Vice Chairs
Suprotik Basu
Vice-Chair, Malaria
Chief Executive Officer, UN Special Envoy's Office and MDG Health Alliance
Alan Batkin
Vice-Chair, Child Health
Kathy Calvin
Vice-Chair, Reproductive Health
Suprotik Basu is Chief Executive Officer of the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for Malaria. He concurrently serves as CEO of the MDG Health Alliance, an initiative of the Office of the Special Envoy focused on bringing business leaders and business approaches into the efforts to achieve the Health MDGs.Mr Basu leads strategy development for the Special Envoy, to secure sustained financing for and the achievement of the Health MDGs by the internationally agreed deadline of December 31, 2015.From 2007 to 2011, he co-chaired the resource mobilization activities for the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership through its Harmonization Working Group, which has assisted in the mobilization of over US$3.5 billion in additional resources for malaria control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.Prior to his appointment as CEO in June 2013, Mr Basu was Managing Director of the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria. He previously served as Public Health Specialist at the World Bank (2002-2007), where he provided implementation support for over US$700 million in grants and interest-free loans across 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India. Mr Basu holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, and lives in New York City.
Since March, 2007, Alan R. Batkin has been Vice Chairman of Eton Park Capital Management, L.P., a global, multi-disciplinary investment firm. Prior to joining Eton Park, he was, from 1990 to 2007, Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc., a geopolitical consulting company which advises multi-national companies on business and political issues around the world. He was an investment banker at Lehman Brothers from 1972-1990.
Mr. Batkin is a director of four New York Stock Exchange-listed companies.
Mr. Batkin is Chairman Emeritus of the International Rescue Committee (after having served as Co-Chairman of the Board from 2004-2010). He is a Trustee of The Brookings Institution, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Center for Global Health at Massachusetts General Hospital and a member of the Board of Overseers of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Millennium Promise and a Trustee of the New York City Police Foundation. He is a member of The Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Inter-American Dialogue.
Kathy Calvin is the Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Foundation. The UN Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner's historic $1 billion gift to support UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation advocates for the UN and connects people, ideas, and resources to help the United Nations solve global problems. As a public charity with many other partners, the UN Foundation's work is focused on decreasing child mortality, empowering women and girls, creating a clean energy future, using mobile technology for development, and improving U.S.-UN relations.
Prior to joining the UN Foundation in 2003, Kathy served as President of the AOL Time Warner Foundation, guided AOL Time Warner's other philanthropic activities and was the chief architect of the company's corporate responsibility initiatives. She joined America Online in 1997 as Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer.
Immediately prior to joining AOL, she was a Senior Managing Director at Hill and Knowlton, a global public relations company, where she led the U.S. Media Relations practice. For 12 years before that, she was the Director of Editorial Administration for U.S. News & World Report. From 1976 through 1984, Kathy served as Senator Gary Hart's press secretary in his Senate office and 1984 Presidential campaign.
Throughout her career, Kathy Calvin has taken an active role in a range of philanthropic activities, including the boards of the International Women's Media Foundation, City Year, Internews, Newseum, Share Our Strength, the United Nations Association of the United States of America, and the East-West Center.
Kathy is a graduate of Purdue University and the recipient of numerous awards for leadership and philanthropy.
Gary Cohen
Vice-Chair, Tuberculosis
Sharon D'Agostino
Vice-Chair
Renuka Gadde
Vice-Chair, Tuberculosis
Gary Cohen is executive vice president of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a global medical technology company with over $7 billion revenues and 29,000 employees in 50 countries. He serves as board chair of the CDC Foundation and a board director of the Perrigo Company, the US Fund for UNICEF, GBCHealth and the Accordia Global Health Foundation. He also serves as a Commissioner for the UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities for Women and Children, chair of the CDC/Corporate Roundtable on Global Health Threats and an advisor to the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health and the Clinton Global Initiative.
Gary and the BD team are extensively engaged in collaborations across the public, private and NGO sectors to address health needs in developing and emerging countries. He has served as an advocate, speaker and expert panelist on global health, child immunization, HIV/AIDS and health system strengthening,
in venues including the United Nations, World Bank, World Economic Forum (Davos), US Department of State and Council on Foreign Relations. Gary founded Together for Girls, a new partnership to address the human rights and public health impacts of sexual violence against girls, comprised of UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UN Women, the World Health Organization, the CDC, the US Department of State - Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator (PEPFAR) and Office of Global Women’s Issues (GWI), the Nduna Foundation, BD and other partners.
