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Governance

Executive Board

The Executive Board, Unitaid’s decision-making body, determines the organization’s objectives, monitors progress and approves budgets. The Board is chaired by Celso Amorim, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Brazil. Making decisions by consensus, the Executive Board consists of 12 members:
  • One representative nominated from each of the five founding countries (Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom), and Spain;
  • One representative of African countries designated by the African Union;
  • One representative of Asian countries;
  • Two representatives of relevant civil society networks (nongovernmental organizations and communities living with HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis);
  • One representative of the constituency of foundations; and
  • One representative of the World Health Organization.

 

Read the the Executive Board’s Resolutions and Minutes 

Read the Executive Board’s e-Resolutions

Find out more about Unitaid’s Executive Committees

DOCUMENTS & DOWNLOADS

  • Unitaid Strategy 2017-2021
  • Unitaid constitution EN / FR
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    Celso Amorim

    Chair

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    Sarah Boulton

    United Kingdom (Vice Chair)

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    Blair Hanewall

    Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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    To be confirmed

    Brazil

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    Marta Maurás Pérez

    Chile

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    Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga

    Communities living with the diseases

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    Michèle Boccoz

    France

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    Brook K. Baker

    NGOs

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    Bjørg Sandkjær

    Norway

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    Jin-kyu Jeong

    Republic of Korea

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    Lindiwe Makubalo

    South Africa

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    Martín Remón

    Spain

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    Minghui Ren

    World Health Organization

    Celso Amorim

    Chair of the Executive Board

    Celso Amorim has served as Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Relations under President Itamar Franco (1993-1994), and again under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), and as Minister of Defence under President Dilma Rousseff (2011-2014). He was the longest serving Brazilian Foreign Minister. Currently, Amorim is the Chair of Unitaid and a member of the UNSG’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines. He was in charge of drafting the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (2000-2003) and was a member of the UNSG’s High-Level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crises (2015).

    His contributions to Brazil’s foreign policy and the international community, especially in the area of access to medicines and health, are embodied in the multiple international bodies he helped to create, including Unitaid.

    Sarah Boulton

    Vice-chair of the Executive Board

    Sarah Boulton is responsible for UK investments in Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. In a previous role, she led the UK Multilateral Aid Review.

    Blair S. Hanewall

    Representing the constituency of foundations

    Blair S. Hanewall, M.B.A., M.P.H. is a Deputy Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation within the Global Development’s Integrated Delivery program.

    She oversees the Interventions, Consumers, and Markets team that focuses on ensuring optimal design, launch and uptake of priority innovations (medicines, diagnostics, vector control, family planning) and healthy market environments that promote secure supply to affordable, quality innovations. She joined the foundation in 2003 and has led projects related to vaccine financing strategies with GAVI, aid effectiveness/policy research, regulatory/quality assurance, and supply chain. Prior to the Foundation, Blair worked in the commercialization team for a biotech developing HIV prevention products and program design for maternal and adolescent programs in Tanzania and Ecuador. Blair earned her B.A. from Duke University and Master’s in Business and Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

    To be confirmed

    Marta Maurás Pérez

    Representing Chile

    Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Chile to the UN in Geneva, Marta Maurás Pérez is a Sociologist with extensive multilateral experience on international relations, development, and human rights issues.

    Prior to this role, she was a Member, UN Committee on Child Rights (2009-2013); Director for Economic and Social Affairs for UNSG Kofi Annan and Chef de Cabinet of the DSG (1998-2005); UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Bogotá, Colombia (1992-1998); CEPAL Secretary Commission, Santiago, Chile (2005-2007), and UNICEF Representative/Senior Official in Pakistan, Mozambique, New York.

    Gracia Violeta Ross

    Representing communities living with the diseases

    Gracia Violeta Ross is from La Paz, Bolivia. In 2000, she discovered her HIV positive status and founded the Bolivian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (REDBOL), of which she is President. She represented Bolivia and Latin America on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB), the Developing Countries NGO Delegation to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and in the TB-HIV Working Group for the Stop TB Partnership. Currently, Gracia is the Unitaid Board Member for the Communities Living with the Diseases Delegation, a member of the Civil Society Advisory Group for UN Women for Latin America. Gracia is an Anthropologist and holds a Master’s degree in Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health.

    Michèle Boccoz

    Representing France

    Michèle Boccoz joined the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1991.

    She has been posted in several countries and more recently in Belgium and Croatia as French Ambassador. She has an extensive experience on health issues which started while she was posted in the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations.  She was also the Director of International relations for Pasteur Institute for 6 years as well as member of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIM) and of the Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) board. She is still an administrator of the Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP). Michèle Boccoz was appointed French Ambassador for the fight against HIV/AIDS and Communicable Diseases on September 8th, 2016.

    Brook K. Baker

    Representing nongovernmental organizations

    Professor Brook K. Baker is a senior policy analyst for Health GAP (Global Access Project), a professor at Northeastern University School of Law, U.S.A., and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.  His legal activism focuses primarily on intellectual property, trade, human rights, and access to optimal treatment for people living with HIV.

    Bjørg Sandkjær

    Representing Norway

    Ms. Bjørg Sandkjær is a senior adviser in the Section for Global Health at Norad. Before joining Norad in 2011, Ms. Sandkjær worked in the GAVI Alliance Secretariat, and has previously served in the UN Economic Commission for Africa, as well as several NGOs focusing on global health and equity.  She has published on AIDS and governance, health diplomacy, and equitable access to health care.

    Jin-kyu Jeong

    Representing Asian countries

    Jeong Jin-kyu is the Director-General for Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Republic of Korea. Previously, he served as Director at various divisions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2005 – 2008), as well as Counsellor, Korean Permanent Delegation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France (2008 – 2011). He was Minister-Counsellor at the Korean Embassy in the Republic of Kenya from 2011 to 2015, before serving as Deputy Director-General, Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Bureau, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), starting September 2015.

    Jeong Jin-kyu holds Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Diplomacy, and Public Administration from Kyunghee University and Yonsei University, respectively, and an M.P.A. in Public Administration from Cornell University.

     

    Lindiwe Makubalo

    Representing African countries

    Dr. Lindiwe Makubalo (PhD, LSHTM) is the Health Expert at the South African Mission, Geneva. She was previously Chief Director, Epidemiology and Research: Department of Health, WHO Executive Director: Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and Head of HIV Research, MRC Durban. She has served on numerous WHO technical committees and the MCC and MRC Board, in South Africa.

    Martín Remón

    Representing Spain

    Martín Remón is an Economist (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and career diplomat (since 2000), having served in Ukraine, Canada, Nigeria, Vienna (delegate to the OSCE), Madrid (Head of the OSCE and Council of Europe department), and Geneva (delegate to the WHO and ILO).

    Ren Minghui

    Representing the World Health Organization

    Dr Ren Minghui was appointed WHO Assistant Director-General for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases on 4 January 2016. Prior to that, he was Director-General for International Cooperation in the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China.
    Dr Ren received an honorary award by the Russian Federation for his contribution to health cooperation in 2006, and was awarded the “Ordre National du Mérite” by France for his efforts to advance collaboration on the prevention and control of emerging diseases in 2015.

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