Andy Haines became Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in January 2001.  He was previously Professor of Primary Health Care and Director of the Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, at Royal Free and University College Medical School, and worked part-time as a general practitioner in North London.  He was formerly Director of Research & Development at the NHS Executive, North Thames and a member of the Council of the Medical Research Council.  He has also worked internationally in Nepal, Jamaica and the USA.

His research interests are in epidemiology and health services research. He has many publications on these topic areas.  He was a member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the second and third Assessment Reports in 1996 and 2001. He was one of the first academics to recognise that climate change could have implications for public health and has published a number of articles on the topic. He sits on many national and international committees including the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research. He was knighted in the New Years Honours list 2005 for services to medicine.

David Evans
Director, Department of Health Systems Financing, WHO

David Evans is Director of the Department of Health Systems Financing in the Cluster on Health Systems and Services at the World Health Organization. He has a PhD in economics and worked as an academic in Australia and Singapore before joining WHO in 1990, initially working on social and economic aspects of tropical disease transmission and control.  Subsequently his work has covered a variety of areas including the assessment of health system performance and the generation, analysis and application of evidence for health policy. This work now focuses specifically on the development of effective, efficient and equitable health financing systems. He has published widely in these areas.  

Gaya M Gamhewage
Team Leader, Corporate Communications, WHO, Geneva

Dr. Gaya Gamhewage is responsible for Corporate Communications in the Office of the Director General of the World Health Organization in Geneva. She has a career that spans from journalism to medicine, public health to humanitarian health action, training to advocacy. She has worked for WHO for the past seven years, most of them dedicated to capacity building for WHO's Health Action in Crises programme. She took up her current post at the beginning of 2008.

Before her time at WHO, Dr. Gamhewage worked for Save the Children UK and Save the Children Norway in Sri Lanka where she was head of Advocacy and Communication. There she headed an award-winning national media campaign on the impact of armed conflict on children. She has played a key role in a number of inter-agency initiatives including  "Children as Zones of Peace", "Health as a Bridge for Peace" and on implementing the Humanitarian Reforms initiated in 2005. Previous to that, as Director Community Health for Sri Lanka's largest NGO which works in over 12,000 communities and villages, Dr. Gamhewage has worked on psychosocial and peace promotion issues, human rights and community health with children affected by armed conflict, survivors of torture, the military, youth, elderly and other groups. She has taken up some of these causes at the Hague Appeal for Peace, the Salzburg Seminar and the World Peace Conference over the last few years.

Dr Gamhewage is an experienced trainer in the areas of public health, public health communications, human rights, programme management, humanitarian action and each year trains an average of 500 health workers, UN and NGO staff, journalists, military, judiciary, community-based organizations and others in key topics.

Dr. Gamhewage is a medical graduate of the Beijing Medical University in the People's Republic of China and has received educational and professional training in the United Kingdom, the USA, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. She serves as the Vice-Chair of the Co-existence International in New York which is an international non-governmental organization that supports initiatives promoting conflict transformation, peaceful co-habitation and access to populations across conflict boarders. She is fluent in Sinhala, English and Chinese (Mandarin).

Gorik Ooms
Former head of Médecins Sans Frontières, Belgium

Gorik Ooms is a human rights lawyer, graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1989, admitted to the Brussels Bar in 1994. Until April 2008, he was the executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Belgium and of the MSF Operational Centre Brussels. In May 2008, he joined the Department of Public Health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine.

In March 2008, Gorik Ooms obtained a PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Ghent, for a thesis on the subject "The right to health and the sustainability of healthcare: Why a new global health aid paradigm is needed", proposing the creation of a Global Health Fund.
Gorik Ooms is a director of the Hélène de Beir Foundation and of the Global AIDS Alliance.

