Marie-Paule Kieny chairs the Governing Board of the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation (MPP, Geneva, Switzerland). She is also the Chair of the Board of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi, Geneva, Switzerland) and a Non-Executive Independent Director of bioMérieux (Lyon, France). She is a member of the scientific advisory group of several organizations working in the area of health. Until May 2022, she was Director of Research at Inserm (Paris, France), a position where she chaired the French Scientific Committee on COVID-19 vaccine.

Until June 2017, Dr Kieny served as the Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation at the World Health Organization. Key successes under her leadership roles at WHO include coordinating the WHO R&D efforts during the 2014-2016 West-African Ebola epidemic and conceptualizing the WHO R&D Blueprint, a global preparedness plan against emerging diseases’ epidemics.

Before joining WHO, Dr. Kieny held top research positions in the public and private sectors in France.

Abebe Genetu Bayih is the coordinator of local manufacturing of health commodities at Africa CDC. Prior to joining Africa CDC, he was the Africa Engagement Lead at Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Abebe was also the Director General of the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), Ethiopia for three years. AHRI is the biomedical and clinical research agency of the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia. In addition, Abebe was Associate Professor of Medical Parasitology at the University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He did his PhD on Molecular Microbiology at the University of Calgary, Canada. His PhD project was on vaccine discovery. He also did postdoctoral research on antimalarial drug discovery. Abebe is also a fellow of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Global Health Leadership Programme.

Marco Cavaleri is Head of Department, Public Health Threats. He is the Chair of EMA Emergency Task Force (ETF) and responsible for EMA activities for emergent pathogens, vaccines, TB and AMR. He has been leading the EMA activities during the COVID-19 pandemic on vaccines and therapeutics. He leads EMA vaccines strategy and co-chairs the EMA vaccine confidence advisory group. He is also member of CEPI scientific advisory group.

He serves in different advisory groups at WHO, including PDVAC, R&D Blueprint TAG on prioritisation of therapeutics, TB vaccines TAG and Shigella vaccines TAG.

Marco Cavaleri is a Pharmacologist who spent several years in industry in R&D mainly in the area of anti-infectives covering different positions in preclinical and clinical development of new antibacterial, antitubercular and antifungal agents.

He has expertise in microbiology, animal models, vaccines, translational science and clinical trials.

He is co-author of several publications related to vaccines, infectious diseases and regulation of medicines.

Michel De Wilde has a long career in Vaccine Research and Development. He currently consults for the Vaccine Communiuty.
From  2001 till June 2013, Michel De Wilde was Senior Vice President, Research & Development, at sanofi pasteur. While at sanofi pasteur, Michel drove the development and licensure by the FDA and other Regulatory bodies of a number of products. Sanofi Dengue vaccine was developed under his supervision. Michel was also instrumental in driving  the acquisition of and defining the integration model for two biotech companies: Acambis  and VaxDesign.

Michel has played a key role as a research scientist in the development of several new vaccines, most notably the recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine, as well as GSK’s Malaria vaccine candidate.

Dr. Mosoka Fallah is the Acting Director of the Science and Innovation Directorate at Africa CDC, where he is leading transformative efforts to strengthen health security and foster innovation across the African continent. With a distinguished career in global health and a passion for scientific advancement, Dr. Fallah is dedicated to reshaping Africa’s research and development (R&D) and clinical trial landscape through a strategic focus on financing, coordination and governance, and human capacity development. His vision centers on creating a sustainable research ecosystem in Africa, enabling the continent to independently produce medical products and address its unique health challenges. Dr. Fallah is championing robust clinical trials and research initiatives to bolster local manufacturing capabilities, ensuring self-reliance in medical product development. Collaboration is a cornerstone of his approach.

Zacharia Kafuko is a molecular biochemist and an Arizona State University alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship. His work experience includes work as an academician in Clinical Chemistry.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, he signed up as a prospective clinical trial volunteer for the Covid-19 challenge study. He is the Africa director of 1Day Sooner. His work focuses on global vaccine equity and the integration of developing countries into modern medical research.

1Day Africa (the African chapter of the international public health nonprofit 1Day Sooner) focuses on global health, vaccine equity and  future pandemic preparedness through the enhancing of the African research capacity. The work promotes and supports medical and clinical studies on the African continent. 1Day Sooner leads campaigns in science, policy and ethics to stop the world’s most harmful infectious diseases.

