Early next week the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s board of directors will select a new executive director.
Last week, the board announced three finalists vying to lead the Swiss organization, which distributes roughly $4.5 billion each year to country-led programs combatting the three infectious diseases. The finalists are Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, a former health minister of Nigeria; Subhanu Saxena, the former chief executive of Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla; and Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and former New Zealand prime minister.
Devex spoke to several well-placed global health and development leaders about their impressions of the finalists. All of them spoke on the condition that their comments not be attributed by name. Each expressed mixed feelings and some disappointment that the selection process had not generated candidates known for visionary global health leadership.