Former Ethiopian Minister of Health named new WHO director general

The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) have elected Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (pictured above) as the agency’s new director-general.

Taking over from Margaret Chan, who has been in the position for more than 11 years, he will bring experience of serving as Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016 and as the country’s Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012, a role in which he led a reform effort of national healthcare, creating 3,500 health centers, expanding the sector's workforce by 38,000 and initiating financing mechanisms to expand insurance coverage.

The newcomer’s experience also includes chairing the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board, organizations for which he secured record funding. He also created the Global Malaria Action Plan, which expanded RBM’s reach beyond Africa to Asia and Latin America.