The Candidates
|
|
|
|
World Health Organization
Director-General Search
WHO Candidate Bios
28 January 2003 UPDATE - the Executive Board of the World Health Organization nominates Dr. Jong Wook Lee for Director-General
 |
UPDATE: 28 January 2003 Director-General Nominee
Jong-Wook Lee, MD, MPH (Republic of Korea) is the first director of the Global Partnership to Stop TB and a special representative of the director general of the World Health Organization. Since his appointment in 2000, Dr. Lee has launched the Global Drug Facility, an initiative to increase access to TB drugs. Lee's career with WHO has spanned nearly 20 years beginning at the county level as a leprosy consultant in Micronesia. In 1986, he moved to the Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, where he became the regional adviser on chronic diseases. From 1990-1994, he headed up polio eradication efforts in the Western Pacific, and then in 1994 was appointed director of the WHO Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunizations and executive secretary of the Children's Vaccine Initiative. In recognition of Lee's abilities and accomplishments, the director general, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, appointed him senior policy adviser in 1998, a position Lee held until being tapped to direct Stop TB. Lee received his MD from Seoul National University, College of Medicine and his MPH from the University of Hawaii, School of Public Health.
 Download Jong-Wook Lee's extended biography in PDF format
|
|
|
20 January 2003 UPDATE - the Executive Board of the World Health Organization narrowed the race for Director-General
|
 |
UPDATE: 20 January 2003 Director-General Finalist
Julio Frenk, MD, MPH, MA, PhD (Mexico) currently serves as Mexico's minister of health, a post he has held since 2000. From 1998-2000, he was executive director of evidence and information for policy, at WHO in Geneva. On a national level, he has been vice president of the Mexican Foundation for Health and president of the Mexican Society of Quality in Health Care. He also was founding director of both the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico and the Centre of Public Health Research in the Ministry of Health. Widely respected as a physician, scholar and researcher, Dr. Frenk Mora is the author of 28 books and monographs as well as numerous articles in academic and non-academic reviews and newspapers, and a member of the editorial boards of various national and foreign reviews.
 Link to Julio Frenk's extended biography
|
|
 |
UPDATE: 20 January 2003 Director-General Finalist
Pascoal Mocumbi, MD (Republic of Mozambique) has served as prime minister of the Republic of Mozambique since December, 1994. Prior to that, he headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1987-1994 and the Ministry of Health from 1980-1987. Dr. Mocumbi received his medical degree from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and has practiced medicine with a specialty in gynecology in hospitals throughout Mozambique. He was an active member of the World Health Organization's Task Force on Health and Development from 1989-1998, and since 1995, has been on the board of the International Women's Health Coalition. Mocumbi is committed to the importance of public health as an essential arm of sustainable development and has been a leader in the transformation of Mozambique's public healthcare system. He was a founding member of the Medical Association of Mozambique, the Public Health Association of Mozambique and Mozambique's Association of Defense of the Family, and he currently chairs the country's National AIDS Council. He is fluent in Portuguese, French and English and understands Spanish as well as several of Mozambique's native languages.
Link to Pascoal Mocumbi's Website
Link to Pascoal Mocumbi's extended biography
|
|
 |
UPDATE: 20 January 2003 Director-General Finalist
Peter Piot, MD, PhD (Belgium) has served as executive director of UNAIDS and under secretary-general of the United Nations since 1995. Under his leadership, world attention has become focused on the critical need for a global response to the AIDS pandemic. Born in Belgium, Dr. Piot earned his medical degree from the University of Ghent and his PhD in microbiology from the University of Antwerp. A major portion of his career has been spent as a professor and researcher at universities in Europe, Africa and the U.S., with emphasis on the epidemiology, virology and prevention of HIV infection, reproductive health of women and tuberculosis in the developing world. He is credited with the co-discovery of the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976. His work also led him to involve himself in AIDS policy development. He was a member of the National AIDS Committee in Belgium and served on various European committees on AIDS and public health. He co-founded in 1983 the first NGO in Belgium dedicated to AIDS. Piot was instrumental in the establishment of Project SIDA in Zaire, the first international project on AIDS in Africa. In 1992, he joined the World Health Organization as associate director of the Global Programme on AIDS. Fluent in three languages, Piot has authored 12 books and more than 500 scientific articles. He has received numerous awards for scientific achievement, including a knighthood from King Albert of Belgium in 1995.
Link to Peter Piot's Website
Link to Peter Piot's extended biography
|
|
|
|
UPDATE: 20 January 2003 Director-General Finalist
Ismail Sallam, MD (Egypt) served as Egypt's Minister of Health and Population from 1996 to 2002. During that time, he was responsible for reforms and strategies that transformed health care in Egypt. Dr. Sallam has been committed to the improvement of health equity and gender equality and launched the Healthy Egyptians 2010 Initiative, an agenda for health promotion, maintenance and disease prevention for the 21st century. Sallam was a professor of cardiac surgery prior to joining the Ministry. He has been active in the international health arena and, in 1999, was awarded the United Arab Emirates Health Foundation Prize for his contributions.
Link to Ismail Sallam's Website
|
|
|
20 January 2003 UPDATE - the following candidates were not selected as finalists in the race for Director-General
|
 |
Candidate Withdrew
Awa Marie Coll-Seck, MD (Senegal) heads the Ministry for Health and Prevention in Senegal. Dr. Coll-Seck obtained her medical degree from the University of Dakar in 1978, specializing in bacteriology and virology, with particular emphasis on infectious and tropical diseases. She has been recognized as an active proponent of AIDS education and prevention and has worked with Senegal's national committee against AIDS since its formation in 1986. In 1989, Coll-Seck founded an NGO focused on women's vulnerability to AIDS and served as its director until 1996. Subsequently, she joined the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, where she served until assuming the duties of minister in May 2002.
Link to Awa Marie Coll-Seck's extended biography
|
|
 |
 Read Dr. Karam's Interview in MS Word or PDF format: MS Word (25K) | PDF (10K)
Karam S. Karam, MD (Lebanon)
Karam S. Karam, MD, is Lebanon's current Minister of Tourism and Alternate Minister of Health. After serving as Health Minister for two years, he assumed his current position in 2000. Recognized as a leader in both the fields of tourism and health, he is a member of the Arab Council of Ministers of Tourism and the Executive Board of the World Tourism Organization and also sits on the Executive Board of the World Health Organization. Dr. Karam earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut with a specialization in Obstetrics and Gynecology. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Lahey Clinic Foundation, the University of California and Harvard Medical School, he joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD, in 1973. Upon his return to Lebanon, he chaired the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the American University of Beirut from 1987 until 1999. During his tenure as Minister of Health, he spearheaded efforts to reform Lebanon's health system and is credited with the establishment of a national system of hospital accreditation. He also worked to introduce universal health insurance coverage, opened several primary health care centers and created the National Organ Donation Committee and the National Eye Bank. In the international arena, Karam was a member of the WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA coordinating committee for the U.N. from 1999-2002, a committee chairman for the World Health Assembly in 2000, the chairman of WHO's Administration, Budget and Finance Committee in 2001, and represented the Executive Board in the 2002 World Health Assembly. He has authored numerous papers and articles in the field of obstetrics and gynecology and has been honored for his many contributions to health and education.
Link to Karam S. Karam's Website
Download Karam S. Karam's extended biography in PDF format
|
|
|
|
Joseph Williams, MD (Cook Islands)
Biography and Photo to follow
|
|
Go to the World Health Organization website
Read more about Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland
|
|
|
Share
