Board of Directors

Dr. Hiroki Nakatani has been a veteran public health specialist for over 40 years who started his career at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan. He worked extensively in the area of health policy, public health, international health, and health science and technology. His national career includes serving as Director-General of Welfare and Health Services in Hiroshima Prefecture, where he was in charge of integrating health and welfare services in preparation for the arrival of a rapidly ageing society. With regards to his international career, he served the WHO Headquarters twice. From April 1988 to March 1993, he was a Policy Analyst in the Department of Human Resources for Health. From March 2007 to May 2015, he served as Assistant Director-General of WHO, leading the largest technical cluster of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Neglected Tropical Diseases. During his tenure, the morbidity and mortality of these three major infections showed trends of decline, and a few tropical diseases were on track toward elimination and even eradication (dracunculiasis or guinea worm disease). Since the completion of his tenure, he has continued to serve the WHO as Member Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (2016-2018); Member, WHO Executive Board (2017-2020,　2021-2022); Chair WHO Executive Board (2019-2020); Chair, Committee A of the 75th World Health Assembly (2022); Chair of the Expert Group on Ageing, WHO Regional Office for South East Asia (2019-present) and Member of various other organizational governance, audit, and advisory committees within WHO. Dr. Nakatani received his MD from Keio University School of Medicine, MHPEd from the University of New South Wales, and Ph.D. from Keio University.

Mahima Datla is Managing Director of Biological E. Over the past 13 years at BE, she has been involved in strategy and has also served as Senior Vice President of the company. She is currently responsible for strategic operations and projects. She drives Biological E.’s engagement with Government of India as well as the DCVMN and has been a GAVI board member since 2011. She is a graduate in Business Administration Management from Webster University, London.

Dr. Osamu Kunii is CEO and Executive Director at the GHIT Fund. He served as a Management Executive Committee member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund), as Head of the Strategy, Investment and Impact Division. He was responsible for leading one of the largest divisions of the Global Fund, consisting of five departments (Health Finance; Strategy Information; Technical Advice and Partnerships; Access to Funding; and Community, Rights and Gender). He started his career as an internal medicine physician in Japan and made a shift to work for both governmental and non-governmental organizations, as he finds his passion in global health and feels it is his life’s work to contribute to this field. With his strong international experience working for multiple international organizations such as UNICEF and the Global Fund, coupled with his extensive interactions with other global organizations, he is interested in leveraging what he has learned and experienced to give back to Japan and Japanese organizations and lead innovation in global health. He is Visiting Professor at five universities including in Kyoto Univ., Nagasaki Univ. and Institute of Science Tokyo.

Quarraisha Abdool Karim is a South African infectious diseases epidemiologist who has in the past three decades made key research, policy and programmatic contributions to understanding the evolving HIV epidemic in South Africa; unravelling factors influencing HIV acquisition in adolescent girls and young women; design and evaluation of interventions to prevent HIV infection and developing sustainable strategies to introduce ART in resource-constrained settings and implementation of new HIV prevention technologies. She has written more than 330 peer-reviewed publications and has authored several books and book chapters. She is currently President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and elected member of the National Academy of Medicine; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Science of South Africa and is UNAIDS Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV.

Dr. Yosuke Kita has over a decade of experience in public and global health. As of August 2024, he serves as Director of the Global Health Strategy Division at the International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of Japan. Before joining MOFA, Dr. Kita worked extensively within Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), contributing to HIV/AIDS initiatives, revisions of the Immunization Act, and reforms to the long-term care insurance system. From 2009 to 2011, he was seconded to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, where he managed malaria control strategies. He also gained local governance experience through a secondment to a Japanese local government. In 2019, Dr. Kita became Director of the Office for Global Strategy of Medical Service and Health Industry at MHLW, playing a key role in handling the 2020 “Diamond Princess” cruise ship response for Covid-19. Subsequently, he served as Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations, facilitating critical UN General Assembly High-Level Meetings on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPR) in 2023. He also acted as Vice-Chair of the 57th session of the UN Commission on Population and Development. Dr. Kita holds a medical degree and two master's degrees—one in public health from Yale University and another in public administration from Harvard University.

Mr. Momma worked for the Ministry of Finance (MOF), Cabinet Office, and Ministry of Defense covering various responsibilities including budget, tax, finance, international finance, multilateral development banks, external aid, global health, and national securities issues. He also served as International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Director for Japan, Counsellor, Permanent Delegation of Japan to OECD, and Senior Advisor to Executive Director of World Bank Group representing Japan. He has in-depth experiences and knowledge particularly in the fields of international economic cooperation and development assistance to the developing countries. Mr. Momma currently assumes several positions including Special Researcher at MOF’s Policy Research Institute, and Senior Research Advisor at the Institute for International Policy Studies.

Mr. Itani joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in 2004, where he was in charge of foreign policy in various areas such as environment, science and technology, and space. He also dealt with development cooperation policy and Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget, and international organizations including the United Nations and specialized agencies. From 2019 to 2022, as Head of Political Section at the Embassy of Japan in Malaysia, he was responsible for strengthening cooperation with local think tanks in the marine field, Malaysia's regulations on COVID-19, and providing information to Japanese residents in Malaysia. He contributed to the further deepening of Japan-Malaysia relations on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Malaysia's Look East Policy. He has been in his current position since July 2022. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Kobe University.

Mr. Takahashi joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 2006 and has engaged in the Japan-U.S. economic relations, Japan’s development cooperation to South Asian countries, international trade policies, and the operation and management support for Japan’s overseas establishments at its headquarters, while contributing to the further deepening of the Japan-Vietnam relations at the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam. From 2022 to 2024, he worked on Japan’s foreign policy towards South America, contributing to the promotion of the Japan-South America relations in various fields including the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. Through these extensive experiences, he has also engaged in international cooperation in the field of health such as the formulation and implementation of individual projects and the interaction between international trade rules and global health. He has been in his current position since July 2024. He received his undergraduate degree in law from the University of Tokyo and earned the degree of Master of Public Policy from the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center, and M.A. in Regional Studies: East Asia from the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University.

