HAT PLATFORM - Key Persons

Alistair Swanson

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Head of Product Development, NTD Leishmaniasis - Mycetoma Cluster

Amelia Folkes

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Head of Global Executive Office
Head of Global Executive Office, DND I

Amelia Folkes joined DND i in September 2016 and Heads the Global Executive Office. Amelia has over 12 years experience in the International Organization and Non-Governmental Organizations sector, including in the Executive office of MSF International supporting the Secretary General and the International President, at the MSF Access Campaign as the Coordination and Legal Officer, and at UNHCR supporting the High Commissioner's Representative in the United Kingdom. Previously, Amelia practiced as a lawyer with top international law firm Allen & Overy LLP, specializing in commercial law in London and Prague, with a focus on derivatives and structured finance law. Amelia earned her LLB law degree from The University of Manchester, England, and her postgraduate professional legal qualification with distinction from BPP University Law School in London, England.

Amit Malik

Job Titles:

Chartered Accountant
Member of the Executive Committee
Head of Operations of the Regional Office in India
Head of Operations, DND I in India

Amit Malik joined DND i in January 2019 as Head of Operations of the Regional Office in India. Before joining DND i, Amit was in finance leadership role with BBC Media Action, a UK international charity, specializing in development communication, based in Delhi, India. He has worked with different Country teams/offices in his past roles and has been instrumental in leading key strategic and financial insights to the business. Amit is a Chartered Accountant and PGDBM in Finance by qualification, with 18 years of experience in social and commercial sectors.

Balram Bhargava

Job Titles:

Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research
Professor
Secretary, Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research

Professor Balram Bhargava is the Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Secretary of India's Department of Health Research since April 2018. Prof. Bhargava is Professor of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and serves as the Executive Director for the Stanford India Biodesign Centre, School of International Biodesign (SiB). Established by Prof. Bhargava, the India-Stanford Biodesign programme is an interdisciplinary fellowship programme that fosters innovation in low-cost medical devices. This programme has led to the establishment of the School of International Biodesign at AIIMS and the development of low cost medical devices leading to several startups. Some of these low cost devices are in the Indian market or have been approved by the USFDA. He has pioneered the development of indigenous low-cost coronary stents that have beneffited several thousand patients. The philosophy of the programme has been "More for less for more" with a mandate to promote Global Affordable Need Driven Healthcare Innovation (GANDHI). Prof. Bhargava set up the c-GMP Centre for Excellence for Stem Cell Studies, at AIIMS which has initiated the treatment of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and benefited number of no-option heart failure patients waiting on the cardiac transplant list. Prof. Bhargava is part of the team that works on the Chest Compression Device for Sudden Cardiac Death patients funded by Wellcome (London) and provides leadership for creative disease prevention, early detection, and transport system for sick cardiac patients. The programme mission DELHI (Delhi Emergency Life Heart-attack Initiative) is being used for early diagnosis and treatment of heart attack patients by first respondent paramedics. He co-authored various publications on the harmful cardiovascular effects of chewing tobacco and continuous blood pressure. He has led major trials in India funded by the NIH (USA) which impacted clinical practices. Prof. Bhargava also founded the Society for Less Investigative Medicine (SLIM) and is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the British Medical Journal Innovations (BMJi). In 2014, Professor Bhargava was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government for his contributions to medicine. He is also the recipient of the SN Bose Centenary Award, the National Academy of Sciences Platinum Jubilee Award, the Tata Innovation Fellowship and Vasvik Award for Biomedical Technology Innovation, the Ranbaxy Award, and the OP Bhasin Award in the field of Health and Medical Sciences.

Bernhards Ogutu

Job Titles:

Chief Research Officer, KEMRI

Carmen Pérez Casas

Job Titles:

Senior Technical Manager, Strategy, Unitaid

Carmen Pérez Casas (Pharmacist, MsC Virology LSHTM, FRCP Edin) is Senior Technical Manager, Strategy, at Unitaid. In her position, she identifies and supports interventions to surmount access barriers to best options for treatment, diagnosis or prevention of major diseases affecting low and middle-income countries. A focus of her work is currently on COVID-19 therapeutics, in addition to HIV/coinfections and comorbidities, as well as new technologies across infectious diseases such as long-acting tools and innovative delivery forms for pediatric treatments.

Carol Ruffell

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Head, Joint Office for Southern Africa for DND I and GARDP
Specialist

Carol Ruffell is an experienced specialist in the global public health sector, having worked primarily within the HIV/AIDS and TB arena. She is an experienced executive with knowledge of the global public health system and good insight of the Southern African health sector. She has more than 20 years of experience in the corporate pharmaceutical industry (J&J, GSK, Adcock Ingram) and in community pharmacy. She holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Rhodes University, a Master's in Public Health from the University of Liverpool, and a certificate in Business Project Management.

