New Global Health Leadership Appointments - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today three senior staff appointments in its Global Health Program. The foundation named Jaime Sepulveda as Senior Fellow; Gary Darmstadt as Director of Family Health; and Girindre Beeharry as Director of Strategy. All three will report directly to Tachi Yamada, president of the foundation’s Global Health Program. The appointments are effective immediately.

“Jaime, Gary, and Girindre are among the brightest minds in global health, and we are fortunate that they have agreed to take on these important new roles,” said Tachi Yamada. “I look forward to working closely with them to build on the exciting progress that we’re seeing in some of the world’s poorest countries.”

Sepulveda, Darmstadt, and Beeharry are assuming new roles after holding other positions at the foundation:

• Jaime Sepulveda is promoted to Senior Fellow, serving as a deputy to Yamada and playing a central role in shaping the foundation’s overall global health strategy as part of its executive team. Sepulveda will work closely with key foundation partners—including the GAVI Alliance, where he chairs the Executive Committee—to increase access to vaccines and other effective health solutions in developing countries. He will also serve as Director of Special Initiatives in the Global Health Program.

  Prior to joining the Gates Foundation as Director of Integrated Health Solutions Development in 2007, Sepulveda served in several senior health positions in the Mexican government, where his accomplishments included designing Mexico’s Universal Vaccination Program, creating a national health surveillance system, and founding Mexico’s National AIDS Council. Sepulveda holds a medical degree from National Autonomous University of Mexico and one doctorate and two masters degrees from Harvard University.

• Gary Darmstadt will become Director of Family Health, overseeing a multidisciplinary team of program and technical experts to develop and implement strategies to improve maternal, newborn, and child health; nutrition; and family planning.

  Darmstadt joined the foundation in 2008, serving most recently as interim Deputy Director of Integrated Health Solutions Development. Prior to joining the foundation, Darmstadt was the Founding Director of the International Center for Advancing Neonatal Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Darmstadt received his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego, and trained in pediatrics, dermatology and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University and the University of Washington.

• Girindre Beeharry will become Director of Strategy, leading a team of strategy and evaluation experts to help guide strategic planning across the Global Health Program. His team will help ensure that the foundation’s grant portfolio has the greatest possible impact on health in developing countries.

  Beeharry previously served as Deputy Director for Global Health Delivery at the foundation. Prior to joining the foundation in 2005, he worked as Business Development Leader for immunization at Becton, Dickinson, and Co., and as Senior Health Economist at the World Bank. Beeharry received degrees in Economics from the Université de Paris-Sorbonne and Oxford University.