Who we are – CEPI

A global coalition for a global problem

Epidemic diseases affect us all. They do not respect borders. CEPI is a innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations. We're working together to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and enable equitable access to these vaccines for people during outbreaks.

THE CEPI Team

Leadership

Our Leadership Team works across our three offices in Oslo, London and Washington D.C.

Board

CEPI is a Norwegian Association. The primary governing body is the Board, which has 12 voting members (four investors and eight independent members representing competencies including industry, global health, science, resource mobilisation, finance) and five observers.

The Board is advised on decisions, such as prioritising pathogens and selecting development partners, by our Scientific Advisory Committee.

Board Committees

We have four Board Committees: Executive and Investment, Compensation and Nomination, Audit and Risk, and Equitable Access, with members of our Board Committees are listed below. Other Board members or experts may be called upon as advisers or observers as needed.

Voting members

Non-voting members

CEPI Board Committees

Executive and Investment

Cherry Gagandeep Kang

Christian Medical College Vellore

David Reddy

Medicines for Malaria Venture

Jane Halton

Chair

Joachim Klein

Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany

Compensation and Nomination

Charlotte Watts

Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Department for International Development

Nadine Gbossa

Representative Nigeria, International Fund for Agricultural Development

Rajeev Venkayya

Vaccine Business Unit, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Audit and Risk

Alex Cebotari (non-voting member)

World Bank

Ichiro Kurane

National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan

Patricia J. García

Former Minister of Health, Peru

Peter Piot

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Equitable Access

Charlotte Watts

UK Department for International Development

Cherry Gagandeep Kang

Christian Medical College Vellore (Vice Chair)

David Reddy

Medicines for Malaria Venture

John Nkengasong

Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Soumya Swaminathan (non-voting member)

World Health Organization

Investors & Partners

CEPI was founded in Davos by the governments of Norway and India, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the World Economic Forum.

CEPI has secured $760 million investment, with funding from the Governments of Norway, UK, Germany, Japan, Canada, Ethiopia, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Wellcome. The European Commission provides substantial financial contributions to support relevant projects through its mechanisms.

Close collaboration with global partners is also crucial to the success of our work to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases. That’s why work with industry, regulators, and other bodies to ensure that any vaccines we develop get licensed and can reach the people who need them.

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Investors Council

All investors contributing to CEPI’s funding pool are invited to join our Investors Council. The council nominates Investor representatives to the Board and has some rights including approval any single investments over $100 m.

Each investor appoints one person to represent them on the Investors Council, serving as members for the duration of their pledged commitment.

The Investors Council receives regular updates from the CEPI team, shares information with CEPI and each other, provides guidance and oversight of CEPI activities, and engages in resource mobilisation efforts.

Four members of the CEPI Investors Council serve on the CEPI Board, as part of the Executive and Investment Committee.

CEPI launches at 2017 Davos Meeting

Terms of reference

Scientific Advisory Committee

The Scientific Advisory Committee is an independent body within the CEPI governing structure that provides scientific support, advice, and guidance to the CEPI Board and Secretariat. Final decision-making about the issues addressed by the committee rests with the Board or the Secretariat.

Terms of reference

Members of the Scientific Advisory Committee

Voting members

Alan D. Barrett

University of Texas Medical Branch

Alash’le Abimiku

Institute of Human Virology

Christian Bréchot

President of Global Virus Network

Christian Happi

African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases

Connie Schmaljohn

USAMRIID

Daniel Brasseur

Consultant

Delese Mimi Darko

Ghana Food and Drug Authority

Dong Xiaoping

Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Helen Rees

Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Chair of CEPI Scientific Advisory Committee)

Inger Damon

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

James Robinson

James Robinson Biologics Consulting (Vice Chair)

John Edmunds

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Kathleen Neuzil

University of Maryland

Kenji Shibuya

Department of Global Health Policy, University of Tokyo

Michel De Wilde

Consultant

Myron Levine

University of Maryland

Paula Bryant

US National Institutes of Health

Penny Heaton

Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute

Peter Smith

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Phil Krause

US Food and Drug Administration

Ralf Clemens

Independent Consultant (also for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

Stanley Plotkin

VaxConsult

Thomas Kariuki

African Academy of Sciences

Yves Lévy

Advisor of state in extraordinary service, France

Non-voting members

Ali Alloueche

Takeda

Jean Lang

Sanofi Pasteur

Johan van Hoof

Johnson & Johnson

Kathrin Jansen

Pfizer

Vaseeharan Sathiyamoorthy

World Health Organization

Joint Coordination Group

Our Joint Coordination Group is a roundtable of independent institutions with an interest in seeing CEPI’s vaccines successfully developed and deployed in an outbreak.

These independent institutions play a role in various elements of the vaccine development lifecycle, from vaccine research and development all the way through to deploying vaccines during an outbreak.

Members of our Joint Coordination Group come together to discuss how we can best enhance our efforts to deliver and deploy vaccines by addressing challenges related to the research and development, regulation, stockpiling, and delivery of these products. In particular, while the group focuses on advancing our vaccine portfolio, its work also informs the broader field of vaccine development and preparedness.

Members also have a role in planning for rapid response to a priority pathogen or an unknown pathogen. Our Joint Coordination Group consists of 10 to 15 member organisations, which in turn appoint individuals to represent them at meetings.

From time to time, the group may choose to invite other organisations and experts to participate in meetings.

The current members of the Joint Coordination Group include: WHO, GAVI, EMA, FDA, MSF, UNICEF, IFRC, AVAREF, NIBSC, and Wellcome.

Terms of Reference