He has been honored for his humanitarian work by MESAB (Medical Education for South African Blacks), B’nai B’rith International, the US Fund for UNICEF, the Nyumbani Home for HIV positive children and the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation. He earned a BA from Rutgers College and a MBA from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management, and previously served on the university’s Board of Trustees.
Sharon Kathryn D’Agostino was appointed Vice President, Corporate Citizenship at Johnson & Johnson in April 2012. She works with senior leadership to drive the company’s Citizenship and Sustainability strategy and implementation of a broad range of corporate responsibility initiatives. As a global health advocate, Sharon is a prolific blogger about issues that impact the survival, health, safety and empowerment of girls, women and children everywhere, and is passionate about ensuring that their voices are heard.
Since 2006, Sharon has led the Johnson & Johnson Worldwide Corporate Contributions Group, guiding the company’s strategic giving priorities. With a mission of making life-changing, long-term differences in human health, the group builds community-based partnerships around the world. Key initiatives of the Corporate Contributions Group focus on three areas: saving and improving the lives of women and children, preventing disease in vulnerable populations,
and strengthening the healthcare workforce. As a result of Sharon’s leadership, Johnson & Johnson was among the first private sector companies to make a commitment to the United Nations Secretary General’s Every Woman Every Child campaign in September, 2010.
Sharon serves as one of two private sector representatives on the Board of The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH). She strongly believes that improved maternal and child health is the cornerstone of healthier communities and a better world.
She can be found on Twitter: @SharonDAgostino. Additional information about Sharon can be found at: www.linkedin.com/in/SharonKathrynDAgostino
Renuka Gadde is Vice President, Global Health, at BD. She provides overall leadership for BD’s Global Health activities in emerging and developing countries. Among her key areas of responsibility is extensive external engagement with ministries of health, international agencies and non-government organizations, and significant internal engagement across BD’s units, geographies and functions in support of the Company’s strategies, products and programs that advance global health needs and efforts. Ms. Gadde is the lead for several public-private partnerships, many of them with PEPFAR and engages with global and local international organizations to advance global health needs and strengthen health systems.
Ms. Gadde joined BD in 1997 and relocated to the US in 2002 in the position of Director, Strategic Planning and Development for BD Medical. In 2004, she became the
global leader for Immunization and Injection Safety,responsible for our auto-disable and reuse prevention product lines, and also serving as BD’s Key Account Manager with UNICEF. In 2008, Renuka moved to Preanalytical Systems as Senior Director, Global Health. In this role, she was responsible for safe blood drawing initiatives and product development for developing and emerging markets.
Ms. Gadde represents BD in several external speaking engagements and serves on the external advisory Council for the University of Michigan’s center for Global Health. She is also the board alternate for the private sector delegation of the Global Fund and a board member of African Science for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM).
Dr. Eric Goosby
Vice-Chair, Tuberculosis
UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis
Leith Greenslade
Vice-Chair, Child Health
Austin Hearst
Vice-Chair, Community Health Workers
Dr. Eric Goosby is the UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis (TB). In his capacity as Special Envoy, Dr. Goosby works toward raising the profile of the fight against TB. His mandate is to promote the adoption, financing and implementation of the World Health Organization’s global End TB Strategy after 2015, including its ambitious international targets for TB prevention, care and control, while pursuing the TB targets described in the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Goosby also serves as Professor of Medicine and Director of Global Health Delivery and Diplomacy, Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.
Previously, Dr. Goosby served four years in the U.S. State Department as Ambassador-at-Large and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, overseeing the implementation
of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). While at the State Department, he also led the Office of Global Health Diplomacy, advancing the United States’ global health mission to improve and save lives and foster sustainability through a shared global responsibility. As CEO and Chief Medical Officer of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, 2001-2009, he played a key role in the development and implementation of HIV/AIDS national treatment scale-up plans in South Africa, Rwanda, China and Ukraine. During the Clinton Administration, Ambassador Goosby was Director of the Ryan White Care Act at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and later, served as Deputy Director of the White House National AIDS Policy Office and Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy at HHS.
Ms Greenslade is an investor in several non-profit organizations, including Tostan, Women for Afghan Women, the Somaly Mom Foundation, Panzi Hospital and the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, where she co-chairs Isha Koach, a giving circle that invests in women social entrepreneurs who serve the world’s most vulnerable women and children including Global Goods Partners, Goods for Good, Innovation: Africa, Project Muso and WE CARE Solar. Ms Greenslade served as Policy Advisor and Speechwriter to the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Health, and subsequently as Economic Adviser to the Leader of the Opposition and as Chief of Staff to the Shadow Minister for Social Security and the Status of Women.
She holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, a Masters in Business Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a First Class Honors Degree from the University of Queensland. She is the recipient of a Harvard Kennedy Fellowship, Hong Kong Financial Women’s Association Scholarship and University Medal. Ms. Greenslade lives in New York City with her three daughters and is a passionate advocate for the empowerment of women and children.
› View all posts by Leith Greenslade
Austin Hearst is a media executive, film producer and philanthropist. He plays a leadership role in the still family-owned Hearst Corporation, one of the nation’s largest diversified media companies where he has been a member of the board of directors since 1990. Austin is also vice president of special projects for Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, the operating group responsible for the Hearst Entertainment interests in cable television networks, including ESPN, Lifetime, A&E and HISTORY; television production and distribution; newspaper syndication; merchandise licensing; and ventures investments. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Chestnut Holdings LLC, a private equity and agricultural development company.
Austin is actively involved in a wide range of civic, philanthropic and global humanitarian causes, including early childhood development projects with Save the Children and the government of Bhutan, and community agricultural projects in South Sudan.
He is on the board of directors of Save the Children USA, an organization he has been closely involved with for more than 20 years. Austin also serves on the board of advisors of the Blue School, and Karuna Shecken, a non-profit humanitarian organization focused on providing education, healthcare and social services in the greater Himalayan region.
With a strong determination to make a difference Austin has leadership roles in many nonprofit organizations, that includes serving on the board of councilors of the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications, the board of Pacific Crest Outward Bound, the executive committee of National Outward Bound and the advisory council for the United States Committee for Refugees. Austin is a vice-chair of the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Health MDG Financing and Malaria and helps lead the team focused on Community Health Workers.
Dr. Charles MacCormack
Vice-Chair
Jennifer McCrea
Vice-Chair, PMTCT
CEO, Born Free Africa
John Megrue
Vice-Chair, PMTCT
Chairman, Born Free Africa
Dr. MacCormack is the former President and CEO of Save the Children US, an independent nonprofit organization with programs in the United States and more than 50 countries. He also serves on the board of directors of the International Save the Children Alliance, which implements programs totaling $1 billion for children in 120 countries, and is former chair of the board of InterAction. He co-chairs both the Basic Education Coalition and the Campaign for Effective Global Leadership, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was selected to participate on the Founding Committee of the United Nations University, and served as a member of the United States Delegation to the 1997 World Food Summit and the 2002 General Assembly Special Session on Children.
Prior to his current position, Dr. MacCormack was President of World Learning (formerly the Experiment in International Living) from 1977 to 1992, and was Assistant to the Dean of the International Fellows Program at Columbia University. Dr. MacCormack received his doctorate and master’s degree from Columbia University and his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College. He was a National Science Foundation Fellow at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City and a Fulbright Fellow at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas.
› View all posts by Dr. Charles MacCormack
For the past 25 years, Jennifer McCrea has worked with a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, including Millennium Promise, Acumen Fund, Donorschoose.org, Grameen America, Teach for America, Witness, Comic Relief, X Prize Foundation, VH1 Save the Music Foundation, Rhode Island School of Design, Robin Hood Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, Creative Commons, Pencils of Promise, New Profit and many others. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University and founder of Exponential Fundraising. She is also a Henry Crown Fellowat the Aspen Institute,serves as an
advisory board member of the MIT Media Lab and the Blue School, and is a co-founder and board member of the Quincy Jones MusiQ Consortium. She is also a co‐founder and CEO of the Business Leadership Council for a Generation Born HIV Free, an initiative of the MDG Health Alliance that brings private sector resources and acumen to the goal of eradicating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. In September 2013, Jennifer’s book, The Generosity Network, written with philanthropist Jeff C. Walker, was published by Crown Publishing at Random House.
John Megrue, Jr. is the Chief Executive Officer of Apax Partners, U.S., an independent global private equity advisory firm managing over $37 billion in private equity funds. He is a member of the Global Executive Committee, Investment and Approval Committees, and the Global Co-Head of Retail and Consumer Group. John originally joined Apax in 1988, and rejoined in 2005 from Saunders, Karp & Megrue.
An active champion for extreme poverty eradication and the development of global health systems, with a particular focus on issues impacting women and girls, John currently leads the Business Leadership Council for a Generation Born HIV Free (BLC), an initiative of the MDG Health Alliance that brings private sector resources and acumen to the goal of eradicating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015.
He is a Director on the Board of Millennium Promise, an organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty through integrated, community-led development and a Board member of Grameen America, a microfinance nonprofit that provides loans, savings programs, credit establishment and other financial services to entrepreneurs living below the poverty line in the United States.
John graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Angela Mwanza
Vice-Chair, Reproductive Health
Brad Palmer
Vice-Chair, Community Health Workers
Dr. Naveen Rao
Vice-Chair, Maternal Health
Angela Mwanza received her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Konstanz, Germany and an M.B.A. from Johnson, Cornell University.
