The Global Advisory Group of Experts (GAGE) of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) welcomes five distinguished leaders from diplomacy, global health, and the business community as new members. The group, inaugurated in 2022, held its third annual meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, on September 24, 2024.

Currently chaired by Dr. Anders Nordström of Sweden, the GAGE previously had five members following the departures of its inaugural chair Dr. Deborah Birx, CEO of Armata Pharmaceuticals, who has since joined IVI’s Board of Trustees, and Dr. Kang Kyung-wha, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, who assumed the chair of the Asia Society.

Mr. George Bickerstaff, Chair of the IVI Board of Trustees, said: “We warmly welcome Dr. Park Jin, Dr. Ayoade Alakija, Dr. Mark Dybul, Ms. Revathi Rammohan, and Prof. Peter Piot as new GAGE members. They bring extraordinary leadership and profound expertise across diplomacy, industry, and the broader global health community. IVI will greatly benefit from their vision and guidance.”

Among the new members are:

• Honorable Dr. Park Jin, a South Korean diplomat and politician, is a four-term member of the National Assembly and served as the 40th Minister of Foreign Affairs during the current administration. He held the roles of overseas press secretary and political secretary in the presidential office of the Kim Young-sam administration in the 1990s when Korea became IVI’s host.
• “Dr. Ayoade Alakija currently serves as the World Health Organization (WHO) Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, Chair of the African Vaccine Delivery Alliance (AVDA), and Chair of FIND. As a medical doctor with over two decades of global experience, she is a leading expert in global health, development, and integrated humanitarian coordination.”
• Dr. Mark Dybul is a U.S. diplomat, physician, and medical researcher. He is a professor in the Department of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center and a senior advisor at the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact. He previously served as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, where he led the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
• Ms. Revathi Rammohan is a strategic financial expert, and former CFO and Head of Research Operations at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, USA. With over 30 years of experience in the life sciences industry across the value chain, she is an expert in strategic vision, operational excellence, financial governance, audit, IT, risk management and collaborating and partnering with biotechs and academia for accelerating research.
• Prof. Peter Piot, Professor of Global Health and former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK, is a medical doctor and microbiologist. He is one of the discoverers of the Ebola virus and has made significant contributions to infectious disease research, particularly HIV/AIDS. He is Special Advisor to the EC President on health security and was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary General of the UN.

The GAGE, in addition to the Board of Trustees and Scientific Advisory Group, makes up IVI’s governance and advisory bodies. As IVI continues to expand its presence into new regions and pursue emerging research opportunities, the GAGE guides IVI on diplomatic and global health affairs while promoting partnerships with key government stakeholders, industry partners and global organizations.

Dr. Jerome Kim, Director General of IVI, said: “We are thrilled to have such a diverse group of preeminent global leaders and experts on the GAGE. Their combined experience and expertise will empower IVI to enhance its strategic direction and leadership in vaccine development and global health diplomacy. We are immensely grateful for their service and look forward to their collective insights and guidance.”