Dr. Rajeev Venkayya Joins Gates Foundation as Director of Global Health Delivery

[Guest guest]

Dr. Rajeev Venkayya Joins Gates Foundation as Director of Global Health

Delivery. Will oversee efforts to expand access to effective health solutions in

developing countries

January 22, 2008

SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that Dr. Rajeev

Venkayya has joined the Global Health Program as director of Global Health

Delivery. Dr. Venkayya is a medical doctor and former coordinator of U.S.

government medical and public health efforts, including preparations for a

potential influenza pandemic.

Dr. Venkayya will oversee the Gates Foundation's efforts to help expand the

availability of, and access to, effective vaccines, drugs, and other health

solutions in the developing world. He will also lead efforts to prepare for

delivery of future health solutions.

" A number of important health interventions currently in late-stage development

could be on the market in the next several years. We want to ensure that these

life-saving solutions reach those who need them most, " said Dr. Tachi Yamada,

president of the foundation's Global Health Program. " Rajeev brings a wealth of

experience as both a physician and senior health policy strategist, and we're

fortunate to have him heading our efforts in this area. "

The foundation's Global Health Delivery team coordinates late-stage development

of foundation-funded health technologies and interventions through clinical

trials and regulatory approval. The Delivery team also identifies ways to ensure

adequate financing to purchase vaccines and drugs, strengthen health supply and

distribution systems, address shortages of health workers, and increase public

awareness about health.

" Every year, millions of people in poor countries die from preventable causes

because they do not receive basic health services taken for granted in rich

countries, " Dr. Venkayya said. " I look forward to working with the foundation’s

grantees and partners to address this critical challenge. "

Global Health Delivery is one of five teams in the foundation's Global Health

Program. The others are Global Health Discovery, Infectious Diseases

Development, Integrated Health Solutions Development, and Global Health Policy

and Advocacy.

Dr. Venkayya joins the foundation from the U.S. government, where he served most

recently as special assistant to the President and senior director for

biodefense on the White House Homeland Security Council. In that position, one

of his key responsibilities was the development of the U.S. strategy for

pandemic influenza, including the implementation plan for the strategy.

Dr. Venkayya has also served as an advisor to the director of the U.S. Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, and was one of 13 non-partisan White House

Fellows appointed by President Bush in 2002.

He is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San

Francisco, in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Previously,

he was co-director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and director of the

High-Risk Asthma Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.

Dr. Venkayya holds a medical degree from Northeastern Ohio Universities College

of Medicine.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Phone: 206.709.3400

Email: media@...