Speakers

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Keynote

Dr. Richard Brennan

Director of Emergency Operations, Emergencies Programme
World Health Organization (WHO)
Rick Brennan, World Health Organization

Dr. Richard Brennan is Director of Emergency Operations in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) new Emergencies Programme. Based in Geneva, he oversees support to  WHO’s response to health emergencies globally.  The new programme brings together several departments in WHO to streamline the organization’s role in emergencies, from prevention and preparedness to response, and from humanitarian emergencies to disease outbreaks.

From October 2014 to January 2016, Dr. Brennan was the Director of Ebola Response at WHO headquarters.  He has extensive experience in humanitarian emergencies  and post-conflict settings in over 35 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.  He is an emergency physician from Australia with broad clinical and public health experience.  He has worked with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on humanitarian and civil-military issues.  Thereafter, Dr. Brennan spent 10 years as the Health Director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in New York, overseeing technical support to humanitarian programmes world-wide.  Immediately prior to joining WHO in 2012, he spent two-and-a-half years with JSI Research and Training in Liberia, managing a large post-conflict health system reconstruction project.

Welcome Address

Shanelle Hall

Deputy Executive Director
UNICEF
Shanelle Hall, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF

Shanelle Hall was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 6 June 2016. Ms Hall served as Director of UNICEF’s Supply Division (2007-2016), the organization’s procurement and logistics headquarters in Copenhagen, where she oversaw UNICEF’s global supply activities and emergency supply response, with an annual expenditure exceeding USD 3.4 billion.  She helped to expand the Supply function beyond service delivery to being a major strategic contributor to UNICEF results.  Prior to that role, Shanelle served as Deputy Director of Supply Division and Chief of Immunization in Supply Division. Ms Hall introduced “vaccine security” as a means of safeguarding a sustainable, uninterrupted supply of affordable, quality vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable children.  Prior to joining UNICEF in 1998, Shanelle had a distinguished career with the private sector. Ms Hall is a U.S. national from Seattle, Washington and is an Industrial and Systems Engineer.

Etleva Kadilli

Director a.i.
UNICEF Supply Division
Etleva Kadilli, UNICEF Copenhagen

Etleva Kadilli is the Director a.i., of UNICEF’s Supply Division, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and oversees UNICEF's global supply chain functions, with an annual expenditure exceeding USD 3.4 billion. In this capacity she is responsible for the effective, efficient and ethical provision of essential and emergency supplies to children in need, through direct UNICEF programmes, cooperation with Governments and partners. She also represents UNICEF in interagency engagement on UN procurement reform. Prior, Ms Kadilli was Deputy Director, Supply Chain, where she was responsible for the management of UNICEF’s supply response to humanitarian crises, contracting policy and procedures, quality assurance of UNICEF-procured products, global logistics operations and the professional development of UNICEF’s supply and logistics staff. Ms Kadilli has worked in supply operations for more 20 years, including at the headquarters and field level, as well as in development and emergency contexts where she managed programme operations in Albania, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Gambia and Somalia.  In 2011 Ms Kadilli joined UNICEF’s Supply Division as contract manager and Medical Unit Team Leader for health technology supplies in support of MNCH and HIV/AIDS programmes. She later became the Chief of Contracting responsible for oversight and the normative function of procurement of goods and services, procurement strategy development and strategic contracts, ethical provisions and compliance. Ms Kadilli holds a Master’s degree in Science with a speciality in Finance. She is an Albanian national. 

 

Panelists

Stéphane Arnaud

Senior Emergency Supply Manager, Supply Division
UNICEF Copenhagen
Stéphane Arnaud, UNICEF

Stéphane Arnaud is currently working as Senior Emergency Supply Manager in UNICEF Supply Division. In this capacity he is responsible for the emergency preparedness and response coordination for the UNICEF’s global supply chain functions. Previously, he served as Contract Manager leading the Planning & Forecasting unit of the Immunization.  Furthermore, he also served in Supply & Logistics positions at UNICEF country offices levels such as Niger and Angola; and has been regularly deployed to lead or support UNICEF emergency supply and logistics response. Prior to joining UNICEF, M. Arnaud worked for several years for INGOs and the private sector in the field of supply chain management in Africa and Asia. He is a French national Industrial Engineer specialized in Business Management.

