Mark's Recent LinkedIn Posts

I’m delighted to begin the year by sharing several appointments that strengthen the Gates Foundation’s efforts to improve lives. Please join me in recognizing these leaders in their new roles. First, we welcome Dr. Sri Mulyani Indrawati to our Governing Board. Sri brings deep global and regional experience from her leadership at The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as her service as Indonesia’s longest-serving and first female Minister of Finance, including through the difficult days of the COVID-19 pandemic. She adds fresh perspective for the board as it guides the foundation’s direction over the next 20 years. I’m also pleased to announce two leadership appointments that build on deep, long-standing contributions from within the foundation. Hari Menon will serve as President of our Global Growth and Opportunity Division. Over nearly two decades at the foundation, Hari led our Gates Foundation India office and work across South and South-East Asia. In this new role, he will help integrate and advance our efforts to expand inclusive growth and economic opportunity globally. Ankur Vora becomes President of our newly-created Africa & India Offices Division, alongside his role as Chief Strategy Officer. Ankur has been a force in shaping our strategy and strengthening the execution of programs around the world. This new division reflects our commitment to elevating country and regional voices, ensuring strategies are informed by lived experience and deliver measurable impact. At a moment of both urgency and opportunity across global health and development, these leaders strengthen our connection to local work and the voices driving progress in their communities. I’m grateful to Sri, Hari, and Ankur for stepping into these roles, and I look forward to working together as we continue advancing the foundation’s mission. https://lnkd.in/drgqM3Cj

Since 2002, The Global Fund has saved 70 million lives, with death rates from HIV, TB, and malaria down 63% in supported countries. With sustained funding over the next 20 years, we can have even more impact protecting people from three devastating infectious diseases.   That’s why the Gates Foundation is joining governments and organizations worldwide to support the Global Fund’s next three-year strategy. We are proud to commit $912 million to support this important work.   In a recent Ideas article, Cynthia Mwase, Director, Africa Health at the Gates Foundation, highlights the impact this funding protects: mothers preventing HIV transmission to their infants, children growing up protected from malaria, and TB survivors receiving the life-sustaining care they need. Read their stories.     https://lnkd.in/eWuNxfZC

Krystal Birungi is living proof that global health programs matter. Growing up in Uganda, she saw malaria devastate her community. But The Global Fund made treatment and diagnosis possible, drastically reducing malaria deaths over the course of less than two decades. Now, Krystal works with Target Malaria at the Uganda Virus Research Institute as an entomologist, exploring new malaria-fighting innovations so that children don’t suffer as she did in 1995.     Her efforts—and those of global health programs—are working. When Krystal was growing up, one in three Ugandan children didn’t live past their fifth birthday. Thanks to global health progress, that number is now one in 25—but that positive trend is changing.   The health funding cuts we’ve seen over the past year to programs like the one that saved Krystal’s life affect real people—and continued cuts will mean a reversal of progress. In fact, they could lead to 12-16 million more children dying over the next 20 years from causes we know how to prevent. Yes, these numbers are alarming. But they are not inevitable. We have a chance to change course—to come together as a global community and save millions of children’s lives so they can live past their fifth birthdays and have the opportunity to accomplish their dreams.    Our goal is for no children to die from preventable diseases. We can’t stop at almost.    I was fortunate to spend time with Krystal at our New York Goalkeepers event in September and learn how her work as an entomologist is bringing us closer to a future where no child dies from this preventable disease. Her contributions to science and public health, and the story she shares so generously with us here, are invaluable as we continue to fight malaria.     Hear more from Krystal about the tools and innovations that can help us reach full elimination of malaria, and read our 2025 Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Report—including an essay from Krystal—out today: https://lnkd.in/g3sKz7eh.   #Goalkeepers2030