Angela serves on the Advisory Boards of Johnson, Cornell University Business School and Entrepreneurship@Cornell. She also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Doris Duke Foundation and for Grassroot Soccer. The latter is a charitable organization that works with youths and is dedicated to the fight against HIV/ AIDS primarily in Africa. Most recently, she joined the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs' Council as a Founding Member.
Further activities include her memberships with the Social Investment Forum and the Economic Club of New York.
Angela hails from Lusaka, Zambia, attended high school at a boarding school in Zimbabwe and currently lives with her husband Todd and their three cats in Brooklyn, New York. They are avid travelers having visited many countries across the globe. Most recently their travels took them to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Angela has also run 4 marathons, the last 3 in New York and used this as an opportunity to raise money for charity.
Bradley C. Palmer is Managing Partner of Palm Ventures, an entrepreneurial investment company he founded in 1991 located in Greenwich, CT and London. Palm Ventures’ primary investment focus is on companies which have a positive and transformative impact on society and generate predictable revenue streams. Historically, Palm Ventures’ investments have been in education, health care, human capital management and renewable energy. We principally invest our own family capital, and thus we can take a long-term patient approach to building high quality businesses and educational institutions in partnership with management.
Prior to founding Palm Ventures, Mr. Palmer was a Senior Associate with James D. Wolfensohn, Incorporated where he worked with Paul Volcker and Jim Wolfensohn through late 1990. Prior to working at Wolfensohn, he worked from 1985 through 1988 in the Acquisition Finance Group at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, a New York money center bank sold to Chemical Bank in 1991.
While completing his undergraduate degree, he started a small multiple-location business he operated for 3 years and sold successfully. He received a B.A. in Finance from Indiana University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from Deerfield Academy.
Mr. Palmer currently serves on several non-profit boards including Save the Children, Computers for Youth and Education Development Center, a $150 million per year educational research and practice-based non-profit with more than 300 educational projects in the U.S. and overseas. In 1980, he interrupted his undergraduate studies for more than a year to work for the International Rescue Committee in Cambodian refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border where he recruited and managed 30 American volunteers. In 1981, he also organized 15 volunteers to work in Save the Children’s programs in Somalia. Through his non-profit work, Mr. Palmer has traveled extensively in more than 30 developing countries.
Dr. Rao is a trained medical professional from India. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency Training and Chief Residency at the New York Infirmary Beekman Downtown Hospital, NY. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He was Associate Director Department of Medicine at Beekman Downtown Hospital and practiced Internal Medicine in New York City for 10 years prior to joining Merck in 1993.
Dr. Rao spent the first twelve years of his tenure at Merck & Co., Inc. in New Jersey working within the Research Laboratories and Human Health Divisions where he held several positions of increasing responsibility. In 2005, Dr. Rao went to India as the Medical Director of the newly formed MSD Pharmaceuticals Ltd, local affiliate of Merck. His responsibilities included establishing clinical research, medical affairs, and regulatory centers of excellence within the Medical Department.
In 2007, Dr. Rao was promoted to the position of Managing Director for MSD Pharmaceuticals Ltd., India. He held that position for 3 years during which the subsidiary grew significantly. During his tenure as Managing Director, MSD India won many peer recognized awards including the Frost & Sullivan Best Emerging Pharmaceutical Company Award for 2009.
From 2010 to 2011 Dr. Rao held the position of Head Medical Affairs for Asia Pacific based out of India.
In May, 2011 Dr. Rao was tasked with leading the company's Merck for Mothers maternal mortality initiative and is now based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.
Ercument Tokat
Vice-Chair, Child Health
Jeff Walker
Vice-Chair, Community
Health Workers
Ercument Tokat is a Partner at Centerview Partners and one of the founding members of the firm’s Healthcare practice. With offices in London, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Centerview Partners is a leading independent investment banking and advisory firm. The firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, financial restructurings, valuation, and capital structure to companies, institutions and governments. Centerview’s clients include over 20% of the Fortune 50. Prior to joining Centerview, Mr. Tokat was with Merrill Lynch’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group.
