planet.
VijayRaghavan is also a Distinguished Professor at the National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Bangalore (TIFR) and was the NCBS Director till 2013. He studied Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was a Senior Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. His research is on nerves and muscles and how complex behaviour emerges during animal development.
VijayRaghavan is a Fellow of the Indian Science Academies, the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK) and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013.
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, where he oversees an extensive research portfolio focused on infectious and immune-mediated diseases. He serves as one of the key advisors to the White House and Department of Health and Human Services on global HIV/AIDS issues, and on initiatives to bolster medical and public health preparedness against emerging infectious disease threats. He is the winner of numerous prestigious awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science and the Lasker Award for Public Service.