Jean Christophe Aze

Chief a.i, Operations Support & Logistics (OSL)
WHE/ EMO (Emergency Operations)
World Health Organization
JC Aze, WHO

JC Azé is Chief Operation Support and Logistics (OSL) in the Emergency Response department  (EMO) at WHO. As Logistics team lead between 2007 and 2016 in the Outbreak Response, he was involved in major Outbreaks and Pandemic Responses.  He and his team actively participate to the current reform process developing the WHO Emergency Program across the organization by designing and implementing the OSL across the 3 levels of the organization. Before his 11 years experience in the WHO he worked with MSF during 15 years successively as Logistics officer, country coordinator, finance controller and desk officer in the Department of Operations.

James (Jim) Coughlan

Global Solutions Director- Humanitarian Logistics
UPS (Geneva)
James Coughlan, UPS

James was a member of the UPS management team for over 30 years.  During that tenure, he had responsibilities in Operations, Industrial Engineering, Network Planning, Special Projects, and Solutions.  His assignments led him to New York, New Jersey, Texas, and Atlanta.  The last 20 years were mostly in the Customer Solutions/Professional Services arena.  As the Southwest Region Customer Solutions Director, James managed a team of resources in support of complex UPS customers in the High Tech & Retail industry verticals.  As the Customer Solutions Vice President, he helped design and deploy the Global Accounts model for UPS’s most complex and international clients.  Additional rotations included Program Management, Client Facing Solutions Management, and then became the Global President for Customer Solutions in 2011. 

During the period of 2007-2010, he was involved in the design and development of a new strategy for the UPS Foundation.  That strategy was an integrated approach- combing Solutions support and Strategic gift- giving for the Humanitarian Supply chain needs of selected strategic partners of the UPS Foundation. These partners included, the American Red Cross, UNICEF, CARE, and World Food Programme. James retired from UPS in early 2014. In early 2016, an opportunity was presented that combined this background and his personal goal of engaging the Humanitarian sector and providing support in some capacity.  UPS had agreed to provide a loaned executive to the international aid agency, The Global Fund.  This agency is based in Geneva, Switzerland and its mission is to eradicate the disease burdens of HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. 

Paula Fernandes

Founder & CEO
Global Scientific Solutions for Health (GSSH)
Paula Fernandes, Global Scientific Solutions

Paula Fernandes has spent much of her career identifying, evaluating and increasing access to high-quality, well-established and novel diagnostics. A biomedical scientist with over 20 years of clinical, research and public health experience, Dr. Fernandes works on medical diagnostic and quality assurance challenges specific to resource-limited, conflict and post-conflict settings. She has led the establishment of laboratory quality improvement networks in West Africa and Southeast Asia and from November 2014 - January 2015 she was part of the Ebola emergency response team in Sierra Leone. Dr. Fernandes also has a special interest in health supply chain systems. With a PhD in Genetics from Cambridge University and an MBA in international business, she leads scientific direction and ensures streamlined business practices to maximize efficiency at GSSHealth. 

Kristoffer Gandrup-Marino

Chief of Innovation
UNICEF Supply Division
Kristoffer Gandrup-Marino

Kristoffer has spent over 10 years working with innovation, specialising in creating structures and strategies that enable ideas to be turned into products that have a real impact. Joining UNICEF Supply Division in 2013 from leading Danish biotech company Novozymes, his expertise regarding innovation and technology promotes the development of user-driven innovations for UNICEF’s programmes and emergencies.

Vidhya Ganesh

Deputy Director of Programme Division
UNICEF
Vidhya Ganesh

Ms. Vidhya R Ganesh, was appointed as Deputy Director of Programme Division for UNICEF Headquarters New York in January 2016.  Vidhya has joined from the UNICEF Botswana Office where she served as Representative from 2014-2016, prior to which she served as the Deputy Representative in Afghanistan from November 2011 to July 2014 and Sierra Leone from March 2009 to November 2011. A national of India, Vidhya is a public health specialist with many years of experience in infectious diseases public health programme, especially HIV/AIDS, polio & immunization, reproductive health and health systems strengthening.  She has over fifteen years of experience that include work in the areas of Senior Management, UN AIDS, World Health Organization, DFiD and NGOs at national and regional level.  She brings with her strong planning and results based management skills, county programme experience and effective team management. Vidhya holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Pace University, New York City, USA and a Master Degree in Public Health (Tropical Medicine/Epidemiology) from Columbia University, New York, USA.

