Global health leaders join CEPI’s Board and expert groups

Five distinguished global health leaders have been appointed to CEPI’s Board and supporting governance bodies, driving forward CEPI’s ambitious plan to transform how the world tackles future epidemic and pandemic threats.

Their appointments were announced at CEPI’s Board meeting in Madrid last week.

Board appointments

Luc Debruyne, former President of Global Vaccines at GSK and current Professor of Practice at the University of Leuven, has been appointed as an independent CEPI Board Member for an initial two-year term. He takes over from David Reddy, CEO of the IFPMA. 

Luc holds non-executive Director and Chair roles on a number of Boards. He has stepped down from his previous roles on CEPI’s Portfolio Strategy and Management Board and from his advisory position to CEPI’s CEO to take up the new position. 

Dr Katey Owen, Director of Vaccines and Neglected Tropical Diseases at the Gates Foundation, has taken up the rotating philanthropic investor seat on the CEPI Board. She succeeds Dr Alex Pym, Director of Infectious Diseases at Wellcome, who has held the seat for the past two years.

At the Gates Foundation, Katey leads teams working with partners to improve the development, commercialisation and distribution of safe and affordable vaccines against diseases like polio, HIV and malaria for the lowest-income countries, as well as efforts to control, eliminate and eradicate select neglected tropical diseases. Prior to the Gates Foundation, she held leadership roles in vaccine development, manufacturing and commercialisation in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Dr Yasuhiro Suzuki has been reappointed to the CEPI Board as a representative of the CEPI Investors Council. The appointment was made following an election by members of CEPI’s Investors Council . 

Yasuhiro has previously served as Vice-Minister for Health and Chief Medical and Global Health Officer for the Government of Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. He was also Executive Director for Social Change & Mental Health and Executive Director of Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals at the World Health Organization. His expertise covers infectious diseases, mental health, environmental health and health research policy.

Adrian Hennah has been renewed as an adviser to CEPI’s Audit and Risk Committee. Adrian brings extensive experience to CEPI, drawing on his current non-executive Director positions at Sainsbury’s, Our Future Health, Unilever and Oxford Nanopore technologies as well as his senior financial positions three FTSE companies, finance and operations roles held at GlaxoSmithKline.

Appointment of Joint Coordination Group Chair 

Dr Petra Khoury, Global Director of Health and Care at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has been appointed Chair of CEPI’s Joint Coordination Group. Known as the JCG, the unique group of independent global health, science and development organisations work together to maximise fast, equitable access to CEPI-funded vaccines.

In her current role, Petra leads the IFRC’s global health security, health protection and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programmes, working closely with Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies to strengthen preparedness and emergency response. During COVID-19, Petra served as Senior Health Adviser to the Prime Minister of Lebanon, where she led the national pandemic response plan and chaired the national COVID‑19 Vaccination Executive Committee.

As CEPI Joint Coordination Group Chair, Petra succeeds Dr Cherry Kang who will who has completed her three‑year term in the role. Petra has also joined CEPI’s Board as a non-voting member.

Discussing the new appointments and updates, Jane Halton, Chair of CEPI, said: 

“Global health advances are driven by the innovative ideas, guidance and leadership of experienced public health experts and partners. Alongside Yasuhiro’s re-election as an Investor Board member and Adrian’s renewal, I am delighted to welcome Luc, Katey and Petra to the CEPI Board and Joint Coordination Group. Together, they provide us with deep scientific and operational intelligence, experience and connections across vaccine R&D, outbreak response and equitable access to drive forward our ambitious new strategy. 

“I would also like to recognise the hugely significant contributions to the CEPI Board from David Reddy over his 8 years of service, from Dr Gagandeep Kang in her 3 years chairing the JCG as well as previous service on the CEPI Board and CEPI Scientific Advisory Committee, and for Dr Alex Pym in his 2 years on the CEPI Board.” 

Kicking off in 2027, CEPI 3.0 is the next phase of CEPI’s mission. Maintaining CEPI’s focus on equity, CEPI 3.0 will harness the latest scientific advances with the goal to deliver the 100 Days Mission and reduce the likelihood, impact and cost of epidemics and pandemics that continue to threaten societies and economies worldwide.