Over more than a decade in finance, Mr. Tokat has gained extensive M&A execution experience across developed and emerging markets. His experience covers a broad range of strategic advisory assignments, sell-side assignments, buy-side representations, hostile defense assignments, leveraged buyouts, special committee
advisory assignments, MOEs and fairness opinions. Mr. Tokat’s notable transactions include advising: Pfizer in its $12 billion sale of its Pediatric Nutrition Business to Nestlé and its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth, the $33 billion LBO of HCA, AstraZeneca's $15 billion acquisition of MedImmune, Ventas’ $7bn acquisition of NHP, OSI’s $4bn sale to Astellas, Celgene in its $3 billion acquisition of Pharmion, New River Pharmaceutical's $3 billion sale to Shire Pharmaceuticals, ICOS's $3 billion sale to Eli Lilly, LifeCell's $2 billion sale to Kinetic Concepts, Reliant Pharmaceutical's $2 billion sale to GSK, Cougar Biotechnology's $1 billion sale to J&J.
Mr. Tokat holds a B.A. from Bogazici University and an MIA from Columbia University.
Active board member, consultant and advisor to non-profit institutions and social enterprises, Jeff Walker currently serves on the Boards of New Profit, Berklee College of Music, Morgan Library, Lincoln Center Film Society, Millennium Development Goals Health Alliance, the Miller Center and University of Virginia’s Undergraduate Business School, where he was President for ten years. He is also a Co-founder and Co-chairman of Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium, Chairman of the Council of Foundations at University of Virginia, serves on the Visiting Committee at the Harvard Business School and is on the Advisory Boards of the MIT Media Lab, the Blue School, the Tibetan Village Project and Ideo.org. He is also President of 15 Central Park West.
Previously, Jeff was Executive-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, focusing on Social Enterprises and Collaboration and a lecturer at the Kennedy School. At Harvard, he also helped to develop and launch “A Course
in Exponential Fundraising” for nonprofit leaders at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. He served as the Chairman of Millennium Promise, an incubator to eliminate extreme poverty with the United Nations and Columbia University and was the long-time Chairman of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello), where he still serves as an emeritus trustee. He also Co-founded and was Chairman of Npower, an organization that provides shared technology services to nonprofits.
Jeff was Chairman and CEO of CCMP Capital, the $12 billion successor to JPMorgan Partners, JPMorgan Chase & Co’s global private equity and Chairman of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation. A Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant, Jeff graduated with a B.S. from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
› View all posts by Jeff Walker
Team
David Alport
Senior Communications Advisor
Suprotik Basu
Chief Executive Officer
Taylor Buonocore
Vice President, PMTCT
David leads communications efforts for the UN Special Envoy's Office and for the MDG Health Alliance. In this role he oversees the Special Envoy's media relations, public presentation and partner communications alignment, along with managing the office's website, email and social media platforms. Prior to joining the Special Envoy’s Office, David led communications and global events for GBCHealth, an alliance of global businesses bringing their assets to making a healthier world.
Before joining GBCHealth, David spent 15 years as an entrepreneur, running a travel publishing company called Out & About. Prior to his entrepreneurial years, David cut his teeth in consumer marketing at American Express, focused on strategic partnerships within the travel sector.
David is a graduate of Brown University, with a BA in Psychology. He loves to travel, has visited 51 countries, and looks forward to seeing new parts of the world as he helps shape our global health story going forward. David served on the Board of the Housing Works Thrift Shops in New York City from 2009-2013.
› View all posts by David Alport
Suprotik Basu is Chief Executive Officer of the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for Malaria. He concurrently serves as CEO of the MDG Health Alliance, an initiative of the Office of the Special Envoy focused on bringing business leaders and business approaches into the efforts to achieve the Health MDGs.
Mr Basu leads strategy development for the Special Envoy, to secure sustained financing for and the achievement of the Health MDGs by the internationally agreed deadline of December 31, 2015.
From 2007 to 2011, he co-chaired the resource mobilization activities for the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership through its Harmonization Working Group, which has assisted in the mobilization of over US$3.5 billion in additional resources for malaria control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Prior to his appointment as CEO in June 2013, Mr Basu was Managing Director of the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria. He previously served as Public Health Specialist at the World Bank (2002-2007), where he provided implementation support for over US$700 million in grants and interest-free loans across 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India.
Mr Basu holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, and lives in New York City.
› View all posts by Suprotik Basu
Taylor focuses on achieving a generation born HIV-free by the end of 2015 as part of The Business Leadership Council for a Generational Born HIV Free (BLC) and the MDG Health Alliance.
Prior to joining the BLC, Taylor was part of Mercer's Human Capital Consulting Group and an independent consultant to for-profit companies and social enterprises in the US, Africa, and Asia. Most recently, she advised Rio Tinto’s capability development efforts in Mongolia. Her work also includes the design and management of inspirational leadership and executive development programs, as well as the mentorship of several teams of HR professionals in developing countries.
Taylor is a StartingBloc Fellow and Advisory Board Member. She holds a BA in History & Psychology from Colgate University and is an active alumna, serving Colgate in several capacities.
