Isabel Mestres, CEO of City Cancer Challenge (C/Can), shared on LinkedIn:
“I’ve been following the World Health Organization Director-General candidacy with a lot of interest over the summer.
Looking at the names emerging so far: more surprises, please. More fresh eyes!
Not because the candidates are not strong, they are. But beyond Indonesia’s Health Minister, whose background across technology, finance, corporate leadership, government and health is quite different, most profiles still feel very familiar.
And global health keeps saying it needs to transform.
New financing models. AI. Agility. Country ownership. Better partnerships.
So why do we keep looking for leaders in the same places?
Why not people who have transformed large organisations, built technology at scale, managed major disruption, or moved successfully between public and private sectors?
Peter Sands’ move from Standard Chartered to the Global Fund is one good example. And if we really wanted to think differently, what about a Peter Sands-type profile?
A Paul Polman-type transformational CEO? An Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala-type multilateral reformer?
Not necessarily these people. But these kinds of profiles.
WHO is not a company, of course. Public health expertise and diplomacy matter enormously. But if we genuinely believe global health needs to change, we should also be more adventurous about who we think can lead that change.
Why shouldn’t the next WHO DG come from finance, technology, business or another multilateral institution, with a strong public health team around them?
Nominations remain open until 24 September.
Still hoping for a surprise.”
Other articles featuring Isabel Mestres on OncoDaily.