Dr Richard Hatchett offered position as permanent CEO of CEPI
Media release, Oslo, 28 February 2017 - Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations
The interim CEPI board decided at its meeting 27 February to offer the position of permanent CEO of CEPI to Dr Richard Hatchett. He comes to the position from the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority (BARDA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where he was Deputy Director and Chief Medical Officer.
Over the course of his career Dr Hatchett has led medical countermeasure development programs at BARDA and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has played leading roles at HHS and the White House in designing these programs as well as in planning for and responding to H5N1 avian influenza ("bird flu"), the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and the Ebola, MERS, and Zika epidemics.
Professor K Vijay Raghavan, chair of the interim CEPI board, said:
The board is delighted to offer Dr Hatchett the position as the CEO of CEPI. He has the right expertise and experience to take CEPI into the next and permanent phase of its work. His experience from public health preparedness, both from BARDA, NIH and previously from the White House, makes him very well equipped to deliver on the vision and mission of CEPI.
CEPI is one of the most exciting new initiatives in global health in a very long time and will fill critical gaps in the world's preparedness against epidemics. The speed with which CEPI has established itself as a key actor in the global health landscape speaks to the importance of its mission. It is a great honor to be asked to lead an organization that has such an important mission and that will make the world a safer place.
Dr Hatchett is the right person to lead CEPI in this important next phase of its work, where the coalition will start implementation through its first investments. He will be able to make CEPI deliver on the vaccine development objectives as well as the wider agenda of global health security.
Richard Hatchett has just the right combination of scientific insight and governmental experience to lead CEPI. Adding to this, he is a pragmatic leader with great diplomatic skills, which is suitable for leading CEPI by engaging both private and public sector partners as well as civil society.
Dr Hatchett served as Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director of BARDA from January 2011 to March 2016 and as acting Director of BARDA from March to November 2016. Previously, he served as Director for Medical Preparedness Policy on the White House National Security Staff where he worked on a wide array of issues related to medical countermeasures development, the 2009-H1N1 pandemic, and pandemic preparedness more broadly. In 2005 — 2006, he served as Director for Biodefense Policy on the White House Homeland Security Council and was a principal author of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan. In this capacity, he helped set policy and devise strategies to mitigate the consequences of a pandemic and promote pandemic preparedness. From 2005 — 2011, he served as Associate Director for Radiation Countermeasures Research and Emergency Preparedness at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr Hatchett completed his undergraduate and medical educations at Vanderbilt University, an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital — Cornell Medical Center, and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Duke University Medical Center.
Dr Hatchett is intending to begin his work as the CEPI CEO in April 2017.
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