Maddie Cleland
Associate Director, Programs
Alan Court
Senior Vice President, Financing
Senior Advisor to Special Envoy
John Fedor
Office Director
Maddie is the Associate Director of Programs for the Office of the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for Malaria, and supports the office's work on nutrition and reproductive health strategies to achieve MDGs 4 and 5 in 2015. Maddie spent the summer of 2013 working as an Agriculture and Nutrition Associate at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in Washington, DC, where she analyzed the links between undernutrition and cash crop farming in Africa, and aided in the
coordination of a Behavior Change Communication intervention for a USAID program in Kenya. Maddie holds a Master of Science degree from the Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition, where she wrote her thesis on the nutritional impacts of settlement on women and children in pastoralist communities of Northern Kenya. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Richmond in Global Health and Human Rights.
Alan Court is currently Senior Adviser to the United Nations’ Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria. Prior to this he had a long and distinguished career with UNICEF. Until 2008 he was the Director of the UNICEF Programme Division, where he oversaw UNICEF’s program policy, guidance and management that assisted staff in the implementation of UNICEF programs and played a central role in guiding UNICEF programmes towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Between 2000 and 2005 Mr. Court served as Director of the UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen, where he was credited with turning the division’s function into an innovative and cutting edge one that provided essential commodities and services to Governments through a mix of program and procurement services that directly impacted implementation as well as delivery performance specially in Humanitarian Emergencies.
Before this Mr. Court had a long and distinguished career in the field including postings as UNICEF Country Representative in India, Deputy Regional Director of the Americas and Caribbean region in Bogotá, Colombia, Representative in Bolivia, Special Representative in the former Yugoslavia and Representative in Chad. He also served in Nepal, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
Prior to his UNICEF career Mr. Court worked with Non-Government Organizations in Bangladesh and in Education in the United Kingdom. Mr. Court holds a Masters Degree in Rural Social Development from the University of Reading School Of Education, UK.
Prior to joining the Special Envoy’s Office, John spent 11 years with Gap Inc. He began his career there while in high school and worked his way up from part-time employee to top 100 store managers in the company. With a strong background in human resources, logistics and employee development, John provides essential operational support to the Special Envoy’s Office.
John holds a degree in Political Science and International Studies from The New School in New York City. In his spare time John enjoys traveling, culinary exploration and sports of every kind.
Meghan Gilfillan
Program Associate
Dr. Mark Grabowsky
Chief Operating Officer
Phyllis Heydt
Vice President, Frontline Delivery
Meghan is a Programs Associate for the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria. She focuses on the integrated delivery of health and nutrition, education projects, and provides general support across the office's portfolio of work.
Previously, Meghan has worked at Fulbright Commission in Prague, where she researched international educational exchange, tutored students in English, and
led presentations for international students seeking to study abroad. Meghan’s passion for the non-profit industry comes from her time spent volunteering for children and adults with special needs both nationally and internationally through organizations such as the Campus School, PG Chambers School, and Boston College Arrupe International Immersion Program. Meghan holds a Bachelor of Arts from Boston College in History and International Studies with a concentration in International Cooperation and Conflict.
Dr. Mark Grabowsky is the Chief Operating Officer of UNSEO. He has 25 years’ experience in global health and is a leading expert on prevention and child health. He has made substantial contributions in measles elimination, polio eradication, and malaria prevention through his innovative approaches to rapid and equitable service delivery. An important contribution by Dr. Grabowsky has been founding and leading global partnerships, including the Measles Initiative and the Alliance for Malaria Prevention which focused on rapid scale-up of service delivery through integrated mass campaigns. A particular interest of his has been measurement and the appropriate use of data for program evaluation. He has co-authored over 30 scientific publications, focusing on measles vaccination, scale-up of bednet delivery, equity, mHealth, and program evaluation.
Dr. Grabowsky has held positions at The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the American Red Cross, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Canadian International Development Agency and U.S. National Vaccine Program Office. Among the 50 developing countries he has worked in, he has spent substantial time in Kenya, Vietnam, Yemen, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and China. Dr. Grabowsky is a graduate of Washington and Lee University, Peabody College of Education, Medical College of Virginia, the University of Virginia Medial Internship Program, and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He also served as a teacher in the Peace Corps in Kenya and is Board Certified in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. When not in New York he spends time on his houseboat, his sailboat and his bicycle.
Phyllis Heydt focuses on Community Health Workers (CHWs) and frontline delivery systems for the Office of the U.N. Special Envoy and MDG Health Alliance. Phyllis has co-led the ‘Backpack PLUS’ project, which seeks to create new attention around CHWs and develop innovative tools and approaches.
