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The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced today it has narrowed the search to four high-level candidates, coming from backgrounds in banking, development agencies and the United Nations.

The Global Fund, the Geneva-based international health financing institution which is moving in next door to the World Health Organization, made the announcement today. According to its search procedures, the Fund is expecting to choose a new director this year. An interim director (IPW, Public Health, 4 March 2017) was named in June after previous director Mark Dybul stepped down as planned.

According to a recent update which provides details of the selection process leading to a November decision, there were 109 candidates in the pool after the deadline for applications closed in July.

The announcement comes some eight months after restarting the search process for a new executive director. The Fund had hit the reset button on the director search last February after unnamed issues arose with the recruiting process, it said (IPW, Public Health, 28 February 2017).

The Global Fund list of finalists is reprinted below (with the candidates’ nationalities added):

GENEVA – The Global Fund Board named four finalist candidates for Executive Director, and is scheduled to select one at a Board meeting on 14 November 2017:

Simon Bland (UK) is the Director of the New York Office of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. He served as the Chair of the Global Fund Board from 2011 to 2013. Formerly, he worked for three decades at the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom, and led its operations in Kenya.

Frannie Leautier (Tanzania) is the former Senior Vice President of the African Development Bank where she was a key member of President Adesina’s transition team. Previously, she was Chief Executive Officer of the African Capacity Building Foundation, after a successful career at the World Bank, during which she spent time as Chief of Staff to President Wolfensohn, and ran the World Bank Institute, the institution’s capacity building branch.

Peter Sands (UK) is the former Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bank. He began his career at McKinsey & Company. After having spent a sustained period leading a major bank with global operations in relevant countries, he has held a fellowship at Harvard, and immersed himself in a range of global public health projects.

Anil Soni (US) is a senior executive at Mylan Inc., the global pharmaceutical corporation, co-leading development, sales, and partnerships for medicines to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and hepatitis C via a generic subsidiary. He was closely involved in the early years of the Global Fund as an adviser to Richard Feachem, after which he led the advocacy work of Friends of the Global Fight in Washington, DC. He spent five years at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, latterly as its Chief Executive.