Tor Inge Garvik

Product Development Manager
Laerdal Global Health
Tor Inge Garvik, Laerdal Global Health

Tor Inge Garvik is an industrial designer and leads the product development team of Laerdal Global Health. Working towards the mission of “Helping Save Lives”, the nonprofit company works within international alliances for global health and innovation to develop and make solutions available that will help save hundreds of thousands of newborns and mothers at day of birth every year. Collaborative efforts across organizations and iterative development, in close interaction with users and experts, drive the design process. The team is located in Norway and India. Tor Inge obtained his masters from the Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU). Before joining Laerdal in 2007, he worked as a designer for the Peter Opsvik design studio. He has also worked as a program manager for Design without Borders (Foundation for Design and architecture in Norway) and with the Design for Sustainability group at TU Delft. He has a keen interest in collaborative innovation and human-centered design.

Moses Kamabare

General Manager
National Medical Stores, Uganda
Moses Kamabare

Mr. Kamabare Moses is currently the General Manager and CEO of National Medical Stores (NMS). NMS is a public enterprise whose mandate is to Procure, Warehouse and Distribute Medicines and Medical supplies to all Public Health Facilities in Uganda. For 10 years as CEO, he has led and directed teams that were able to consolidate and integrate the various supply chains into one effective Public Supply chain as part of business re-engineering. NMS also provides logistics for  the Military and Police Medical emergency operations and to other partners as The Global Fund, WHO, UNICEF and USAID for ARVs, Vaccines and commodities for ICCM that are delivered to more than 2900 individual health facilities through the 'last mile'. In 2016, UGANDA/NMS was awarded by UNICEF for exceptional achievement in Effective Vaccine Management (EVM) criteria scores and  Infrastructural Capacity and Quality, at National level.Before joining NMS, he worked with Uganda Police Force for 13 years, providing technical expertise in Forensic and Narcotics Investigations.He is a Pharmacist by training and holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) with Advanced International training in Strategic Studies, Forensic and Narcotic investigations. 

Musonda Kasonde

Capacity Development Manager
UNICEF Supply Division
Musonda Kasonde, UNICEF SD

Musonda is the Capacity Development Manager at UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen responsible for national supply chain (SC) strengthening and capacity development initiatives across the globe. She has over 19 years of experience in Procurement and Supply Chain Management covering a diverse range of commodities and contexts. Her experience has been acquired in a broad range of organizations including UNICEF Nigeria, the UN in Tanzania, Citigroup, Capgemini Ernst and Young, Ericsson and Nokia in the UK. Over the past 3 years she has been chairing the people and practices working group, a group of partners with a common interest in developing SC leadership and strengthening human resources at country level under the Gavi Alliance Immunization SC strategy. She is also supporting a number of initiatives at global and country level to drive a more strategic and sustainable approach to supply chain strengthening interventions. Musonda holds a Bachelors’ degree in Electronic Engineering, a Bachelors’ degree in law and an MBA in Procurement and Supply Management. 

Feston Kaupa

CEO
Central Medical Stores Trust, Malawi
Feston Kaupa, Central Medical Stores Trust, Malawi

Trained as a business and finance expert, Mr. Kaupa has over twenty years of progressive professional experience in the development and implementation of institutional strategies and policies.Over the years, Mr. Kaupa has developed a successful career in strategic business and financial management, institutional re-engineering, and sustainable leadership development in both the private and public sectors. Currently he is the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST). CMST is a public Trust of the Government of Malawi responsible for procurement, warehousing; and sales and distribution of medicines and medical supplies. He has previously worked in various capacities for the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Ltd (ESCOM), MANICA (Mw) Ltd and the Natural Resources College. Feston holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Accountancy. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and also a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (FCMA) and also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (ICAM) and also a member of the Malawi Institute of Procurement and Supply (MIPS). Mr. Kaupa is currently reading for a PhD in Supply Chain Management with the University of KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa.

Debra Kristensen

Director, Vaccine and Pharmaceutical Technologies
PATH
Debra Kristensen, PATH

Debbie Kristensen is the Director of Vaccine and Pharmaceutical Technologies at PATH – leading PATH’s work in the areas of formulation, delivery devices and packaging, and supply systems and equipment. She is responsible for portfolios of projects centered on advancing vaccine and pharmaceutical product and system innovations that reduce costs, ease logistics, improve safety, expand coverage, and maximize public health impact in low-resource settings. For example, she led PATH’s work on the vaccine vial monitor, auto disable syringes, and vaccine freeze prevention technologies; has authored and edited numerous WHO vaccine management training and policy documents; and led PATH’s efforts on project Optimize – a WHO/PATH project to identify, develop and test solutions to prepare developing country supply chains for the future.  Prior to joining PATH, Ms. Kristensen was the product manager for SiMED Corporation, a medical device company, and a chemist/toxicologist for SmithKline BioScience Laboratories. Ms. Kristensen has a BA degree in biology from Pacific Lutheran University and a MBA degree in marketing and finance from the University of Washington.

