Board of Directors

Dr. Hiroki Nakatani has been a veteran public health specialist for over 40 years who started his career at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan. He worked extensively in the area of health policy, public health, international health, and health science and technology. His national career includes serving as Director-General of Welfare and Health Services in Hiroshima Prefecture, where he was in charge of integrating health and welfare services in preparation for the arrival of a rapidly ageing society. With regards to his international career, he served the WHO Headquarters twice. From April 1988 to March 1993, he was a Policy Analyst in the Department of Human Resources for Health. From March 2007 to May 2015, he served as Assistant Director-General of WHO, leading the largest technical cluster of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Neglected Tropical Diseases. During his tenure, the morbidity and mortality of these three major infections showed trends of decline, and a few tropical diseases were on track toward elimination and even eradication (dracunculiasis or guinea worm disease). Since the completion of his tenure, he has continued to serve the WHO as Member Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (2016-2018); Member, WHO Executive Board (2017-2020,　2021-2022); Chair WHO Executive Board (2019-2020); Chair, Committee A of the 75th World Health Assembly (2022); Chair of the Expert Group on Ageing, WHO Regional Office for South East Asia (2019-present) and Member of various other organizational governance, audit, and advisory committees within WHO. Dr. Nakatani received his MD from Keio University School of Medicine, MHPEd from the University of New South Wales, and Ph.D. from Keio University.

Peter Piot is the Handa Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and was its Director until July 2021. He was also founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations (1995-2008), and has served in numerous other international and academic leadership roles. He is Special Advisor on Covid-19 to the President of the European Commission, and serves on numerous boards and has received numerous scientific and civic awards, including the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, Robert Koch Gold medal, and Prix International INSERM, Paris. He was a 2014 TIME Person of the Year (The Ebola Fighters), and received the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health. In 2013 he was the laureate of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research. Professor Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976, and led research on AIDS, women's health, and public health in Africa. He was knighted as a baron in his native Belgium, and received an honorary knighthood in the U.K., and the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun in Japan. He has published over 600 scientific articles and 17 books.

Dr. Osamu Kunii is CEO and Executive Director at the GHIT Fund. He served as a Management Executive Committee member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund), as Head of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Division. He was responsible for leading one of the largest divisions of the Global Fund, consisting of five departments (Health Finance; Strategy Information; Technical Advice and Partnerships; Access to Funding; and Community, Rights and Gender). He started his career as an internal medicine physician in Japan and made a shift to work for both governmental and non-governmental organizations, as he finds his passion in global health and feels it is his life’s work to contribute to this field. With his strong international experience working for multiple international organizations such as UNICEF and the Global Fund, coupled with his extensive interactions with other global organizations, he is interested in leveraging what he has learned and experienced to give back to Japan and Japanese organizations and lead innovation in global health.

Quarraisha Abdool Karim is a South African infectious diseases epidemiologist who has in the past three decades made key research, policy and programmatic contributions to understanding the evolving HIV epidemic in South Africa; unravelling factors influencing HIV acquisition in adolescent girls and young women; design and evaluation of interventions to prevent HIV infection and developing sustainable strategies to introduce ART in resource-constrained settings and implementation of new HIV prevention technologies. She has written more than 330 peer-reviewed publications and has authored several books and book chapters. She is currently President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and elected member of the National Academy of Medicine; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Science of South Africa and is UNAIDS Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV.

Mahima Datla is Managing Director of Biological E. Over the past 13 years at BE, she has been involved in strategy and has also served as Senior Vice President of the company. She is currently responsible for strategic operations and projects. She drives Biological E.’s engagement with Government of India as well as the DCVMN and has been a GAVI board member since 2011. She is a graduate in Business Administration Management from Webster University, London.

Dr. Yosuke Kita has over a decade of experience in public and global health. As of August 2024, he serves as Director of the Global Health Strategy Division at the International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Japan. Before joining MOFA, Dr. Kita worked extensively within Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), contributing to HIV/AIDS initiatives, revisions of the Immunization Act, and reforms to the long-term care insurance system. From 2009 to 2011, he was seconded to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, where he managed malaria control strategies. He also gained local governance experience through a secondment to a Japanese local government. In 2019, Dr. Kita became Director of the Office for Global Strategy of Medical Service and Health Industry at MHLW, playing a key role in handling the 2020 “Diamond Princess” cruise ship response for Covid-19. Subsequently, he served as Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, facilitating critical UN General Assembly High-Level Meetings on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPR) in 2023. He also acted as Vice-Chair of the 57th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development. Dr. Kita holds a medical degree and two master's degrees—one in public health from Yale University and another in public administration from Harvard University.

