Global Fund searching for a new boss

Outgoing Global Fund executive director, Mark R Dybul. Photo/AFP

The Global Fund Board in Geneva has launched a search process for its top job, after the current executive director Mark Dybul's completed his four year term.

The board has also launched a committee to help choose the best candidate for the slot.

New Vision has confirmed that the search committee comprises of nine international medical and epidemiology experts, including Uganda's Prof. Vinand Nantulya.

Nantulya is currently the Uganda AIDS Commission chairperson.

Others on the panel are  Jan Paehler; Amy Baker, Michèle Boccoz, Sarah Boulton, Hristijan Jankuloski, and Filipe da Costa. The two independent members, Eric Goosby and Mphu Ramatlapeng, are both former Board members.

The Executive Director leads the staff of Global Fund, supervising and coordinating the management of grants, finances, resource mobilization, innovation, advocacy and staffing. The Executive Director reports directly to the Board, and is supported by a Management Executive Committee.

The Executive Director is appointed by the Board for a four-year term.

In November 2012, the Board selected Dr. Mark Dybul to serve as Executive Director. He began in January 2013.

In a statement seen by New Vision, the Board stated: "Mark Dybul, the current Executive Director, informed the Board two years ago that he intended to step down in 2017, at the completion of his four-year term, to return to his position as a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C."

Dybul is credited for his dynamic leadership at the Global Fund, including his  focus on achieving impact, strong financial and risk management, effective partner engagement.

The nomination committee, with the support of an executive search firm, expects to interview the best candidates and to recommend up to four final candidates to the Board for its consideration at a retreat in late February. It intends to make a selection by March 1,2017.

"The Global Fund's next Executive Director will oversee and guide the implementation of the 2017-2022 Strategy, "Investing to End Epidemics," designed to maximize impact against HIV, TB and malaria and build resilient and sustainable systems for health. The strategy is fully aligned with partner plans and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals," the board said in a statement.

Candidates for the role are expected to demonstrate a track record of exceptional leadership, excellent management skills, extensive partner engagement, energetic resource mobilization, and sustained advocacy.

The Global Fund is a 21st-century partnership organization designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. Founded in 2002, the Global Fund is a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases. The Global Fund raises and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in countries and communities most in need.

 The Global Fund is based in Geneva.

The Global Fund has since 2002, supported Uganda with a total of $1 billion, to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Uganda accounts for 5% of the global HIV burden, with about 1.5 million people living with HIV at a prevalence rate of 7.3%.

The country also accounts for 1 % of TB global burden and ranks 20th among the 22 high burden countries. On malaria, Uganda accounts for 4% of the global burden and is ranked 3rd out of the 18 countries that account for 90% of malaria infections in Sub-Saharan Africa.