International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat

Dr Victor Dzau

President of the National Academy of Medicine, USA

Dr Victor Dzau is a physician scientist renowned for his research in cardiovascular medicine and his leadership in global health.

He serves as the President of the US National Academy of Medicine. He was previously President and CEO of Duke University Health System. He is co-chair of the World Economic Forum Regional Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative, member of the GPMB, was advisor to the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Sustainable Financing for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, co-chaired the G20 EC scientific panel on global health security, principal of ACT Accelerator and serves as an International member of Hiroshima G7 Global Health Task Force.

Shingai Machingaidze

Head of Africa Strategy and Engagement at CEPI, South Africa

Shingai Machingaidze is an epidemiologist and public health specialist. She has developed and led public health and clinical research programs that build the capacity of Africa-based scientists and institutions in Africa. Her expertise includes strategic engagement, planning and support of large public health programmes; conducting and managing clinical trials and clinical research; managing research grants and finances; as well as managing strategic partnerships and engagements with national, regional and international agencies. She has published in leading scientific journals and is a member of several institutional, regional and global advisory boards including the Advisory Committee for the Clinical Trials Community and Co-Chair of the 100 Days Mission Science Technology Expert Group (STEG). She was previously the Ag. Chief Science Officer for Africa CDC as well as the CPHIA Secretariat Lead and currently serves at the Head of Africa Strategy and Engagement at CEPI.

Hala Audi

Chief Alliance Officer at Univercells and CEO of Unizima

Hala Audi is Chief Alliance Officer at Univercells and the CEO of Univercells’ advisory services business Unizima, a company dedicated to building biopharma infrastructure in emerging markets to meet rising demand for vaccines and biologics. Hala joined Univercells in January 2022 from a career in government and global public health. She has 20 years of international experience leading projects that focused on innovation in the infrastructure and pharma sectors, in particular to address antimicrobial resistance and pandemic resilience.

Dr Rick Arthur Bright

Former Director of BARDA, USA

Dr. Rick Bright is an internationally recognized expert in pandemic preparedness and response.

As CEO of the Pandemic Prevention Institute at The Rockefeller Foundation, he led the development of a data-to-action platform to detect, prevent, and rapidly mitigate pandemic threats. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and Director of US-HHS BARDA, where he established public-private partnerships that resulted in FDA approval for over 60 new vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics. His experience includes leadership roles in both the biotechnology industry and non-governmental organizations. He is an Executive Board Member for the NY Academy of Sciences International Science Reserve, is on the board of directors of FIND Dx, the scientific advisory board of Qiagen, a Sr. Fellow at the Foreign Policy Association, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr Kelly Chibale

Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cape Town, South Africa

Kelly Chibale is a full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he holds the Neville Isdell Chair in African-centric Drug Discovery & Development. He is also a Full Member of the UCT Institute of Infectious Disease & Molecular Medicine, founding Director of the South African Medical Research Council Drug Discovery & Development Research unit at UCT, Founder & Director of the UCT Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre, and Founder & CEO of the H3D Foundation.

Kelly obtained his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge (UK).  This was followed by postdoctoral stints at the University of Liverpool (UK) and at The Scripps Research Institute (USA). He was a Sandler Sabbatical Fellow at the University of California San Francisco (USA), a US Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (USA), and a Visiting Professor at Pfizer (UK).

Kelly’s research interests are in infectious disease drug discovery and the development of tools and models to contribute to improving treatment outcomes in people of African descent.

He serves as Editor-In-Chief of the American Chemical Society (ACS)’s ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan

Chief Health Scientist, Ministry of Health, Singapore Executive Director, MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation, Singapore

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan was appointed as the inaugural Chief Health Scientist and concurrently, Executive Director of the new Office for Healthcare Transformation in Singapore’s Ministry of Health since 1 January 2018.

Before joining MOHT Professor Tan served as President of the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2008 to 2017. Prior to that he also held the positions of NUS Provost, then Senior Deputy President between the years of 2004 and 2008. He was former Dean of the NUS Faculty of Medicine and served as the Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health, from 2000 to 2004, where he was responsible for leading the public health response to the 2003 SARS epidemic. In 2020, he was appointed as a member of the Planning Group (Vaccine and Therapeutics) and the Expert Committee on COVID-19 Vaccination which advise the government on Singapore’s procurement and vaccination strategy respectively.

In 2022, Professor Tan was conferred The Distinguished Service Order by the Singapore government. He was also conferred with the Knight of the French Order of the Legion of Honour for his outstanding contributions in health and science, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which helped to strengthen ties between France and Singapore.

