A former Minister of State for Health, Dr Muhammed Ali Pate, has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI), a private and public global health partnership organisation with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.
Dr Pate, who is the first Nigerian and first African to be appointed CEO of the organization, was chosen after a year-long recruitment process supdervised by the Chairman of the Gavi Board, Prof José Manuel Barroso. He was chosen for his wealth of experience in internal medicine and infectious diseases as well as the various roles he has played in the health sector around the world.
A medical doctor by profession and global health leader, Pate holds an MBA from Duke University. He is currently a Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. He served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population and then, Director of the Global Financing Facility at World Bank between 2019 and 2021.
He led the World Bank’s US $18 billion COVID-19 global health response and represented it on boards, including those of GAVI Alliance, Global Fund and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
While serving as Minister of State for Health between 2011 and 2013, Pate steered the Saving One Million Lives Initiative, initiating the Midwives Service Scheme, and revived routine immunisation and primary health care at the national level, while advocating for the introduction and access of new vaccines to Nigeria at the international level.
