New member joins FIND's Board of Directors

Geneva, Switzerland – 29 September 2017 – FIND announced today the appointment of David L. Heymann, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London.

Prof. Heymann is an elected fellow of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in the United States and the Academy of Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom, and has been awarded several public health awards. In 2009 Prof Heymann was appointed an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for service to global public health.

Prof. Heymann has served as Chairman of the Board of Public Health England and as the Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment and Representative of the Director-General for polio eradication at the World Health Organization (WHO).  From 1998 to 2003 he was Executive Director of the WHO Communicable Diseases Cluster during which he headed the global response to SARS.

He has 13 years of experience working as a medical epidemiologist in sub-Saharan Africa for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and worked for two years in the WHO Smallpox Eradication Program in India, where smallpox was eradicated in 1978.

“Professor Heymann is truly a pioneer in global health, and has combated outbreaks and the spread of infectious diseases throughout the world for decades,” said Mark Kessel, FIND Chair. “We are pleased that he has agreed to join the Board of FIND enabling FIND to benefit from his expertise as we expand our portfolio and take on new challenges in global health diagnostics.”

About FIND
FIND was established in 2003 as a global non-profit dedicated to accelerating the development, evaluation and delivery of high-quality, affordable diagnostic tests for poverty-related diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, sleeping sickness, hepatitis C, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and Buruli ulcer, and for fighting antimicrobial resistance and supporting outbreak preparedness. Over the last decade, FIND has partnered in the delivery of 20 new diagnostic tools and created an enabling environment for numerous others through the provision of specimen banks, reagent development and better market visibility. FIND also supports better access to new diagnostics through price negotiations, implementation, quality assurance and lab strengthening work. FIND has over 100 partners globally, including research institutes and laboratories, health ministries and national disease control programmes, commercial partners, bilateral and multilateral organizations, especially WHO, and clinical trial sites.