Towards Transformational Health Partnerships in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

Dr. Sunoor Verma

Executive Director, Geneva Health Forum

As the Executive Director of the Geneva Health Forum, Dr. Sunoor Verma is responsible for expanding its reach and impact through strategic planning, strategic partnerships and strategic communication. A senior development expert, Dr. Sunoor Verma has worked in emergency, conflict and post-conflict situations. He has set up programs across sectors – Education, Health, Protection, Injuries, Sanitation, HIV/AIDS, Harm Reduction, Conflict Resolution, Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons, Environment, Culture, Gender, Minority issues etc.

Dr. Sunoor Verma has led the establishment of complex partnerships and coalitions and has negotiated strategic agreements in conflict and crisis situations across the globe. Dr. Sunoor Verma advances programs by working at the interface of policy and politics. He has worked in Western Europe, South East Europe, South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa and Australia. Among others he worked for UNHCR, UNICEF, European Centre for Minority Issues, Cambridge University and the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Sunoor Verma was principal consultant of the strategy consulting practice ProCube and is the founder of the initiative CSR for Children.

Mr. Mark Little

Director, Health Care, Advisory Services for the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)

Mark leads BSR’s global health care practice, helping pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies implement robust sustainability practices. His focus areas include access to health, strategy, corporate transparency, stakeholder engagement, human rights and supply chain.

Prior to BSR, Mark worked in corporate and innovation strategy for pharmaceutical clients at Monitor Group. He has worked closely with the global health community, and has published extensively on HIV/AIDS in India.

Mark is also Adjunct Professor of Corporate Responsibility and Private Sector Partnerships at New York University (NYU), and is a regular speaker on global health and corporate responsibility at industry conferences.

Mark holds a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.Phil in International Development from the University of Oxford, St. Antony’s College.

H.E. Dr.Tom Mboya Okeyo

Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kenya, MBchB (Nairobi, Kenya), MPH (Wales, United Kingdom), DSHI (Turin, Italy)

Ambassador Dr. Tom Mboya Okeyo is a Medical Doctor, Public Health Specialist. He was appointed in 2010 as Kenya’s Ambassador, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative to United Nations, and to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ambassador Tom Mboya Okeyo serves as the Chair of the World Trade Organization Council on Trade in Goods. He was appointed in 2012 by the Executive Director of UNAIDS on the recommendation of the UNAIDS Board to lead consultations among Member States of the United Nations, Heads of Agencies, Civil society and the private Sector on a new framework for financing global HIV Response. He successfully completed this task with an acceptable outcome agreed on by the 30th UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board Meeting in June 2012.

Prior to this appointment, was Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kenya to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva with primary responsibility for managing Kenya’s relationship with the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UNITAID, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The GAVI Alliance, and other international health organizations in the period 2007-2010.

Ambassador Tom Mboya Okeyo is credited with facilitating mobilization of an estimated US$ 1.5 billion in grants from International health agencies for health and development projects in Kenya over the period 2006 – 2011.

Held various management positions in the Kenyan Ministry of Health as Head of Department and in the Office of the President as Director on matters related to HIV/AIDS. He coordinated resource mobilization initiatives to increase access to international health financing initiatives notably from The Global Fund, The World Bank, DFID, European Commission, DANIDA, The German KfW, among others for health programs in Kenya.

Provided leadership in formulating the architecture of the Kenya National AIDS Control Program Policy and Strategy Framework, which was approved by Parliament. The implementation of the Sessional Paper on HIV and AIDS resulted in 50% decline of National adult HIV prevalence.

Dr. Daniel Lopez Acuña

Adviser to the Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)

Dr. Daniel López-Acuña, a Mexican and Spanish national, graduated as an Medical Doctor from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and did both his Masters and Doctoral studies in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland,USA.

He has been a faculty member of the School of Medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and at the School of Public Health of Mexico, and visiting professor at several Universities in the United States, Spain and Latin America in fields such as Epidemiology, Health Systems, Health Planning and Health Economics.