Caroline Menétrey

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Clinical Project Leader
Clinical Project Leader, DND I

Caroline Menétrey joined DND i in January 2018 as a Senior Clinical Manager in the Hepatitis C team and took over the Clinical Project Leader role in the same team in October 2019. Caroline has more than 10 years of Clinical Project Management experience. She has been managing and coordinating multi-center international clinical projects and project teams in phases II/III/IV at Merck Serono as well as observational studies across Europe, Africa, North and Latin America, and Asia Pacific while working at Quintiles. During that time, she developed experience as a project leader and people manager. She has delivered projects across many disease areas, mainly neurology and infectious diseases. Caroline holds a Pharmacy degree from the University of Lausanne.

Charles Mowbray

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Discovery Director

Chris Bird

Job Titles:

General Counsel and Company Secretary at Wellcome

Chris Bird is General Counsel and Company Secretary at Wellcome, a UK-based charitable foundation, where he is responsible for all legal, governance, and regulatory compliance issues. Before joining Wellcome, Chris was an Attorney with Osborne Clarke LLP, working in London, Brussels, and Bristol.

Collins W. Munene

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Regional Operations Leader, Eastern Africa

Craig Tipple

Job Titles:

Medical Director
Member of the Executive Committee

Dale Kempf

Job Titles:

Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of Neglected Diseases Research, AbbVie

Delphine Launay

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Pharmaceutical Development Leader

Denise Guimaraes

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Head of Regional Operations, Latin America

Dominique Junod-Moser

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Director of Legal Affairs

Dorothy Mbori-Ngacha

Job Titles:

Senior HIV Specialist on EMTCT and Paediatric HIV, UNICEF

Dr Alwyn Mwinga - CEO

Job Titles:

Chief Executive Officer
CEO ZAMBART Project, Zambia DNDi Board Patient Representative
DND I Board Patient Representative / CEO ZAMBART Project, Zambia DNDi Board Patient Representative

Dr Alwyn Gladwyn Zebron Mwinga is Chief Executive Officer of the Zambia AIDS Related Tuberculosis Project (Zambart). Before joining Zambart, she worked in different capacities at CDC Zambia. She was an Expert Consultant on TB/HIV Research Priorities for the WHO in addition to serving as a member of multiple national and international boards relating to TB. She has been an Associate Editor of The Lancet Infectious Diseases and the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Zambia. In 2007, Dr Mwinga was awarded the Global Health Achievement by the Office of Global Health CDC as well as the PEPFAR Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 in recognition of her contribution to HIV and TB. She studied Tropical Medicine (M.Sc.) at the University of London, and she has a M.Med and MB ChB from the University of Zambia. In 2013 she completed her PG Diploma in Bioethics at the University of Stellenbosch.

Dr Andre Daher

Job Titles:

Head of Clinical Research, Farmanguinhos / FIOCRUZ
Head of Clinical Research, Farmanguinhos / FIOCRUZ, Brazil
Head of the Clinical Research Division of Farmanguinhos / FIOCRUZ

Andre Daher is head of the clinical research division of Farmanguinhos/FIOCRUZ, a Federal governmental pharmaceutical industry in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is a physician specialized in Infectious Diseases by the Fluminense Federal University and in Clinical Research by the Oswaldo Cruz German Hospital/Brazilian Ministry of Health. Over the course of his career, he has gained expertise on technological development in pharmaceuticals, including ongoing projects in HIV pediatrics, new malaria vivax approaches, and leishmaniasis. He served as consultant for international networks, and he is currently a consultant for clinical trials in Malaria for PAHO. Currently, he co-coordinates two collaborative initiatives for clinical research at FIOCRUZ: The Clinical Research Platform for Technological Development in Public Health, and the FIOCRUZ Clinical Research Network, involving more than 60 clinical research groups.

Dr Antoine Tarral

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Head of HAT Disease
Head of HAT Disease, DND I
Head of the Human African Trypanosomiasis

Dr Antoine Tarral joined DND i as Head of the human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) clinical programme in November 2010. Dr Tarral, who most recently served as Head of Clinical pharmacology at NOVEXEL SA, in charge of development of new antibiotics (phase 1 and phase 2), has around 15 years of Clinical pharmacology experience in pharma industry, as well as in CROs. From 1991 until 2006, Dr Tarral held various positions at Sandoz (now Novartis) and Biotrial as investigator in healthy volunteers studies and Chief Medical Officer of phase 1 units. Dr Tarral completed post-doctoral pharmacology at La Pitié Salpetrière hospital, Paris, in neuro-psycho-pharmacology after earning his M.D. degree at the university of Nancy.