Jorge Bermudez
UNITAID Executive Secretary

Dr Jorge Bermudez was appointed as UNITAID’s Executive Secretary in March 2007 and came into Office in July 2007. A graduate doctor, Dr Bermudez has a Master’s degree in Tropical Medicine and a Doctorate in Public Health.

Previous experience includes being Unit Chief for Essential Medicines, Vaccines and Health Technologies at the Pan American Health Organization in Washington and Director of the Brazilian National School of Public Health.

He played a leading role in the 2005 Second round of Price Negotiations in Latin America for antiretrovirals and diagnosis/monitoring reagents achieving price reductions which have become reference prices in a variety of countries and for the PAHO Strategic Fund supplies.

Ndioro Ndiaye
Deputy Director, International Organisation for Migration

Mrs Ndioro NDIAYE was born in Bignona, Senegal, on 6 November 1946. After secondary studies in France, she undertook medical studies first at Dakar University, then at Bordeaux and Paris VII (Garancière). She was one of the first African women to pass the concours de l'agrégation (highest competitive examination for teachers) in France (specialising in odonology and stomatology). On that basis she then took up office as a Head of the Department of Odontology and Stomatology at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, until then occupied by foreign experts.

In 1988, Mrs. Ndioro Ndiaye was appointed by the President of the Republic to the post of Minister for Social Development. On behalf of the Senegalese Government, she coordinated humanitarian activities during the crisis between Senegal and Mauritania in 1989. As the supervising minister, Mrs. Ndiaye devised and implemented practical solutions to assist both Senegalese and Mauritanian migrants displaced by the conflict.
She has also been responsible for dealing with population movements arising from the situation in Casamance, where there has been a conflict for over 15 years now. From 1990 to 1995, Mrs. Ndiaye was Minister for Women’s, Children’s and Family Affairs. Thereafter, and until her appointment as Deputy Director-General of IOM, she resumed her numerous activities at the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, where she was highly instrumental in reforming tertiary education in Senegal.

In 1990 Mrs Ndioro Ndiaye was invited by UNICEF to take part in preparations for the World Summit for Children. In that context she proposed that the rich countries should plough back a part of debt service payments by poor countries into programmes to help children. She also made a major contribution to preparations for the World Summit on the Economic Advancement of Rural Women held in Geneva in 1992 and which was followed by a meeting on the same topic in Brussels in 1994. She led the Senegalese delegation to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994.

As chairperson of the Regional Conference of African Women, she was one of the driving forces in preparations for the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. As a member of the Advisory Counsel, she also helped to prepare for the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995.

A founding member of the Comité scientifique pour les femmes et le développement, (Scientific Commission for Women and Development), Mrs. Ndioro Ndiaye founded an NGO around the mid-1990s called "Reseau de femmes africaines leaders pour la paix et le développement” (Network of African Women Leaders for Peace and Development), which she coordinated until her appointment to IOM.

Mrs. Ndioro Ndiaye has published numerous scientific papers and has written several works and studies on social and political issues. She is Commandeur des Palmes académiques and Chevalier dans l’ordre de la Légion d’Honneur in France, and Commandeur de l’Ordre du Lion du Sénégal.

Regina Moench-Pfanner
Senior Manager Food Fortification Program , Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

Throughout my career, my focus has been on nutrition and health programming both in development and emergencies and on micronutrients and poverty alleviation programs. I have spent more than twenty years working in the field of relief assistance and international development. I am a Fullbright Scholar and hold a Doctorate in International Nutrition from the University of Bonn, Germany, and a Masters of Science from Michigan State University, USA. I have published and contributed to several publications. Prior to joining GAIN in 2005 I served as Regional Coordinator for Helen Keller International (HKI) in the Asia Pacific overseeing the development, implementation and quality management of HKI's programs in public health and eye health. I began my career with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and worked throughout Africa and Europe. I went on to become Head of Mission for the IFRC in Chad before moving on to provide technical consultancies in food and nutrition programs for a number of international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Programme (WFP). Besides Africa and the Asia Pacific, my experience also includes work in the Middle East, South America, and Europe.