Between 1986 and 2005, he worked for the Pan American Health Organization WHO Regional Office for the Americas in different capacities including the positions of Director of Health systems and of Director of Program Management. Since 2006 until May 2011 he was appointed Director in the Health Action in Crisis Cluster in WHO HQ in Geneva. In June 2011 he was appointed Adviser to the Director General of the World Health Organization. In this capacity he has been supporting the design and implementation of WHO's Reform work.

Dr López-Acuña has published several books and specialized papers. He is a member of the editorial boards of a number of technical and periodical journals. Among the books published, two of them have had wide dissemination: a) "La Salud Desigual en México," originally published in 1980 and currently in its 9th Edition, and b) “La Salud Ambiental en México”, published in 1986. He coordinated the publication titled “Public Health in the Americas”, launched by PAHO/WHO in 2002.

Dr. Evan Lee

Vice President, Global Health Programs & Access, Eli Lilly and Company

Dr. Evan Lee assumed his role as Eli Lilly and Company’s Vice President of Global Health Programs and Access in January 2012. In this position, Dr. Lee oversees Lilly’s global health activities and represents Lilly on the global health stage in Geneva, Switzerland. He is also responsible for Lilly’s signature CR initiatives, the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership and the Lilly NCD Partnership, as well as efforts related to access to medicines.

Dr. Lee joins Lilly from the Geneva-based Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) where he served as Senior Policy Officer and led several efforts to reduce the burden of TB and malaria. His accomplishments included the launch of EXPAND-TB, a project funded by UNITAID, which is helping to introduce new TB diagnostics in 27 countries. Prior to FIND, Dr. Lee served in various positions, including for Management Sciences for Health and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Dr. Lee graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry and physics. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from New York University School of Medicine, and his Master of Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management.

Mr. Jon Pearman

Head of Accelerated Vaccine Introduction, GAVI Alliance

Joined GAVI as AVI Director on December 1st 2008. Has been heavily involved in the launch and management of penta vaccines supplied to GAVI countries and has over 15 years pharmaceutical industry experience.

Jon comes to GAVI from Berna Biotech (Crucell), where he served as senior marketing director for the international region with focus on Asia, Latina and Africa. In this commercial role, he also led multidisciplinary development project teams responsible for the lifecycle management of penta, hepatitis B, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera and measles rubella vaccines, and was a member of the malaria vaccine and rabies monoclonal antibody early-stage development project teams.

Previously, Jon spent 10 years at GSK, including 6 years based in Nairobi covering the East Africa region. During this time he was responsible for commercialisation of all of GSK's portfolio of pharma and consumer products, including the polio, meningitis, typhoid, penta and tetra vaccines. While in Kenya he initiated and led social mobilization campaigns for polio national immunization days, and he created and implemented a hepatitis B full-media public awareness campaign for which his team received the Pearl Award for compelling communication.

Jon has an Msc from Durham University, in molecular biology and biochemistry and spent two years at Anderson Consulting (now Accenture) after completing his degree. He was also at GAVI on a short term contract in 2001-2002

Ms. Johanna Ralston

Chief Executive Officer, World Heart Federation and founding members of the NCD Alliance

Johanna Ralston joined the World Heart Federation, one of the founding members of NCD Alliance, as Chief Executive Officer in February 2011.
The World Heart Federation is headquartered in Geneva with 200 member organizations in more than 100 countries and focuses on the global fight against heart disease and stroke, with a focus on low-and middle-income countries.

Before joining the World Heart Federation Johanna was Vice President, Global Strategies at the American Cancer Society, where she was hired in 1999 to build the Society’s global programs, eventually developing and overseeing cancer and tobacco control projects in more than 30 countries.
Johanna’s work in development and global health has also included positions at New York University and International Planned Parenthood Federation of Latin America, where she served as Program Development Adviser. Johanna studied at Harvard Business School, and studied public health at Harvard and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.