Speaker Profiles

Those who formally presented on their areas of expertise at the 2006 summit:

Stig Pramming

Professor Stig Pramming (Denmark) is the director of the Oxford Health Alliance, and was one of its founding partners. He worked at Novo Nordisk in clinical development, marketing, public affairs and stakeholder relations, is a fellow of Harris- Manchester College, Oxford, an honorary consultant to the UK NHS, and a professor of the University of Oxford.

He is a member of the Summit Programme Committee.

Pam Garside

Ms Pam Garside (United Kingdom) was chair of the OxHA summits in Oxford in 2004 and Yale in 2005, and is reprising this role at this year’s summit. She is also a member of the Summit Programme Committee. She works as a consultant to OxHA, heads her own consultancy, NewHealth, and is a member of the visiting faculty of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University.

Danny Abelson

Mr Danny Abelson (United States) is the Communications Director at OxHA. He works with OxHA on developing strategy, as well as design and creative input to many publications and the website. He is the founder and leader of The Abelson Company, a creative consultancy based in New York and London, which works with a variety of clients to define strategic visions and brand positioning – and to create the communications that bring brands to life.

John Bell

Professor Bell is Regis Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, and from November 2006 is president of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is chair of the OxHA Board.

Ed Blakely

Professor Blakely is Director of the Planning Research Centre at the University of Sydney, and chair of the expert panel overseeing the New South Wales Government's Metropolitan Strategy.

Debbie Bradshaw

Dr Bradshaw is at the Burden of Disease Unit, Medical Research Council of South Africa.

Len Deacon

Mr Deacon is Assistant General Manager at Bankmed, a South African insurance company.

Tom Gaziano

Dr Gaziano is jointly appointed to the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities and the Department of Cardiology at Brigham Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Marian Jacobs

Professor Jacobs is Dean of the Health Sciences Faculty at the University of Cape Town.

Muhammed Khayat

Dr Khayat is Senior Policy Adviser to the Regional Director, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, and Director of the WHO Arabic Programme.

Lise Kingo

Dr Kingo is Executive Vice President, Corporate Relations, at Novo Nordisk.

Richard Laing

Dr Laing is Medical Officer, Policy, Access and Rational Use (Medicine Policy and Standards), at the World Health Organisation.

Anthony MBewu

Professor MBewu is the President of the Medical Research Council of South Africa.

Vanessa Watson

Professor Watson is a specialist in housing and urban planning at the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics at the University of Cape Town.

Eddie McCaffrey

Mr Eddie McCaffrey (Ireland/United Kingdom) is OxHA’s New Media Director, developing avenues in new media as well as the more traditional videos. He is Director of Joose TV and has extensive experience of working with OxHA and its precursor, Oxford Vision 2020.

Tommy Hutchinson

Mr Tommy Hutchinson (United Kingdom) is the OxHA Project Director for ‘Youth, schools and future health’. He orchestrated the recent OxHA Youth Summit at the European Parliament and the new youth lifestyle league. He is also co-creator of the new OxHA online resources. Tommy is a director of the social marketing company, Equator Media Limited (http://www.equatormedia.co.uk) and is founder chairman of i-genius; establishing a world community of social entrepreneurs (http://www.i-genius.org).

Mpho Letlape

Mrs Mpho Letlape (South Africa) is Managing Director of the HR Division of Eskom Holdings, the leading energy company in Africa. Her portfolio covers HR Strategy, Policy and Services, which includes Health and Wellness of which HIV/AIDS is a critical part. She is Chair of the South African Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS (SABCOHA), a Board Member of the Global Health Initiative and a member of the Private Sector Delegation to the Global Fund.

She will be facilitating the session on ‘Health diplomacy’ at the summit.

Dinky Levitt

Professor Dinky Levitt (South Africa) is Head of the Division of Diabetic Medicine and Endocrinology at the University of Cape Town. She has participated in the development of national and international guidelines for the management of diabetes, recently chaired the IDF Africa task force for the development of guidelines for the region and participated in drafting the Africa Declaration for diabetes. She has served as chairperson of the Society for Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Africa, and as a consultant to the Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle Group at the MRC of South Africa.

David Matthews

Professor David Matthews (United Kingdom) is Professor of Diabetes Medicine, chairman of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology & Metabolism and a tutorial fellow of Harris Manchester College Oxford. He divides his time between research, teaching and clinical care.

He is on the OxHA Board of Trustees, and is very active in promoting the work of the Alliance. He is a member of the Summit Programme Committee.

Deepa Persad

Ms Deepa L. Persad (Canada) is the Program Research Coordinator for the Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health at the University of Toronto. She is the Research Coordinator of the Regenerative Medicine Ethics Network (RMEthnet) and also leads the WaterEngage internet-based public engagement module. Deepa is currently working with the Oxford Health Alliance on identifying the Grand Challenges in Chronic Non- Communicable Diseases and is a member of the Genomics and Nanotechnology Working Group of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation.

Scott Ratzen

Dr Scott Ratzen (Belgium/United States) is Vice President of Pharmaceuticals & Global Health at Johnson & Johnson. Prior to this, he was Senior Technical Adviser in the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where he developed the global health communication strategy for US-funded efforts in 65 countries for the next decade. As a former academic, he continues to lecture at a number of universities in the United States and Europe. He will be involved in the session on ‘Health diplomacy’ at the summit.

Massimo Vergnano

Mr Massimo Vergnano (Italy) is vice-chairman of Sudler & Hennessy, a communications agency specialising in health care.

He is speaking in the session on ‘Advertising health’.

Derek Yach

Dr Derek Yach (United States/South Africa) is Director of Global Health programmes at the Rockefeller Foundation, and prior to that he was Professor of Global Health at Yale University. During his time at the World Health Organisation, he was responsible for developing a new global ‘Health For All’ policy. He established the Tobacco Free Initiative and ensured that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was accepted by governments. His previous research was based in South Africa, where he established the Centre for Epidemiological Research at the Medical Research Council. He is a member of the Summit Programme

Committee and is on the OxHA Board. At this summit, he will be involved in the session on ‘Framing the context: chronic disease in the developing world’ and ‘Health diplomacy’.

Steve Leeder

Professor Steve Leeder (Australia) is the OxHA project director for ‘environmental design for prevention’, and is co-director of OxHA’s regional centre for Asia and the Western Pacific in the Australian Health Policy Institute at the University of Sydney, formally established as an OxHA partnership in May 2006. He is director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and the AHPI. His research encompasses urban design policy, and ways in which the quality of life of sufferers of chronic respiratory disease, congestive heart failure and diabetes can be improved.

He will be leading the working group on ‘Designing healthy cities’ at the summit.