Phyllis previously worked in the Strategy Team at the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, and before that was an Engagement Manager in McKinsey’s healthcare practice in Germany and London. Phyllis holds a Masters of Economics and
Business from the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland, and a Masters in International Health Policy and Health Economics from the London School of Economics.
Phyllis is passionate not only about health care in developing countries, but also about innovative models to improve the quality and performance of health systems across the globe. She co-founded and partially owns “discovering hands”, an award-winning social healthcare enterprise in Germany (www.discovering-hands.de)
› View all posts by Phyllis Heydt
Jessica Johnston
Vice President, Programs and Operations
Wendy McWeeny
Senior Advisor
Blair Miller
Vice President
Jessica Johnston is Vice President for Programs and Operations for the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for Malaria. Ms. Johnston leads development and coordination of strategy across the various areas of work for the UNSEO-MDGHA that aim to support achievement of the Health MDGs by December 31, 2015. In addition, Ms. Johnston leads nutrition initiatives for the Special Envoy's Office, with a focus on integrating the delivery of health, nutrition and education services to some of the hardest to reach communities around the world.
She has led sustainability and institutional capacity building assessments for the Millennium Village Project (MVP) in East Africa. Her work included designing and implementing targeted capacity assessments for local government and NGOs, data analysis, and the generation of recommendations and practical action plans for investments in institutional strengthening of MVPs critical partners. Jessica previously served as Senior Director of Strategy and Development at Grameen Research (an affiliate of the Grameen Bank), where she managed strategic partnerships and led the launch of a social action campaign aimed at raising awareness of Grameen's growing operations in the United States.
From 2005-2009 Ms. Johnston worked for Corporate Executive Board (EXBD), where she worked with executives in F500 companies to address challenges in talent management and expansion into new markets. She led revenue teams in the US and Latin America, and served on the Executive Management Team for the Human Resources practice.
Ms. Johnston holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She is the recipient of a Columbia SIPA Fellowship and Department Honors from UCLA. Ms. Johnston loves to travel and is passionate about food access and nutrition issues. She lives in New York City.
Wendy McWeeny is a Senior Advisor at the MCJ/Amelior Foundation where she oversees the foundation's international portfolio. In this role she helped to establish Millennium Promise, an organization focused on meeting the MDGs by 2015 and Malaria No More, which is dedicated to ending deaths from malaria.
Wendy also supports the communications efforts of the Special Envoy's Office and special projects, including the partnership with Harvard University's Defeating Malaria Initiative and the UN Secretary General's MDG Advocates.
Wendy holds a BA from Princeton University where she also earned a Masters degree in Public Administration from the Woodrow Wilson school.
Blair Miller is a Vice President at the MDG Health Alliance, where she focuses on private sector solutions to reach the Millennium Development Goals, with a particular focus on working with emerging market philanthropists and creating local demand for life saving products and services. Prior to MDG Health Alliance, Blair spent five years at Acumen Fund, a non-profit venture capital fund that invests in enterprises that serve the poor in India, Pakistan, and West and East Africa.
Her past experience includes working at Ashoka where worked on a deal between a micro-finance bank and a health insurance company to deliver micro-health insurance in India, and supporting the development of a fund to invest in small- and medium-sized enterprises for Care in Central America. She is dedicated to talent development and, as such, is on the Executive Board of Venture for America, the Alumni Board of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and an advisor to the Africa Advisory Group. Blair holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BA in English Literature from the University of Virginia where she was a varsity volleyball player.
Tina Moore
Social Media Specialist
Ben Nemser
Director, Monitoring and Evaluation
Claire Qureshi
Vice President, Frontline Delivery
After an initial career in PR and advertising for luxury brands, Tina Moore began her focus on social media in 2009 at Katalyst. She joined the Special Envoy's Office to engage more deeply in humanitarian pursuits. Tina curates the social media platforms of the Special Envoy's Office, which includes managing the Social Media Envoys program. The Envoys are a group of esteemed individuals and organizations with significant social media followings who support the Special Envoy's work. Tina lives in Los Angeles where she is a member of the Women’s Advisory Board in West Hollywood, focused on insuring that all women have a chance to succeed. She holds a BA in English and Human Development from Boston College.
