THREE CONTENDERS UNDER FINAL CONSIDERATION FOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR POSITION

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 2

ABSTRACT The search for a new Executive Director of the Global Fund has been narrowed down to a final three - David Nabarro, Michel Kazatchkine, and Alex Coutinho. The board will interview the candidates on Wednesday (February 7), and will then make a final decision on Thursday or Friday.

The Global Fund board’s Nomination Committee has narrowed the list of candidates to be the next Executive Director down to a final three – David Nabarro, Michel Kazatchkine, and Alex Coutinho. The full board will interview the candidates on Wednesday (February 7), and will then make a final decision on Thursday or Friday. The search follows last year’s announcement by the current Executive Director, Richard Feachem, that he would not ask to have his contract renewed.

Late last year the board failed to find a candidate who met its strict requirement of at least seven out of ten votes in favour from the “donor group” and at least seven out of ten votes in favour from the “recipient group”. Michel Kazatchkine was one of the two final contenders at that time; the other final contender was Michel Sidibe, from Mali, who did not offer himself for consideration during this second selection process.

Dr. Nabarro, born in the UK, is in charge of the UN’s response to bird flu. Prior to that he served at WHO in various positions, including head of the Roll Back Malaria Program and Executive Director in the office of the then Director-General.

Dr. Kazatchkine, born in France, is France’s AIDS Ambassador. Previous positions include Director of France’s National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS), Vice-Chair of the Global Fund board, and Chair of the Fund’s Technical Review Panel (TRP).

Dr. Coutinho, born in Uganda, is head of The Aids Support Organization (TASO) of Uganda, which is the largest AIDS care organization in Africa, with 1,000 full-time staff. Earlier, he served as Vice Chair of the Fund’s TRP.

The full board will choose one of these three candidates at a special closed board meeting on Thursday and Friday to be attended by board members and alternates but not by other delegation members or observers

Note: The next issue of GFO, to be sent out in the course of next weekend, February 10-11, will report who has been chosen as Executive Director. Two weeks ago, GFO requested the three candidates to submit personal statements, saying that it would publish them last week if all three agreed. However, one of the three candidates declined to participate, despite a personal opinion from the chair of the Nomination Committee that the process would not constitute a violation of Board rules prohibiting lobbying.