Ken Legins

Chief, Supply Chain Strengthening Center, Supply Division
UNICEF Copenhagen

Ken Legins is currently Chief, Supply Chain Strengthening Center, UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen.  Before joining Supply Division in December of 2016, Ken was the Senior Advisor, Global HIV Policy and Evidence, UNICEF New York; and the Chief of HIV and AIDS in UNICEF Beijing. He also worked with the World Health Organization Office for Eastern and Central Europe as a woman’s and adolescent health expert.  Ken has led a number of efforts to integrate supply and health programming at country level, exemplified by such initiatives as supporting the first national supply chain assessment for HIV-related drugs and diagnostics in China; facilitating the procurement of low-cost ARVs for non-government controlled areas of Ukraine, and strengthening the ‘last mile’ supply chain for integrated community case management (iCCM) of child hood illnesses in collaboration with the Global Fund in Africa.  Ken received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in ’92 in Biology and Sociology, and Masters in Public Health from Yale University School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health in ’95.  

Mustafa Mahmud

Zonal Director (Northeast Zone)
National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Nigeria
Dr. Mustafa Mahmud

Dr Mustafa Zubairu Mahmud was the Director of Logistics and Health Commodities and Chairman of Project Implementation and the National Logistics Working groups for the Nigerian National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). Since 2014, he has been responsible for leading and nurturing the department and the entire logistics system of the country to a world class logistics and supply chain outfit. He has recently undertaken capability building initiatives for the new department working in partnership with BMGF via McKinsey. Under his leadership, the department has produced a vaccine dashboard for the country enhancing accountability, built a collaborative partnership base for an end to end transformation of the logistics supply chain and is implementing a blue print for visibility and analytic network where all indicators of immunization will be housed in one place. In the last two weeks, with the elevation of the zonal offices to directorates, he was redeployed to the north east region to help address the huge health and humanitarian challenges brought about by the Boko Haram insurgency. From 2010-14, Dr. Mahmud was Chief Medical Officer for Immunization, and he has also worked in a number of roles in managing patient care, both as the proprietor of a medical facility and as the consulting physician for clinical services. He earned his MB, BS. from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, and he completed a partial MBA at the University of Ilorin and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Lagos in 2004. In May 2015, Dr. Mahmud completed the certificate program hosted by Georgia Tech in Health & Humanitarian Supply Chain Management.

Ingvild von Krogh Strand

Senior Advisor
Norwegian Emergency Preparedness System, Innovation Norway
Ingvild von Krogh Strand, Innovation Norway

Ingvild has close to 10 years’ experience working with innovation and entrepreneurship, specializing in innovative public private partnerships for social impact and fostering sustainable business models. She joined NOREPS in 2015 from the startup division in Innovation Norway, having developed and scaled Global Entrepreneurship initiatives for the organisation in Asia, US and nationally. In her current position in NOREPS, she focuses on building structures and partnerships to meet the new mandate from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on humanitarian innovation.

James Walsh

Emergency Management Specialist
Emergency Response and Recovery Branch, Global Rapid Response Team
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
James Walsh, CDC

James Walsh is an Emergency Management Specialist for CDC’s Emergency Response and Recovery Branch, Global Rapid Response Team.  His primary focus is field logistics and the support of deployed team members.  Deployed twice to Guinea during the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak, he worked closely with WFP and the Guinea MoH coordinating receipt of donations and in the development of supply distribution plans.  In 2016, he deployed to Haiti following the landfall of hurricane Matthew to assist with CDC field operations there.  James also has extensive domestic response experience to multiple natural disasters and disease outbreaks across the U.S. When not responding, James often assists other teams/offices in conducting field training for international partners or evaluating MoH emergency operations centers.  Considered an expert in this area, he first received Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) certification through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) in 2010.  James also facilitates various courses including the Homeland Security Planner’s Course and will soon begin instructing advanced level incident management theory and application to both domestic and international partners.        

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About the Conference Series

The Health & Humanitarian Conference series is organized each year by the Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems (CHHS) at Georgia Tech in partnership with INSEAD, MIT, and Northeastern University, with generous support from corporate and other organizational sponsors.

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