Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected WHO Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017. In doing so, he was the first WHO Director-General elected from among multiple candidates by the World Health Assembly and was the first person from the WHO African Region to head the world’s leading public health agency. Dr Ghebreyesus served in Ethiopia’s federal government for over a decade as Minister of Health and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He led a comprehensive reform of the country’s health system, built on the foundation of universal health coverage and provision of services to all people, even in the most remote areas.

Naomi Wanjiru is a nurse who worked in a TB and HIV clinic in Kenya. Ms Wanjiru developed lower back pain and after months of consultations, extreme pain and misdiagnosis, scans finally revealed that Naomi had extrapulmonary MDR-TB in her spine. Naomi battled TB stigma through her treatment and was forced to inject herself with TB drugs as nobody was willing to come near her for the fear of contracting TB. Today, Ms Wanjiru is a strong TB

Dr David Baker’s research group is focused on the design of macromolecular structures and functions. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral work in biophysics at UCSF. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor in Biochemistry, and an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington. Dr Baker is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a project leader with The Audacious Project.

Dr Debra Hanna oversees a diverse grant portfolio focused on improved translational science to inform TB drug regimen selection and development, biomarker assessment and validation as well as TB clinical drug development studies in her work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is also a leader within the Project to Accelerate Novel Treatments for TB (PAN-TB) collaboration. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens initiative -- a global, multi-sector partnership focused on delivering a tuberculosis data collaboration initiative and multiple program teams focused on accelerating the development of novel drug regimens and rapid drug susceptibility tests for TB.

Dr Kate O’Brien is responsible for leading the overall work and strategy of the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department at the World Health Organization to advance the vision of a world where everyone, everywhere, at every age, fully benefits from vaccines for good health and wellbeing. Prior to joining WHO, she was Professor of International Health and Epidemiology and Executive Director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research and policy work focused on vaccine preventable illnesses, especially for pneumonia causing pathogens including pneumococcal disease; Haemophilus influenzae type b; respiratory syncytial virus and influenza.

Dr Robert (Bob) Seder is Chief of the Cellular Immunology Section in the Vaccine Research Center, NIAID, NIH. Dr Seder’s work has focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which vaccines mediate protective immunity in animal models of HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and cancer. More recently, Dr Seder has focused his efforts on discovery of monoclonal antibodies to prevent malaria infection. He has successfully translated his scientific discoveries with “first in human” clinical trials using intravenous vaccination to generate protective immunity with an attenuated malaria vaccine and more recently showing that a monoclonal antibody can prevent malaria infection following controlled challenge.

Dr Narain is an Indian environmentalist and political activist as well as a major proponent of the Green concept of sustainable development. She is a former member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Climate Change and a recipient of the Padma Shri by the Government of India as well as the World Water Prize. Dr Narain has introduced solutions for combating air pollution by leading efforts to implement the use of Compressed Natural Gas to fuel buses in New Delhi, which has become a model for reducing air contamination in transportation.

Dr Tereza Kasaeva is the Director of the World Health Organization’s Global TB Programme. She is responsible for setting norms, policies and standards on global TB prevention, control and care including tackling drug resistance, coordinating technical support, monitoring the global situation, developing innovative interventions through translation of new evidence into policies & practice, promoting research & development and through addressing system challenges such as community and private sector engagement.

Howard Catoon is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and is committed to ensure that ICN effectively represents nursing worldwide, advances the nursing profession, promotes the wellbeing of nurses and advocates for health in all policies. He firmly believes that nurses should be at the heart of health policy decision making and leading healthcare systems and delivery.