His other awards include the Public Service Star in 2003 for outstanding contributions to overcoming SARS in Singapore; the Public Administration Gold Medal in 2004 for his work as Director of Medical Services in the Ministry of Health; the Meritorious Service Medal in 2015; and the Public Service Star (COVID-19) in 2022. He was awarded the National Science and Technology Medal in 2008 and is the first Singaporean to be elected as an international member of the US National Academy of Medicine.

A renal physician, Professor Tan obtained his medical training at NUS, and research training at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford.

Dr Delese Mimi Darko

Chief Executive, Food and Drugs Authority Ghana, Ghana

Dr. Delese Mimi Darko graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) with a Doctorate Degree in Pharmacology and a Bachelor of Pharmacy, as well as a Master of Business Administration from the University of Northampton.  

She has over 32 years of expertise in the field of food and medical product regulation, beginning with product testing in the laboratory and progressing to lead the marketing authorization, post approval safety monitoring of medicines, and clinical trials duties. Mimi was key in the FDA being designated as a Regional Centre of Regulatory Excellence in three critical areas by the NEPAD/African Medicines Regulation Harmonization (AMRH) in 2014: Medicines Safety (pharmacovigilance); Clinical Trials Oversight; and Drug Registration.   

 Mimi rose through the ranks of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the post of Deputy Chief Executive Officer before being appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2017, making her the FDA’s first staff member to hold this position. The FDA’s regulatory system for both food and medical items has improved tremendously during her tenure.  

The FDA attained WHO Maturity Level 3 for medicines and vaccines (non-producing) in 2020, and is therefore deemed to operate as a stable, well-functioning, and well-integrated regulatory system. 

In 2022, the Drugs Laboratory attained WHO Maturity Level 4 and was designated as a WHO-Prequalified Quality Control Laboratory, making it the first laboratory in West/Central Africa to do so.    

She is leading the FDA to play a key role in making Ghana a vaccine-manufacturing country.    

 Mimi  currently chairs the Steering Committee of the WHO African Vaccines Regulatory Forum (AVAREF)  and a member of the CEPI Advisory Board, and the COVAX Maternal Immunization Working Group. 

Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli

Executive Vice-President, Head of Research and Development at Novavax, USA

Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli has served as Executive Vice-President, Head of Research and Development at Novavax since November 2024. She was previously Global Head at Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health R&D.

Dr. Draghia’s research activities have focused on molecular biology, gene therapy and vaccination. She is recognised as a global leader in the field of nucleic acid delivery for therapeutic and vaccination applications. She is an inventor on more than a hundred patents and patent applications.

Dr Ranna Eardley Patel

Chief of Staff (acting), CEPI Manufacturing & Supply Chain division, UK

Dr Ranna Eardley-Patel is currently a sustainable manufacturing lead at CEPI creating a global manufacturing ecosystem for pandemic vaccine preparedness, and as part of their outbreak response team.

She is a biochemical engineer with >20 years of international experience in biologics facility, equipment and process design, plus tech transfer, including vaccines (‘flu, polio, Covid-19), mAbs and ATMPs. Ranna was a consultant lead for the AZ Covid-19 vaccine program with responsibility for DSP process finalization, tech transfer and validation at partner manufacturing networks, leading the UK and Dutch facilities to be the first to be authorized. She was then asked to serve the UK Vaccines Taskforce as a technical program lead.

Professor George Gao

Dean of the Savaid Medical School of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Professor Gao is the former director-general of China CDC (2017-2022) and former vice-president of National Natural Science Foundation of China. He is a member (academician) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a foreign member of the U.K. Royal Society (RS), a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

He is the director of the WHO collaborating center for influenza China and a professor of Institute of Microbiology, CAS. Gao has pioneered and made numerous significant original breakthroughs on the pathogenesis mechanisms and pathogen-host interaction of emerging infectious pathogens. His interests also include global public health and health strategy, and is an advocate of international collaboration in global public health. Gao pioneers the COVID-19 research and control with virus discovery, vaccine and therapeutic monoclonal antibody development etc. Gao is a recipient of several international and national awards, including TWAS Medical Prize, Nikkei Asian Prize (Japan), Shulan Medical Sciences Award, the Gamaleya Medal (Russia), HKU Centennial Distinguished Chinese Scholar and the Qiu Shi Outstanding Scientist, Outstanding Scientific Research Team Awards and TWAS Medal Lectures.