Dr Bernard Pécoul - Founder

Job Titles:

Founder
Member of the Executive Committee
Founder of DND I, Receives Prince Mahidol Award and Strengthens Partnerships in Thailand
Founder, DND I
Member of the Joint Coordination Board of the Special Programme for Tropical Disease Research

Dr Bernard Pécoul led the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DND i) from its foundation in 2003 until 2022. Under his guidance, DND i - a not-for-profit research and development organization - with hundreds of public and private partners, has delivered twelve new treatments for six deadly diseases. It has developed a robust portfolio of projects spanning from discovery to implementation for sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, filaria, mycetoma, HIV, hepatitis C, and COVID-19. After stepping down from his position of Executive Director of the organization in September 2022, Dr Pécoul remains one of the major stakeholders of DND i and lifelong advocate for better access to medicines. Prior to DND i, Dr Pécoul was Director of the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines from 1998 to 2003, a position he took on after that of Executive Director of MSF-France. While working with MSF, Dr Pécoul carried out field missions in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. In 1988, he co-founded Epicentre, an MSF-affiliated NGO specialized in epidemiology. After obtaining his medical degree at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, France, Dr Pécoul earned a master's degree in public health at Tulane University, USA. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by the University of Dundee, UK. In 2020, Dr Pécoul was awarded the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of public health by the Prince Mahidol Award Foundation, Thailand. Dr Pécoul is member of the Joint Coordination Board of the Special Programme for Tropical Disease Research (WHO/TDR) and a former board member of UNITAID's Medicines Patent Pool. Dr Bernard Pécoul, Founder of DND i, receives Prince Mahidol Award and strengthens partnerships in Thailand

Dr Byron Arana

Job Titles:

Member of the Executive Committee
Head of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Disease
Head of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Disease, DND I

Dr Byron Arana joined DND i in November 2012. He has over twenty years' experience working on clinical trials and epidemiological studies, mainly in cutaneous leishmaniasis, onchocerciasis, diarrheal, and respiratory diseases. Since 2008, Dr Arana has been managing the clinical trials on visceral leishmaniasis that TDR-WHO is being supporting in the Indian Subcontinent and participating in the development and implementation of strategies in support of the Indian subcontinent's visceral leishamaniasis elimination programme. From 2000 to 2008, Dr Arana served as Co-Director of the Center for Health Studies, at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala and managing the first cooperative agreement between the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and the Centers for Diseases Control, Atlanta, to support the conduction of multidisciplinary field and laboratory research on tropical disease in the Central America region. He received his medical training at the Universidad San Carlos of Guatemala (1983) and his doctoral degree on Tropical Medicine from the University of Liverpool, UK (1998).

Dr Carolina Batista

Job Titles:

Head of Global Health Affairs, Baraka Impact Finance

Carolina Batista, MD is the Head of Global Health Affairs at Baraka Impact Finance. She holds expertise in global health, access, R&D, infectious and neglected diseases and international development. During the span of her career, she has been able to design frameworks and guidelines that have ultimately impacted public policies in countries and vulnerable communities around the globe. Clinically trained in Brazil, Carolina started her career working in her country, including with indigenous communities in the Amazon. In 2007, she joined Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), working in a project in Somalia and has remained connected with the humanitarian organization ever since. In 2011 she became the director of the Brazilian Medical Unit (BRAMU) of MSF in Brazil. Her primary focus in this role was to support field operations treating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and emerging infectious diseases. She was also involved in multiple assignments with the organization in Africa and Latin America and conducted evaluations of various programs and activities focused on NTDs. As the Head of the BRAMU, she also coordinated MSF's international campaign for Chagas disease. After three successful years with MSF-Brazil, Carolina joined the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DND i) Latin America as the Head of Access and Medical Affairs. Under her leadership, DND i developed and implemented successful access frameworks to diagnosis and treatment for NTDs throughout Latin America, with special focus on Chagas disease. Such access frameworks are currently used by a range of stakeholders, including local governments and clinical and academic centres of excellence. At DND i Carolina was also able to foster partnerships in the region and played a key role in the creation of the Brazilian Forum of Patients with Neglected Diseases. Carolina is currently an elected International Board Member for MSF and she also serves as a Latin America Strategic Advisor for ISGlobal. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carolina has worked closely to support grass roots groups in various countries, led the MSF medical response to COVID-19 in the Navajo Nation, in the United States. Carolina has authored several peer reviewed articles on global health, access to health tools, policy and humanitarian medicine. She is currently a member of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission and a board member of The Lancet Migration, Latin American hub. Carolina holds a combined master's degree in International Public Health, from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp and The Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam.

Dr Christos Christou

Job Titles:

International President, Médecins Sans Frontières

Dr Christos Christou joined the DND i Board in September 2019 after being elected International President of MSF in June 2019. Prior to that, he acted as first General Secretary, Vice-President, and President of MSF Greece Board of Directors. 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 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. In 2018, he became Consultant of Colorectal and Emergency Surgery at North Middlesex University Hospital. The same year, he was awarded Fellow of the European Board of Surgery in Coloproctology. Dr Christou joined MSF in 2002 and has held a number of roles in the field. His first assignment was in Greece as a field doctor, working with migrants and refugees. He then worked as a doctor in an HIV/AIDS project in Zambia in 2004 and 2005. After a break from field missions for a number of years while he trained as a surgeon, from 2013 he joined MSF missions in a number of conflict zones and insecure contexts, including South Sudan, Iraq and, most recently, Cameroon, as an Emergency and Trauma surgeon.