Mr. Momma worked for the Ministry of Finance (MOF), Cabinet Office, and Ministry of Defense covering various responsibilities including budget, tax, finance, international finance, multilateral development banks, external aid, global health, and national securities issues. He also served as International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Director for Japan, Counsellor, Permanent Delegation of Japan to OECD, and Senior Advisor to Executive Director of World Bank Group representing Japan. He has in-depth experiences and knowledge particularly in the fields of international economic cooperation and development assistance to the developing countries. Mr. Momma currently assumes several positions including Special Researcher at MOF’s Policy Research Institute, and Senior Research Advisor at the Institute for International Policy Studies.

Ann M. Veneman has a distinguished career in public service, including serving as Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (2005-2010) and as the United States Secretary of Agriculture (2001-2005). Ms. Veneman graduated from the University of California, Davis, received a master’s degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a juris doctor degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In 2009 she was named to the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list.

Hikaru Ishiguro serves as Statutory Auditor at INSPiRE Corporation, among other board positions. He is a graduate of the University of Tokyo and holds a LLM from Harvard Law School. Starting with Sumitomo Bank, he worked with a variety of global financial institutions and also served as President of Health and Global Policy Institute. Mr. Ishiguro became Comptroller of the University of Tokyo in 2004 and served in this role for 8 years. He is a member of the New York Sate Bar Association.

Saori Nakamura is an attorney at law who is a member of the Dai-ichi Bar Association in Japan and a member of the New York State Bar Association.  As an international lawyer she represents both Japanese and non-Japanese clients in a wide variety of corporate matters, including corporate governance and compliance.  Also she has been actively engaged in the pro bono matters and assisted non-profit organizations from the time of being a partner at Morrison ＆Foerster.  She currently belongs to Hirayama Nagareya Shirai Law Office.   She is a graduate of Kyoto University and holds a LLM from University of Michigan Law School.

Professor. Ko-Yung Tung is an international lawyer, with extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. He has served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank, where he was instrumental in establishing The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Secretary General of The International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). He is Lecturer at Law at Harvard Law School where he teaches a course on international law. He practiced law at the international law firms of Morrison & Foerster, O’Melveny & Myers, and Debevoise & Plimpton. The GHIT Board benefits particularly from his expertise in international organizations, development and corporate governance. He received his undergraduate degree in physics from Harvard University and his law degree from Harvard Law School, and did graduate studies at the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law.

In April 2024, Nick Cammack became the Interim Chief Research Programmes Officer at Wellcome, leading a broad interlinked portfolio that focuses on discovery research and three urgent health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health. He joined Wellcome in 2019 to lead the Snakebite program – an £80 million fund to drive a step-change in snakebite treatment around the world. During the pandemic, he also led Wellcome’s activities in COVID-19 therapeutics. He was a member of the UK Government’s Antiviral Task Force and led an R&D cooperation of international partners to ensure COVID-19 treatments reached everyone who needs them around the world. Previously, he was Head of the GSK Tres Cantos Medicines Development Campus for Diseases of the Developing World in Madrid, Spain. In this role, he was responsible for the discovery and development of medicines to treat some of the most devastating neglected diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis. He led the drug discovery through an open innovation agenda of collaboration with many organizations such as Medicines for Malaria Venture, TB Alliance, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Katey Einterz Owen is the Director for Neglected Tropical Diseases at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has responsibility for the Gates Foundation / Pharmaceutical Industry CEO Roundtable. Katey has end-to-end responsibility for the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio in controlling, eliminating, and eradicating the diseases of the London Declaration. This includes active investment in lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, STH, trachoma, Guinea Worm, HAT, and visceral leishmaniasis, diseases that collectively put at risk more than one billion people in the world. The portfolio funds projects with global private and public partners across the value chain, from research and innovation to project demonstration through on-the-ground delivery of interventions in Africa and Asia. In her role with the CEO Roundtable, Katey facilitates regular interaction between the CEOs of pharmaceutical organizations with Mr. Gates, resulting in joint work in global health that can most effectively be accomplished by the organizations together. Previously, Katey was the Deputy Director for Vaccine Development at the Gates Foundation. She joined BMGF in 2013 from the pharmaceutical industry. She combines a technical end-to-end view of product development and quality manufacturing, with a commercial understanding of the for-profit pharmaceutical business, coupled to practical solutions for funding and delivery in LMICs, all with a solutions-focused mindset and disposition. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Katey carried out academic research on influenza at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill (London). She earned her PhD in molecular virology from Purdue University.