Professor Ken Ishii

Director of the International Research and Development Center for Mucosal Vaccines, University of Tokyo, Japan

Ken Ishii is Professor and Director of the International Research and Development Center for Mucosal Vaccines at the University of Tokyo. He is on the Scientific Advisory Committee for CEPI.

Dr Yenew Kebede

Head, Division of Laboratory Systems & Networks at Africa CDC, Ethiopia

Dr Yenew Kebede Tebeje is a medical microbiologist and public health expert with 20 years of clinical, teaching, laboratory science, research, capacity building, and programme design and management experience.

His achievements include building laboratory systems in low-income countries, human resource capacity development, and development of policy frameworks and guidelines that impact laboratory programmes in Africa. Dr Tebeje currently serves as Head of Division of Laboratory Systems at Africa CDC where he leads programmes to strengthen public health laboratory systems and networks in Africa.

Professor Teresa Lambe OBE

Professor of Vaccinology and Immunology at the University of Oxford, UK

Professor Teresa Lambe is a Professor of Vaccinology & Immunology and the Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology at the University of Oxford.

She is leading a research group which improves human health by controlling disease through vaccination – stopping epidemics before they become pandemics. Her team work on emerging and outbreak pathogens including Ebola, CCHF and SARS CoV-2. Prof Lambe is one of the Principal Investigators overseeing the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine programme. In January 2020, Prof. Lambe co-designed the vaccine, led the preclinical studies, and then oversaw the delivery of the immune results needed to support regulatory approval in late 2020. The vaccine has played a pivotal role in the fight against COVID-19. Prof. Lambe was appointed as an honorary OBE for her services to Sciences and Public Health in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Dr Amadou Sall

CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal

Dr Amadou A Sall is the CEO of Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal and director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Arboviruses and viral hemorrhagic fever. He has been chairman of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network and a member of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI) Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr Sall is a virologist with a PhD in Public health. He is an expert in epidemics response and control more specifically for arboviruses and viral hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Zika, Yellow fever…) and high consequence pathogens.

Dr Sall is member of several expert committees for WHO (GOARN, TDR, SAGE, STAG-IH…) and OIE. Dr Sall is the co-chair of the COVID-19 laboratory technical working group of Africa Center for Disease Control and member of the Africa Union AFTCOR steering Committee as well as the Senegalese Committee for COVID-19. He is the chairman of the Pasteur Network.

Dr Umesh Shaligram

Executive Director, Serum Institute of India Private Limited, India

Dr Umesh Shaligram, Executive Director & Board Member of Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd., spearheads the scientific development of vaccines, especially COVID‐19 vaccines, next generation biologics including biosimilars and biobetters. He oversees unique disease burden reduction and disease elimination using detect, treat and prevent strategies.

He led the development and manufacturing of billions of doses of COVISHIELD® and first indigenously manufactured COVID‐19 vaccine, Covovax/Neuvaxovid (first time in the history of India to supply to US). He guided the team to secure USFDA approval for manufacturing plant at SIIPL.

He is fore‐fronting SIIPL’s strategies for (i) TB eradication with novel products based on detection, prevention and treatment (ii) Malaria elimination, (iii) Pertussis elimination,

(iv) HPV eradication, (v) Point of care CART‐cell therapies and new upcoming therapies.

He has experience of various technologies involved in the field of biologics, biosimilars, biobetters and has led several collaborations, tech‐transfers and business relations with

various companies and research organizations. He is also actively involved in regulatory interaction with several regulatory agencies in the world.

Dr Mariângela Simão

Director-president of the Instituto Todos pela Saúde, Brazil

Dr Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão was most recently WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and other Health Products.

She was previously Director of Community Support, Social Justice and Inclusion at UNAIDS. In addition to her work at UNAIDS, she brings more than 30 years of experience working in the Brazilian public health system and has played an active role in enhancing access and decentralizing health services in the country. Between 2006 and 2010, she served as Director of the National STD/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis Department in the Brazilian Ministry of Health, where she led successful price negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of HIV medication. She is currently the director -president of Instituto Todos pela Saúde, a non-profit organization focusing on supporting Brazil’s public health system in pandemic preparedness and response.

Dr Lynda Stuart

Acting Professor Lynda Stuart is the Executive Director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine, USA

Lynda is a physician scientist with over 20 years of experience in immunology, global health, and product development. She is an advocate for using the most cutting edge technologies to solve global health and other societal challenges. As the Executive Director of the Institute for Protein Design (IPD), she oversees translational research, institute operations, and corporate and foundation collaborations. The IPD’s mission is to use computational and AI approaches to create proteins that solve modern challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability.

