News Releases

The Global Fund’s Executive Director to step down in March

24 January 2012

Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine to step down in mid-March

Geneva - The Global Fund's Executive Director, Michel Kazatchkine, has decided to step down in mid-March after leading the organization for five years, during which time he oversaw a dramatic expansion in the organization's life-saving work.

"For the last ten years, the Global Fund has been my passion and my most important undertaking," Prof. Kazatchkine said in a statement to staff. "I am immensely proud of what the Global Fund has achieved in these ten years, and I am tremendously grateful that I have been able to play a central part in its evolution and success."

The Global Fund's Board in November decided to appoint a General Manager to oversee an ambitious transformation plan. The General Manager, whose appointment was the subject of a separate announcement today, will report to the Board.

Prof. Kazatchkine said that while he respects the Board's decision to appoint a General Manager and "trusts that it was made in the best interests of the Global Fund", he has concluded that he should not continue as Executive Director in these circumstances.

"I am committed to an orderly transition and I will do all that I can to ensure that the Global Fund emerges from it as a stronger organization," Prof. Kazatchkine said in his statement.

"Few individuals have played a more central role in the creation and evolution of the Global Fund than Michel," said the Global Fund's Board Chair, Simon Bland. "The Global Fund as we know it today, the millions of lives it has saved, and the many other successes and innovations with which the Fund is associated, all bear Michel's imprint. Most importantly, his unwavering commitment to health, to human rights and to supporting the weakest and the unprotected, has helped shape the Global Fund into the beacon of hope it is today for tens of millions of people around the world."