Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Appoints Amy Pollack as Director of Maternal, Newborn & Child Health

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SEATTLE, April 13, 2018 – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that Amy Pollack, MD, FACOG, FACPM has been named director of Maternal, Newborn & Child Health. She will assume her position on May 7, 2018. 

Pollack joins the foundation from Medtronic, where she most recently served as the Chief Safety Officer and set the strategy and policy for medical safety across the company’s global business groups. Pollack has more than 25 years of experience in domestic and international health, including work in clinical practice; as the CEO of an international women’s health non-profit; and as an executive in early-stage medical device businesses, social venture capital, and industry. She has led global health multilateral negotiations for disruptive technologies, and she led national working groups in U.S. government policy change around the HPV vaccine, cervical cytology, and prostate cancer. Pollack is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Preventive Medicine.

“Amy brings deep experience in domestic and global health, strategy development, and in leading high-performing teams of technical experts,” said Chris Elias, president, Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “She will play a central role in the foundation’s efforts to save the lives of women, newborns, and children around the world.”

“The foundation has a long reputation for supporting and inspiring innovative solutions to the world’s most challenging issues,” said Pollack. “I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the Maternal, Newborn & Child Health team at the foundation as we help ensure healthy outcomes for mothers, newborns and children, particularly amongst the most vulnerable populations around the world.” 

 

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

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