Former chair of DNDi Board of Directors (2003-2007), Yves Champey is a physician with over 40 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He served as Medical and Scientific Director, and then as Senior Vice President, International Drug Development, at Rhone Poulenc (1995- 1997). Dr. Champey is founder of ITEEC and a consultant on drug R&D for the pharmaceutical and health biotechnology industries. He is Advisor to the Director General of Evry Genopole, a French national project for the development of biotechnology activities, and CEO of Genopole 1er Jour, a private seed fund established by Genopole d’Evry. He is a former member of Rhône- Poulenc Pharma R&D’s Board of Directors; he was General Secretary, and later President, of the French Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians, and Founder and President of the Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Foundation. Dr. Champey was also a member of the Inter-Ministerial Mission on Public Research and Drug Innovation Research.

Mr. Bowis is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London and the spokesman on the Environment, Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament. He was a Vice President for the EP Joint Parliamentary Delegation with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Mr. Bowis is the author of an important report on “Major and Neglected Diseases in Developing Countries” adopted by the European Parliament in 2005. He was educated at Tonbridge School and Brasenose College, Oxford (MA Philosophy, Politics and Economics).

Former Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and founding partner of DNDi, Mr. Ganguly started as medical teacher and then became Professor of Immunology at GB Pan Hospital. Later, he served as Professor of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology at PGI Chandigarth. In his role as Director General of ICMR, he succeeded in growing the Institute’s assets and was one of the founding partners of DNDi. He has also served as Chairman of the Lacefield International Society on Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases, President of International Society of Health Research (Indian Chapter), Vice Chairman of the Joint Coordinating Board for the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, and Honorary Professor, Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore.

Mr. Lewis is the Chair of the Board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada, and is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada, and the former United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. He is a Professor of Global Health, Faculty of Social Sciences, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and Co-Director of AIDS-Free World, a new international AIDS advocacy organization, based in the United States. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Lewis was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters in New York. From 1984 through 1988, Stephen Lewis was Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Lewis is the author of the best-selling book, Race Against Time.

Former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (2001-2004), Dr. Rostrup undertook several missions across three continents for the organization and was an official representative of MSF when the organization received the Nobel Prize in 1999. He is also a former a DNDi Board member (2003-2005). On May 1997, Rostrup, made his sixth expedition to the Himalayas and his 12th to mountains higher than 5,000m, drawing attention to the importance of medical and ethical aspects of high altitude climbing. He is currently serving as senior consultant to the Department of Acute Medicine, Division of Medicine, Ulleval University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.

Ms. Wirth is Chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health, and former Chair of DNDi’s Scientific Advisory Committee (2003-2007). An international expert in tropical disease and molecular microbiology, Ms. Wirth directs the Harvard Malaria Initiative and is past President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She is also is a recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Award in Molecular Parasitology. Ms. Wirth graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin, spent one year as a Fulbright Fellow, and then completed her Ph.D. in cell biology and virology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was awarded a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship for her postdoctoral work in molecular biology at Harvard University, joined the faculty of Harvard School of Public Health in 1982 and was promoted to full professor in 1990.

Mr. Yuthavong is the former Minister of Science and Technology, Thailand, and a former member of DNDi’s Scientific Advisory Committee (2003-2006). Yuthavong is immediate past President of the Thai Academy of Science and Technology. He began his career in science as a researcher and biochemistry Professor at Mahidol University.  In 1992, he was appointed the first Director of the National Science and Technology Development Agency and later worked on the development of antimalarial drugs at the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Yuthavong’s research interests include drug target interactions, drug resistance, molecular biology of malaria parasites, and the broad issues of science and technology. Yuthavong earned a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford. He was appointed Minister of Science and Technology, Thailand, in 2006.

Dr. Meymandi is the director of the Center of Excellence for Chagas Disease at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, in Sylmar, CA, which opened in 2007 as the first US clinic for the diagnosis and treatment of Chagas disease. The Center has since diagnosed and treated over 50 patients and conducts free comprehensive mobile medical evaluations in a grassroots effort to educate about the disease and to detect cases early. It also performs important clinical research into rates of prevalence, conduction abnormalities, pregnant women, and congenital transmission. Such research aims in part to identify potential markers for those at risk of sudden death due to Chagas. Dr. Meymandi is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, the Associate Program Director of the UCLA Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program, and the Director of Cardiovascular Research and Invasive Cardiology at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine and has a Bachelor’s in Psychobiology from the University of Southern California. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the UCLA-San Fernando Valley Program.

A graduate of Tulane university’s MD/MPH program, Dr. Portnoy worked on a Navajo reservation from 1992 to 1997. Dr. Portnoy brings extensive skills in direct medical work, program operation and development, as well as broad field experience responding to global health challenges. Since 1997, he has worked as a physician and coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, El Salvador, the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Sudan , Liberia, and Nigeria, and was the president of the MSF ISA board of directors from 2004 – 2008. Since stepping down from the board last year, he continues to work on the frontlines with MSF and support strategies that address global health issues. Dr. Portnoy currently lives in New York, where he is an attending physician at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

Rafael Vila San Juan took a degree in journalism and political science at the University of Barcelona. He then worked as a journalist in Spain until 1988 when he became Deputy Communications Director for the Olympic Games in Barcelona. In 1994 he worked as communications director for Benetton. He joined MSF in 1995 when he coordinated the return of the MSF Spain teams in Rwanda. In 1996 he became Director of Communications at MSF Spain and in 1998 Director General. Since 2000, Rafa Vila San Juan has been the Secretary General of Médecins Sans Frontières. He was Chair of the Steering Committee on Humanitarian Response, a platform of the main international humanitarian organisations. Rafael Vila San Juan currently serves as Vice Director – Manager of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB).

Dr. Rowan Gillies is a Former President of MSF International Council, 2004 to 2006 and DNDi Board Member – 2006 to 2007. Graduated from the University of New South Wales, Dr Gillies is training as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Australia, and worked in the field with MSF as a doctor and medical coordinator.

A physician with a Master degree in Social Medicine from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Dr. Paulo Buss is a specialist in Pediatrics and Public Health. Dr. Buss was President of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz from January 2001 – 2008. At ENSP. he held offices as Deputy-Director (1985-1989) and Director for two terms (1989-1992 and 1998-2000). During his terms the ENSP inaugurated Public Health Residence, Public Health Doctorate, Distance Learning Program, Government Health and Professional Master Degrees. As vice-president of Education and Information at Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (1992-1996), Dr. Buss created the Health Channel and the Fiocruz publishing house. He represented Brazil in the World Health Organization’s Executive Council (from December 2004 to May 2007), nominated by the President of Brazil, and represented Fiocruz in the world networks of the Health Research Institutes, led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), from USA, and of the Public Health Institutes, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also from USA.