Keynote Speakers Archives - WISH

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

wish admin — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:43:27 +0000

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017. He was the first WHO Director-General elected from multiple candidates by the World Health Assembly and the first from the WHO African Region to head the world’s leading public health agency. Born in Asmara, Eritrea, Dr. Tedros earned a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Asmara, followed by a Master’s degree in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London, a PhD in Community Health from the University of Nottingham, and an Honorary Fellowship from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. After his studies, Dr. Tedros returned to Ethiopia, where he initially worked as a field-level malariologist, before leading a regional health service and serving over a decade in the Ethiopian federal government as both Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs. As Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012, he led a comprehensive reform of the country’s health system, built on the foundation of universal health coverage and provision of services to all people, even in the most remote areas. Under his leadership, Ethiopia expanded its health infrastructure, developed innovative health financing mechanisms, and expanded its health workforce. A major component of reforms he drove was the creation of a primary health care extension programme that deployed 40 000 female health workers throughout the country, contributing to a 60% reduction in child and maternal mortality compared to 2000 levels. As Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016, Dr. Tedros brought health to the forefront of political discourse nationally and globally. In this role, he led efforts to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to financing the Sustainable Development Goals. Before his election as WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros held key leadership positions in global health, including as Chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Chair of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and Co-chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Board. Since assuming office on July 1, 2017, Dr. Tedros has initiated the most comprehensive transformation in WHO’s history, achieving a range of significant milestones.

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HE Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, PhD

wish admin — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 07:30:09 +0000

Minister of Public Health Managing Director, Hamad Medical Corporation Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari was appointed Minister of Public Health in January 2016. Under her leadership Qatar’s health system successfully managed the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic with Qatar having one of the lowest case fatality rates in the world all while hosting a successful FIFA World Cup 2022 and achieving over 90% of its National Health Strategy 2018-2022 goals and targets. She is also the Managing Director of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) since 2007. Under her leadership HMC transformed into an integrated academic health system which achieved numerous international accreditations and awards. Dr. Hanan chairs the Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute Advisory Board and Co-Chairs the Joint Advisory Board of Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar (WCMC-Q). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she chaired the National COVID-19 Committee. Dr Hanan is also member of the Board of the Qatar Precision Health Institute (QPHI), Sidra Medicine’s Board of Governors, Qatar University’s Board of Regents, and Qatar Foundation’s Research, Development & Innovation Council. At the international level, Dr. Hanan is a member of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board, High-Level Ministerial Group on the Control of Tobacco & Emerging Tobacco and Nicotine Products in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Regional Subcommittee for Polio Eradication and Outbreaks. Dr. Hanan holds a PhD in Healthcare Management from Brunel University in the UK in 2002. She has published academic papers and received several awards in recognition of her achievements in the health care industry. In 2018 Dr. Hanan was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of health and in 2022 was awarded the WHO Director General’s Health Champions award in recognition of outstanding action and advocacy in global health promotion and security. Recently in 2024, Dr. Hanan was honoured with the Best Minister Award at the World Governments Summit for her transformative leadership in public health and long record of accomplishments that align closely with the award’s focus areas of socio-economic impact, innovation, resilience, future-readiness, good governance and integrity.

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Prof. Lord Ara Darzi

wish admin — Sun, 15 Sep 2024 12:45:24 +0000

Lord Darzi is Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery. He is a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College NHS Trust and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Chair of the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative and Chair of the Pre-emptive Health and Medicine Initiative at Flagship Pioneering. In his role as Executive Chair of the Fleming Centre Initiative—a partnership between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London—Lord Darzi is spearheading the development of The Fleming Initiative, aimed at leading a global movement to combat antimicrobial resistance. In 2002, Lord Darzi was knighted for his services to medicine and surgery, introduced as Lord Darzi of Denham to the UK’s House of Lords in 2007, been a member of His Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council since 2009 and awarded the Order of Merit in 2016. Lord Darzi was awarded the Qatari Sash of Independence in 2014, is the Executive Chair of the World Innovation Summit for Health, Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of Sidra Medicine, an International Advisory Panel Member for Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute and Member of the Advisory Board for the Qatar Foundation.

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Dr. Christos Christou

wish admin — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 06:55:18 +0000

Dr. Christos Christou commenced his role as International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the first week of September 2019. Before this, he held a number of roles in the field with MSF,and it’s affiliated associations. Dr. Christou joined MSF in 2002, where his first assignment was in Greece as a field doctor, working with migrants and refugees, after which he moved onto working as a doctor in a Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndromes project in Zambia in 2004 and 2005. Following a break from field missions for several years while he trained as a surgeon, in 2013, he rejoined MSF missions in a number of conflict zones, including South Sudan, Iraq and, most recently, Cameroon, as an emergency and trauma surgeon. Born in Trikala, a small town in central Greece, Dr. Christou graduated from Aristotle University’s medical school in Thessaloniki, Greece, and has a PhD in Surgery from the Kapodestrian University of Athens. He holds a masters in International Health – Health Crisis Management from the University of Athens and is a member of its faculty. Dr. Christou later specialized in general and emergency surgery in the Surgical and Transplant Unit of Evangelismos Hospital in Athens. In 2013, he moved to London, working as a Senior Clinical Fellow in Colorectal Surgery at King’s College Hospital, and in 2018, became a Consultant of Colorectal and Emergency Surgery at North Middlesex University Hospital. In 2018, he was awarded Fellow of the European Board of Surgery in Coloproctology. Dr. Christou was first General Secretary, then Vice-President, and finally President of MSF Greece Board of Directors from 2005 until his election as International President in June 2019. In 2022, Dr. Christou was re-elected as International President for another three-year mandate, which will end in mid-2025.

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