PROCESS TO SELECT THE GLOBAL FUND’S NEXT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR IS ON TRACK, NOMINATION COMMITTEE SAYS

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 5

Newspaper advertisements yielded 92 applications

ABSTRACT The Executive Director Nomination Committee says that the Global Fund Board is on track to select a new executive director at its meeting on 14-15 November. Advertisements published in June and July in four leading newspapers generated 92 applications. Additional candidates have been identified through outreach by Board members and others. The process really starts to pick up steam when the Nomination Committee meets to finalize a long-list of candidates to be interviewed. This meeting is scheduled to happen this week.

The Global Fund Board is on track to select a new executive director at its meeting on 14-15 November 2017. According to an update provide by the leaders of the Board’s nomination committee, 92 applications were received as a result of advertisements published in English, French and Spanish in The Economist, Jeune Afrique, Le Monde and La Nacion in June and July.

Ambassador Michèle Boccoz and Professor Vinand Nantulya, respectively Chair and Vice-Chair of the Executive Director Nomination Committee, said that additional candidates are being identified through outreach that has been performed through Board members and others with networks in the global health sector.

The outreach will continue until the Nomination Committee meets to finalize a long-list of candidates to be interviewed. The meeting is scheduled for the first week of September. This is when the process really starts to intensify. Candidates will undergo rigorous due diligence and background checks, Boccoz and Nantulya said. The Nomination Committee will conduct two rounds of in-person interviews, after which the final candidates will be presented to the Board at a retreat in the third week of October, together with a final report from the Committee. The names of the final candidates will then be published.

According to the update, a three-week “constituency engagement period” will take place after the Board retreat and before the Board meeting in November. “During that time, the final candidates will hold calls with the Board constituencies,” Boccoz and Nantulya said, “enabling the candidates and the constituencies to speak openly, answer questions and address issues of mutual concern.” Staff Council will also be invited to participate in one call per candidate.

Throughout the constituency engagement period, interested parties will be able to submit input and comments through a dedicated email address: edconsultation@russellreynolds.com.

This is the Board’s second attempt to fill the executive director position. Earlier this year, it abandoned its first effort, citing problems with the process (see GFO article). That recruitment effort became a bit of a circus when the names of the short-listed candidates were leaked to the media (see GFO article on “What went wrong?”).

Marijke Wijnroks has served as the Global Fund’s interim executive director since Mark Dybul stepped down from the post at the conclusion of his four-year term on at the end of May.