Robert Ridley
Director, WHO-TDR

Robert Ridley was appointed as Director of TDR in 2004. Prior to this, he held the position of Coordinator, Product Research and Development, WHO/TDR, which covers projects relating to drugs, vaccines and diagnostics. He moved back to WHO following a period as Chief Scientific Officer for the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), a not-forprofit public private partnership to discover and develop antimalarial drugs that he helped launch from within TDR in November 1999, and for which he helped establish its initial portfolio of projects. His career spans both the public and private sectors. He has an academic background that covers the fields of organic chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, with positions at the University of Malawi (1980-83), McMaster University, Canada (1983-86) and Edinburgh University in the U.K.(1986-92). In 1992 he moved to industry, working for F. Hoffmann-La-Roche Ltd. in Basel (Switzerland), where he was a Vice Director in the Infectious Diseases Drug Discovery department.

From 1998 till the beginning of 2001 he worked for TDR where he managed drug discovery research. Since 1997 he has been heavily engaged in broader issues relating to public sector interactions with the pharmaceutical industry, including the establishment of the Medicines for Malaria Venture, for which he acted as Chief Executive Officer from early 1999 to early 2000. During his tenure with TDR he has also been heavily involved in issues related to the use of drugs and the economics and financing of their provision in resource poor settings. He has published widely on malaria research related to drug and vaccine discovery and development.

Thelma Narayan
CHC Sochara, India

She taught in the department of Community Medicine, St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore from February  1978 till end 1983. She Co-founded the Community Health Cell (CHC) Bangalore in January 1984 and was a founding member of the Society for Community Health Awareness, Research and Action (SOCHARA) in 1991. She has been coordinator CHC and Secretary, SOCHARA  from 1998 – 2006 July. She is now a senior Public Health Consultant with CHC.

She was involved in teaching health professionals and training of community health workers from 1978. In 2003 she initiated a Community Health Internship cum Fellowship Learning programme in CHC which is ongoing. She has taught community health and public health in various institutions in India and abroad including Norway, Sweden, UK and USA. She led the team in Karnataka for a women’s health empowerment training programme. She has also participated in several large research studies.

Her policy work being a member of the Karnataka Task Force on Health and Family welfare ( 1999-2003) wherein she drafted the Karnataka Integrated State Health Policy  adopted by the cabinet in 2004 in evolving an integrated  health project for the state. She worked with the Orissa state government in developing the Orissa vision 2020 including the Orissa Health Policy. She has been involved in the various task groups of the National Rural Health Mission 2005- 2012 and is currently on the National AHSA mentoring group and the Advisory group on community action for the NRHM. All of the above focus on strengthening public health and primary health care.

She has been actively involved in the global and National People’s Health movement and has participated in organizing  the first and second global people’s health assemblies in 2000 and 2005 in Savar, Bangladesh and Cuenca, Eucador. The first and the second National Health Assemblies in 2000 and 2007 in Kolkatta at Bhopal; and three Karnataka state health assemblies in Bangalore.

She has been invited to participate in several meetings organized by WHO in monitoring equity in health (1997) globalization and sustainability of health systems (1997)  Inequalities in Health ( 1997) CHC organized the South Asian Dialogue on Poverty and Health supported by WHO. She participated in and supported the Tobacco Free initiative from 1999 onwards and facilitated the development of the consortium for Tobacco Free Karnataka. She was invited to make a presentation and chair a session at the International Health promotion conference in 2005. She participated in the SEAPHEIN meeting in Bangkok in 2006. She was on the International Advisory Board of the IDEA- Health meeting. She is presently on the programme committee for Bamako 2008 which is the global ministerial forum for research on Health, Development and Equity. She was invited to make presentations at two Forum’s organized by the Global Forum for Health Research in 2003 and 2007.
She has over 60 publications and reports.