Ben Nemser is the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for the UNSE Office concentrating on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH). He works closely with the UNICEF Strategy and Coordination Team's efforts for the RMNCH Trust Fund and country engagement processes. After receiving a Master of Public Health from the Epidemiology Department at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, Mr. Nemser worked for the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) from 2007-2013 as an Epidemiologist and Data Systems Manager. During his six years at MVP, Ben
focused on designing and deploying complementary information systems including population-based surveys, health facility monitoring, vital events, verbal autopsies and community-based electronic medical records, such as the ChildCount+ system, which used mobile phone text messaging (RapidSMS) by Community Health Workers to monitor individual-level healthcare delivery in households. His research portfolio includes the co-authorship of seven publications on various issues facing developing countries including nutrition, HIV, TB, and child survival. In addition to his public health experience, Ben has a Master in Business Administration and a background in governmental finance and budgeting.
Claire Qureshi focuses on Community Health Workers (CHWs) and frontline delivery for the the Office of the UN Special Envoy. She has co-led the ‘Backpack PLUS’ project, which seeks to create new attention around frontline delivery, mobilize resources and develop innovative tools and approaches.
Claire began her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company where she focused on healthcare and worked with pharmaceutical and hospital companies as well as national health systems. Claire was also a Senior Program Officer at Results for Development, leading projects in market dynamics and global health.
In addition to her work in global and domestic healthcare, Claire was also part of the Office of the Chief of Staff at the U.S. Treasury Department, covering international affairs, terrorism and financial intelligence, and tax policy for Secretary Geithner. While in graduate school, Claire was a White House Intern and worked with the Office of the Chief of Staff and the National Economic Council. Claire received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her B.A. from Yale University.
› View all posts by Claire Qureshi
Elizabeth Reni
Associate, PMTCT
Katherine Rockwell
Director, Tracking
and Analysis
Anna Squires Levine
Vice President, PMTCT
President, Business Leadership Council
for a Generation Born HIV Free
Elizabeth focuses on prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT) within the Special Envoy’s Office. She supports the work of the Business Leadership Council for a Generation Born HIV Free (BLC). Elizabeth's passion for the non-profit industry stems from her experiences working both locally and abroad where she focused on designing and implementing small-scale community-development programs. Prior to moving to New York City, Elizabeth spent time in Latin America working with numerous international non-profit
organizations promoting youth development through community-enrichment programs. She moved to New York City to join the Step Up Women's Network, a national non-profit organization dedicated to connecting underserved teen girls with professional women mentors to empower them to reach their full potential. Elizabeth holds a BA in International Affairs and Foreign Policy from Northeastern University.
Katherine is Director, Tracking and Analysis for the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for Malaria. Katherine works directly with the leadership of the UNSEO on analyses to underpin and further drive the MDG strategies, with a focus on strategic analysis, priority setting, evaluating interventions, financial requirements, and gap analysis. Katherine previously spent four years working in KPMG’s Global Grants Program within the International Development Advisory Services practice, where she assisted donor clients with responsible domestic and international grant-making by
providing compliance, evaluation, facilitation, monitoring, and governance services. In this role she specialized in performing pre-grant evaluations and post-grant expenditure assessments of global health-related grant recipients around the world, with a focus on quantitative analysis. Katherine holds an MPA in Development Practice from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and Bachelor degrees in both Economics and History from the University of California, Berkeley.
Anna leads all strategic and operational work for The Business Leadership Council for a Generation Born HIV Free, the arm of the MDG Health Alliance focused on eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV by the end of 2015. Prior to joining the BLC, Anna’s career included private sector and non-profit work in healthcare, both domestically and abroad. Most recently, she spent four years at McKinsey & Company, where she focused on government and non-profit public health program delivery and performance in Sub-Saharan Africa and on private sector operational, due diligence,and M&A guidance to pharmaceutical and biotech clients.
Concurrent with her professional career, Anna has advised many start-ups and burgeoning non-profits on business planning, growth strategy, and P&L management. Anna is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a trustee on the board of the Brown RISD Hillel Foundation. She holds a BS in Chemistry from Brown University.
Robert Valadéz
Director, Communications
Robert Valadéz is the Director of Communications for the UN Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and for Malaria. He manages the Special Envoy's media relations, public presentation and partner communications alignment, along with managing the office's website and social media platforms. Previously, he served as an External Relations Consultant for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) where he supported an array of high-level advocacy efforts, including coordinating diplomatic missions for RBM leadership and Goodwill Ambassadors, engaging with donors and media, and organizing malaria advocacy events for diverse stakeholders, including government, private sector and civil society.
Prior to this, Robert spent three years at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) as a policy analyst where he evaluated legislation and policies affecting people living with or at risk of HIV and provided policy recommendations to government agencies and elected representatives. In this role, he also managed and lead production of two public health publications distributed to thousands worldwide. Robert has a Master’s Degree in Social Welfare Policy from Columbia University School of Social Work and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Social Behavior from University of California, Irvine.
› View all posts by Robert Valadéz