Executive Director

The Executive Director of the Global Fund is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the Global Fund’s operational and administrative functions. Working under the guidance of the Global Fund Board, the executive director defines the partnership’s strategic vision, and is accountable for its implementation and the results achieved. The executive director serves a four-year term.

Peter Sands became the executive director in March 2018.

A former Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered PLC, one of the world’s leading international banks, Sands was a research fellow at Harvard University between 2015 and 2017, dividing his time between the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Global Health Institute. During his period at Harvard, he worked on a range of research projects in financial markets and regulation, fintech and global health.

Prior to joining the Global Fund, Sands engagement with global health issues included:

  • Chairing the US National Academy of Medicine’s Commission on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future, which in January 2016 produced a highly influential report, “The Neglected Dimension of Global Security: A Framework to Counter Infectious Disease Threats”.
  • Chairing the World Bank’s International Working Group on financing preparedness, which in May 2017 published “From Panic and Neglect to Investing in Health Security: Financing Preparedness at a National Level”.
  • Authoring several papers on infectious disease crises in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and British Medical Journal.
  • Between 2011-2017, being the Lead Non-Executive Director on the Board of the UK’s Department of Health, providing policy direction to the UK’s National Health Service.
  • Being an active member on both the US National Academy of Science’s Committee on Ensuring Access to Affordable Drugs and the Forum on Microbial Threats.

Sands has served on various boards and commissions, including a Director of the World Economic Forum and Co-Chairman of Davos, Governor of the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Economic and Social Research, Member of the International Advisory Board of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Member of the Browne Commission on Higher Education Funding in the United Kingdom, Member of the China People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign People’s Global CEO Council, Co-Chair of the UK-India CEO Forum, Board Director of the Institute of International Finance, Chairman of the International Monetary Conference, Member of the International Advisory Board of Lingnan University, China, Trustee of the Camden Roundhouse, London. Sands is currently Chair of the Board of Cera, a digital-first home healthcare company based in the UK.

In 2026, Sands was recognized in the Devex Power 50 and the Time100 Health lists.

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