Jorge Kalil is a physician scientist, Full Professor and Head of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine (FMUSP) and Coordinator of the Institute of Investigation in Immunology (iii), a Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology (INCT).
His scientific career focuses on immune recognition, tolerance, transplantation, autoimmunity, and vaccine development. He has led research programs on vaccines against Streptococcus, dengue, and COVID-19, including candidates that have progressed to advanced stages of development. He has authored more than 800 publications indeed in Web of Science and holds several patents. He was Director of the Butantan Institute from 2011 to 2017 and President of IUIS.
Kalil is Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, Co-Director of the FOCIS Center of Excellence in São Paulo, and Director of a World Allergy Organization Center of Excellence.
He holds a PhD in Immunology and Human Biology from the University of Paris, where he trained in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Jean Dausset. He was an International Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Professor Shabir A. Madhi is Professor of Vaccinology and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa, and Executive Director of the Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit (VIDA). He is an internationally recognised clinician-scientist with three decades of experience in vaccine research, infectious diseases, clinical trials and global health, with a particular focus on generating and translating evidence relevant to low- and middle-income countries.

Professor Madhi has led and contributed to the development and evaluation of vaccines against major infectious diseases, including pneumococcal disease, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19. His work encompasses early and late-stage clinical trials, vaccine effectiveness, epidemiology, implementation and health-policy research. He has extensive experience working across academia, industry, governments and international organisations to advance the development, evaluation and uptake of health technologies.

A central focus of his work has been addressing inequities in access to vaccines and other health technologies by ensuring that products are evaluated in populations and settings that are often underrepresented in global research and development. He has been closely involved in building sustainable clinical research and scientific capacity in Africa and in developing partnerships between African researchers and international academic and industry partners.

Lisa F.P. Ng is Executive Director of the A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs (A*STAR IDL) and Executive Director at the Biomedical Research Council, A*STAR, Singapore. An internationally recognised infectious disease scientist, she has spent nearly three decades advancing research on emerging infectious diseases, including SARS, chikungunya, Zika, COVID-19, and Mpox. Her work has contributed to the development of diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, and critical insights into host-pathogen interactions.  Prof Ng has played key leadership roles in Singapore’s pandemic preparedness and response efforts and actively contributes to international initiatives that strengthen global health security and outbreak readiness.

A Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, Fellow of the Singapore National Academy of Science, and recipient of the President’s Science Award 2025, Singapore’s highest scientific honour, Prof Ng serves on numerous international scientific advisory boards and national government committees, helping to shape research, preparedness, and public health strategies globally.

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Martina Ochs is a microbiologist with extensive experience in vaccine development. She held positions with increasing responsibility in the vaccines division of the French multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi where she worked on pre-clinical and early clinical stage vaccines against Tuberculosis, Otitis Media, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Bordetella pertussis as well as combination vaccines.

Dr. Ochs joined CEPI in April 2022 and focuses now on RNA vaccine technology and viral pathogens with outbreak potential and support of CEPI’s 100 Day Mission.

Since 2023, Dr. Ochs serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the EU-funded NOSEVAC project.

Nadia G. Tornieporth, MD, DTM&H acts as an independent senior advisor in the field of vaccinology and currently serves as interim Director, Clinical Development, at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and the Board of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative for Vaccines and Immunity (NIVI) Development organization. During her academic tenure, Dr. Tornieporth served as Professor of Clinical Research and Pharmacovigilance at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, Germany.

Previously, Dr. Tornieporth led the Global Clinical Research and Development teams at Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals. Over the course of her career, Dr. Tornieporth contributed to the successful licensure of more than 20 vaccines and holds clinical patents for malaria and dengue vaccines.

Dr. Gerd Zettlmeissl has more than 40 years of R&D and General Management leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since 2012 he served on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Boards of a number of non-profit organizations and biotech/vaccine companies. He currently is the Chairman of Valneva (France) and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Biological E. (India).

Gerd Zettlmeissl is the former CEO of the vaccine biotech company Intercell (now Valneva). Prior to joining Intercell, he was Managing Director of Chiron-Behring (Germany) and held senior management roles in biopharmaceutical R&D and Technical Operations at Chiron (USA) and Behringwerke (Germany).

In 2010, he was named Vaccine Biotech CEO of the Year at the World Vaccine Congress. Gerd Zettlmeissl authored and coauthored a wide range of patents and publications.