[Ip-health] Wall Street Journal: Global Fund Seeks New List Of Candidates for Top Post

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116249477498011662.html



  Global Fund Seeks New List
  Of Candidates for Top Post

By *BETSY MCKAY*
November 2, 2006 3:23 p.m.; Page B2

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria declined to name
a new chief this week as planned and, in a surprise move, said it would
seek a fresh crop of candidates.

The foundation's 24-member board had been scheduled to appoint a new
executive director to succeed its current executive director, Richard
Feachem, who has led the organization since its inception in 2002. But
its failure to reach a consensus on a candidate suggests that some board
members weren't satisfied with five finalists identified by a search
committee last month and are seeking a stronger contender.

The five candidates the board deliberated over at a meeting in Guatemala
this week include Jim Kolbe, a Republican congressman and Bill Roedy,
vice chairman of *Viacom* Inc.'s MTV Networks and president of MTV
Networks International. Other candidates included Michel Kazatchkine, a
former Global Fund vice chairman who is France's ambassador for HIV/AIDS
and communicable diseases; Michel Sidibe, a UNAIDS official and a
26-year veteran of international public health and development; and
Hilde Johnson, a former minister of international development in Norway.

While some well-known public-health veterans were among the finalists,
the list didn't include some of the more prominent figures in global
public health. Many challenges await the Global Fund's new chief: he or
she must accelerate fund raising among large donor countries to fight
the three killer diseases to which the foundation is devoted, public
health experts say.

"Given differing perceptions of the strengths needed to continue the
Global Fund's rapid progress," the board "could not reach consensus on a
single candidate," Carol Jacobs, the board's chairwoman, said in a
statement. She said the board will aim to appoint a new executive
director by its next meeting in April 2007.

The Global Fund, based in Geneva, also said its board approved a $604
million round of new grants, bringing its total portfolio of grants
awarded so far to $6.4 billion in 135 countries.