Dr. Rajeev Venkayya is the former CEO of Aerium Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing antivirals for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. He previously served as President of the Global Vaccine Business Unit at Takeda Pharmaceuticals (2012–2022), where he built and led a global organization of over 500 employees across six countries. Under his leadership, Takeda developed a safe & effective dengue vaccine (Qdenga) that is now licensed around the world and prequalified by the WHO. Dr. Venkayya was previously Director of Vaccine Delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he managed a grant portfolio exceeding $500 million annually, and served on the board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Prior to this, he served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense, where he authored the U.S. National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. Dr. Venkayya trained in pulmonary & critical care medicine and served on the faculty at UCSF. He trained in internal medicine and was Chief Medical Resident at the University of Michigan. Dr. Venkayya currently serves on the boards of CEPI and IAVI, and is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr. Peter Mason is a public company director and an international arbitrator and mediator, with 40 years’ international legal and corporate experience. An independent director of the LMP Closed-end Funds (NYSE-listed), he is a member of the Funds’ Audit, Valuation, and Nomination Committees and chairs the Compensation Committee. He is a member of London’s Arbitra International. Mr. Mason served for more than two decades as Global General Counsel of UNICEF, where he played key leadership roles across governance, finance, and compliance, and helped shape major public-private partnerships and complex international financing arrangements. Mr. Mason chaired the committee overseeing a multi-billion-dollar fund for five UN organisations, and was a member of UNICEF’s Finance, Audit, and Innovative Finance Committees. He has substantial experience negotiating global commercial transactions in health, logistics, and insurance, and has represented UNICEF in international arbitrations. Prior to UNICEF, Mr. Mason practiced law in the U.S. and Australia, handling high-stakes international disputes across multiple jurisdictions. He holds degrees in Economics (with honours) and in Law from the University of Sydney and is a Fellow of London’s Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Born in Papua New Guinea, he holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States.

Saori Nakamura is an attorney at law who is a member of the Dai-ichi Bar Association in Japan and a member of the New York State Bar Association.  As an international lawyer she represents both Japanese and non-Japanese clients in a wide variety of corporate matters, including corporate governance and compliance.  Also she has been actively engaged in the pro bono matters and assisted non-profit organizations from the time of being a partner at Morrison ＆Foerster.  She currently belongs to Hirayama Nagareya Shirai Law Office.   She is a graduate of Kyoto University and holds a LLM from University of Michigan Law School.

Hisashi Shirahata is a Certified Public Accountant with over 35 years of experience in audit, advisory, governance, and corporate management. He currently serves as an external director or audit committee member for several Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market-listed companies, including ID Holdings Corporation, Itoki Corporation, and KOMEDA Holdings Co. Ltd. He is also a member of the CPA Examination Committee of the Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board (CPAAOB), appointed by the Prime Minister. Mr. Shirahata began his career in auditing, holding senior roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Japan and serving on its global and Japan governance boards. His past experience includes working at Corporate Planning Division of Mitsubishi Bank (currently MUFG Bank Ltd.). He is a graduate of Meiji University and holds an MBA from Boston University. He completed an executive program at Harvard Business School focused on corporate governance. He has written and co-authored multiple publications on accounting standards, risk management, and internal controls, and has contributed to public policy through advisory roles in government and industry organizations.

In April 2024, Nick Cammack became the Interim Chief Research Programmes Officer at Wellcome, leading a broad interlinked portfolio that focuses on discovery research and three urgent health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health. He joined Wellcome in 2019 to lead the Snakebite program – an £80 million fund to drive a step-change in snakebite treatment around the world. During the pandemic, he also led Wellcome’s activities in COVID-19 therapeutics. He was a member of the UK Government’s Antiviral Task Force and led an R&D cooperation of international partners to ensure COVID-19 treatments reached everyone who needs them around the world. Previously, he was Head of the GSK Tres Cantos Medicines Development Campus for Diseases of the Developing World in Madrid, Spain. In this role, he was responsible for the discovery and development of medicines to treat some of the most devastating neglected diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis. He led the drug discovery through an open innovation agenda of collaboration with many organizations such as Medicines for Malaria Venture, TB Alliance, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation.

Dr. Katey Einterz Owen is the Director for Neglected Tropical Diseases at The Gates Foundation and has responsibility for the Gates Foundation / Pharmaceutical Industry CEO Roundtable. Katey has end-to-end responsibility for the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio in controlling, eliminating, and eradicating the diseases of the London Declaration. This includes active investment in lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, STH, trachoma, Guinea Worm, HAT, and visceral leishmaniasis, diseases that collectively put at risk more than one billion people in the world. The portfolio funds projects with global private and public partners across the value chain, from research and innovation to project demonstration through on-the-ground delivery of interventions in Africa and Asia. In her role with the CEO Roundtable, Katey facilitates regular interaction between the CEOs of pharmaceutical organizations with Mr. Gates, resulting in joint work in global health that can most effectively be accomplished by the organizations together. Previously, Katey was the Deputy Director for Vaccine Development at the Gates Foundation. She joined BMGF in 2013 from the pharmaceutical industry. She combines a technical end-to-end view of product development and quality manufacturing, with a commercial understanding of the for-profit pharmaceutical business, coupled to practical solutions for funding and delivery in LMICs, all with a solutions-focused mindset and disposition. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Katey carried out academic research on influenza at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill (London). She earned her PhD in molecular virology from Purdue University.