As Deputy Director for Vaccines & Biologics at the Gates Foundation from 2013 to 2022, she oversaw the
pre-clinical development of vaccines, including mRNA vaccines, and antibody therapies to address urgent global health challenges. In the wake of Ebola she contributed to the conceptualization of “just-in-time” platform approaches for pandemic responses and from 2020-22 she led the Foundation’s COVID-19 discovery and translational vaccine response efforts, managing a large portfolio of COVID-19 and pan-coronavirus vaccine candidates including the IPD’s computationally designed COVID-19 vaccine SKYCovione and helped guided its development and approval. A

fter leaving the Gates Foundation, Dr. Stuart spent one year as the Vice President of Infectious Disease at the mRNA company BioNTech. Dr. Stuart received a BA from University of Cambridge, her medical degree from the University of London, and PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Between 2003 to 2013 she was faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and an affiliate of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Dr Renu Swarup

Former Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, India

Dr Renu Swarup, is the Former Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. Having served in Department of Biotechnology for over 30 years, she was also the Chairperson of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), She also held the Additional Charge of Secretary Department of Science &Technology for a short period.

A PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding, she did her Post Doctoral Research at The John Innes Centre, Norwich UK, Dr. Renu Swarup has been instrumental in the planning and implementation of some major National programmes. As a Science Manager issues related to policy planning and implementation were a part of her assignment. She was actively engaged in the formulation of National Biotechnology Vision and Strategy in 2001, 2007 and 2015and 2021. She was also a member of the Task Force on Women in Science constituted by the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister.

As the Secretary of Government of India, Department of Biotechnology, she led a Network of 16 Autonomous Research Institutes, 2 Public Sector Undertaking and a R&D Network of more than 5000 projects across more than 100 research institutes, Universities and Laboratories. In the recent

COVID Pandemic situation she led the COVID Vaccine, Diagnostic and Genome sequencing Mission. The Public Sector BIRAC, for which she was the founding Managing Director and then Chairperson, has supported more than 5000 Startups and over 60 Incubators.

A Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (NASI) India, A Life Member of Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) and a Member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD), she was awarded the “BioSpectrum Person of the

Year Award” in 2012. “National Entrepreneurship Awards 2017”, TiE Women Enabler Award 2018, “Dr. P. Sheel Memorial Award” 2018 by NASI and the TWAS Regional Office Prize on Science Diplomacy in 2018. She has been awarded the Agriculture Research Leadership Award 2019, Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel VASVIK Award for Women Scientific & Chemical science & Technology 2020-21, Life Time Achievement Award for Biotech Policy maker—2021 by Golden Jubilee Women Biotech Park. She was also recognised as Business world women 2019 & 2020. She is also a recipient of Y B Chavan National Award 2021 for Public service.

She is currently the Vice Chair of the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS) Copenhagen ,Denmark and also a Member of the National Start up Advisory Council, Govt of India

Dr Jean-Francois Toussaint

Head of Research and Development at Sanofi Vaccines, France

Professor Jean-Francois Toussaint is the Global Head of Research and Development at Sanofi Vaccines.

Jean-Francois has extensive experience in the field, having previously worked for 15 years as a vice president and head discovery unit at GlaxoSmithKline, as well as a director and project leader for various vaccine projects earlier in his career. Jean-Francois has an Executive MBA from HEC Paris as well as PhD & Bioengineering degrees from University of Gembloux, Belgium.

Dr Niteen S Wairagkar

Founder and CEO, Vaccines for All, Consultant for Africa CDC Partnership for Africa Vaccine Manufacturing, Consultant in Vaccine Development at CEPI, India

Dr. Niteen Wairagkar is an infectious disease physician-scientist and a global Health professional, currently in process of establishing his nonprofit organization “Vaccines for All” with a mission to ensure Vaccine as basic human right globally, establish innovative platforms to enhance vaccine access and facilitate the eradication of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Niteen started his career as primary health physician in India, continued to work with global research and philanthropy organizations (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO HQ/SEARO, US-CDC, Indian Council of Medical Research), on global health issues and viral diseases of public health importance. He is credited with accelerating R&D of first-ever maternal RSV vaccine, maternal influenza vaccines, pandemic H1N1 vaccine, Universal influenza vaccines, and Measles aerosol vaccine.