From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Board of GAVI has approved the appointment of Dr Muhammad Ali Pate as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the global vaccine alliance following an extensive recruitment process.
Dr Pate was selected following a year long recruitment process personally overseen by the Chairman of the GAVI Board, Prof José Manuel Barroso, and he is expected to resume the role on 3rd August, 2023, replacing Dr. Seth Berkley, who will step down after 12 years leading the Alliance.
Dr Pate, a medical doctor trained in both internal medicine and infectious diseases, with an MBA from Duke University in the United States, served as Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health between 2011 and 2013.
In this role, he led a flagship initiative to revive routine vaccinations and primary health care, chaired a presidential taskforce to eradicate polio and introduced new vaccines into the country.
While serving as Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population of the World Bank and Director of the Global Financing Facility at the World Bank between 2019 and 2021, Dr Pate led the Bank’s $18 billion COVID-19 global health response and represented the Bank on various boards, including those of GAVI, the Global Fund, CEPI and UNAIDS.
He is currently the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at Harvard Chan School of Public Health, and has also served on several health-focused Boards and expert panels in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors during his career.
Commenting on the appointment, Prof. Barroso said: “Dr Pate stood out in a field of world-class candidates. With his knowledge and experience of both national immunisation programming and international emergency response and global finance, I am confident that GAVI will continue to build on its vision and mission, as well as navigate the many challenges and opportunities we will face.”
Dr Pate, in his response said: “I am deeply honoured to be joining GAVI as its incoming CEO. GAVI is one of the most impactful organisations in global health, a testament to the great work of the alliance partners and secretariat staff.
“It will be my privilege to lead it, building on the work of Dr. Seth Berkley, and continue to support countries to scale up critical routine immunisation programmes, reach more zero-dose children, expand access to new vaccines, transform primary health care systems, and help fight outbreaks and future pandemics.”
Dr Pate said the outgoing CEO, Dr Seth Berkley, has led GAVI for more than half of its existence, making it a centrepiece within the global health landscape, including recently co-establishing COVAX to serve countries during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, having so far shipped nearly 1.9 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 146 countries.
He said: “since Dr. Berkley took the helm in 2011, the Alliance has averted 11.8 million future deaths compared to 4.5 million between 2000 and 2010; and has helped immunised more than 676 million children, more than double the 305 million children reached between 2000 and 2010.
“With Dr Berkley’s vision for health equity, GAVI has added a number of new vaccines to its portfolio during his tenure, including HPV, polio, cholera and malaria, and in its current strategy cycle is focusing on reaching zero-dose children across marginalised communities.”
GAVI, the vaccine alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases.
It also played a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningococcal and yellow fever vaccines.
After two decades of progress, GAVI is now focused on protecting the next generation, above all the zero-dose children who have not received even a single vaccine shot.
The vaccine alliance employs innovative finance and the latest technology, from drones to biometrics, to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency.