Health and Prosperity – Speakers

Kwasi Boahene

Director Health Systems at PharmAccess

Kwasi Boahene is Director of Health Systems at PharmAccess. He is a champion of sustainable financing and innovations of African health and development systems for the past 3 decades. Dr Boahene believes that with good governance, sustainable investments and innovations, everybody in Africa, irrespective of their wealth, can have access to better care. The work of PharmAccess has received many international recognitions, including G20 SME Finance Challenge Award 2010 (received from President Obama), Saving Lives at Birth Award (2014) – a global call for groundbreaking solutions to infant and maternal mortality, Financial Times/IFC Transformational Business Award in Health (2016, 2017) and  Commonwealth Digital Health Awards for Maternal Health (2020). Dr Boahene has worked in over 25 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, advising and setting up initiatives. He studied in Ghana, Oxford and Utrecht, and holds degrees in economics and public health.

Belinda Borck

Global Public Policy Coordinator& Chocolonely Foundation

Belinda Borck has worked for the Chocolonely Foundation for the past five years and, as its manager, she focuses on projects that contribute to the Foundation’s mission: strong, resilient, and prosperous cocoa communities and a responsible chocolate industry, where equality is the norm for all. As part of Tony’s Chocolonely Open Chain team, she drives Tony’s efforts to be at the front of the fight for a more equitable and sustainable cocoa supply chain. 

Krystal Birungi

Field Entomology Coordinatorm, Target Malaria Uganda

Krystal Mwesiga Birungi is the Field Entomology Coordinator for Target Malaria Uganda which is part of the Target Malaria consortium and based at the Uganda Virus Research Institute. For the past nine years, Krystal has been involved in research concerning An. gambiae sl populations in Uganda, mostly focusing on population dynamics, behaviour and species composition of this complex across the country.

Krystal holds a double major in Zoology and Botany from Makerere University. She is a speaker for the Global Fund Advocates Network and is passionate about reducing the malaria disease burden in Uganda and Africa as a whole.

Aarti Daryanani

Global Brand Manager, Lifebuoy Global (Unilever)

Aarti Daryanani has spent over 15 years working in sustainability and public health across Europe and Asia, the last nine of which have been with Unilever driving Lifebuoy, Unilever’s largest soap brand’s. 

Aarti has grown Lifebuoy’s handwashing behaviour change programme, which now reaches over 1 billion people across more than 30 countries, in partnership with over 50 NGOs and government partners. She led the launch of Lifebuoy’s award-winning campaign ‘H for Handwashing’ a movement that was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, and integrated handwashing practice into school curricula for children. This initiative has now reached over 15 million children globally. 

Aarti is driven by a strong purpose to support people to live better lives, a purpose which has resulted in her being recognized as a Unilever Hero in 2018. Outside of work, Aarti has embarked on a journey as an ICF-certified coach. She spends her free time on weekends working with young people, helping them discover what gives them joy, passion, and purpose. 

Guido Geerts

President & CEO of Delft Imaging Systems

Guido Geerts has 25+ years of experience in running multinational companies that deliver diagnostic imaging equipment and related software & services.  

Currently, Mr. Geerts is the President & CEO of Delft Imaging Systems, a company that provides diagnostic imaging devices & artificial intelligence solutions (CAD4TB) to National Tuberculosis Programs globally. Active in over 85 countries and with offices in Ghana and Indonesia, Delft’s solutions have helped to screen over 32 million people for tuberculosis. 

Mr. Geerts is also partner en strategic advisor of Thirona, a company that combines medical science and deep learning technology to enable advanced treatment development in clinical trials and to support pulmonary clinical care across the globe. Their focus is on high-precision quantitative analysis of thoracic CT scans for clinical applications.  

Björn Gillsäter

Managing Director Global Donor Relations, Advocacy & Fundraising 

Björn Gillsäter is Managing Director, Global Donor Relations, Advocacy & Fundraising at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. He has served on the Boards of the World Bank, African Development Bank, and European Investment Bank, representing the Swedish government and Nordic constituency. Björn was the founding head of the MOPAN Secretariat at the OECD, providing efficiency data for major funding countries. He was also the founding head of the World Bank-UNHCR Joint Data Center on Forced Displacement, managing activities in over 30 countries. As the World Bank’s Special Representative to the UN, he engaged in high-level policy debates and advocated for multilateral development banks’ involvement with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Björn holds a Master in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Harvard Business School. 

Mari-Luz Kerkhoven

ONE Youth Ambassador

Mari-Luz joined the ONE Youth Ambassador program in 2024, advocating for global health, international development cooperation, and equitable partnerships between European and African leaders. Through her role, she engaged with policymakers and, alongside two fellow Youth Ambassadors, successfully published an opinion piece on global health investments in Nederlands Dagblad. In addition to her volunteer work with ONE, she serves as a project manager at the Dutch Research Council (NWO). She holds a master’s degree in Conflict Resolution and Governance, with a particular focus on bottom-up approaches to conflict resolution. 

Annick Lenglet

Infectious disease field epidemiologist

Dr. Annick Lenglet is an infectious disease field epidemiologist with over 20 years of experience across several continents. She has worked on the design, implementation, and evaluation of surveillance systems, led and collaborated largescale outbreak response efforts, and led and participated in operational research linked to hepatitis A and E, cholera, noma, antimicrobial resistance, mental health, and non-communicable diseases. She completed her PhD on antimicrobial resistance in paediatric patient populations in humanitarian crises in 2022. Until recently she worked as the Acting Director of Science at the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions. Before joining ICARS, Annick worked for Médecins Sans Frontières, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization.

Matthew MacGregor

Head, Health Finance Department, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria

Matthew MacGregor is the Head, Health Finance at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. In this capacity, Matthew leads the Global Fund’s Health Finance Department to support countries to strengthen financial sustainability of national HIV, TB, and Malaria responses and health systems. Prior to his current role, Matthew served as the Deputy Head, Health Finance, helped guide the implementation of the Global Fund’s Sustainability, Transition, and Co-Financing (STC) policy, and managed Global Fund grants as a “Fund Portfolio Manager”. Before joining the Global Fund in 2014, Matthew worked in a variety of capacities in health and development in Latin America, South-East Asia, and the US, including as the Executive Director of a US-based health NGO. He holds a Masters degree with a focus on development economics from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Racheal Mirembe

Economist and Health Sub-Programme Budget Analyst of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Uganda

Racheal Mirembe is an Economist and Health Sub-Programme Budget Analyst of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development Uganda. She has a Master’s in Economic Policy Management from Makerere University is interested in the effects of foreign aid on Uganda’s economic growth. 

Ed Monchen

CEO, i+solutions, The Netherlands 

After 20 years in various corporate roles Ed decided to dedicate his time and energy to global health. First as COO of the Access to Medicine Foundation. Based in the Netherlands, the Foundation publishes the Access to Medicine Index, the first Index of its kind to rank pharmaceutical companies with respect to their efforts to improve global access to medicine. In his current role of CEO of i+solutions, since 2017, he is able to fulfil his desire to really deliver essential medicines to the people who need them.  

i+solutions is a foundation specialized in global health supply chains. As Procurement Services Agent for the Global Fund and StopTB Partnership, i+solutions procures and delivers essential medicines for the treatment and prevention of HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria to over 120 low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The other core activity of i+solutions is advising LMICs how to innovate and digitize their health supply chain up to the last mile. In 2023, i+solutions has set up a private sector B2B platform for the procurement of affordable quality health commodities, called XS2Meds.  

Ed has a background in developing strategies and fund raising for new innovative business concepts. As an entrepreneurial manager, he has worked in The Netherlands and abroad for various start-up and blue chip companies (HP, AON). Since 2008, he is active in the field of sustainable development and global health. Ed studied Management Science and Industrial Engineering at the Technical University Eindhoven. 

Jan-Willem Scheijgrond

Vice President – Global Government & Public Affairs

Mr. Scheijgrond currently serves as Vice President and Global Head of Government and Public Affairs at Philips, where he leads relations between Philips and public sector representatives, such as governments and international institutions. The Government Affairs function works to address global healthcare transformation challenges, in particular health system strengthening, geopolitical developments, climate change, digital technologies, and the resilience to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is also responsible for public-private partnerships with institutions such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, and other international development partners. Mr. Scheijgrond focuses on partnerships that strengthen health systems and foster sustainable and equitable healthcare.

Mr. Scheijgrond is the Chairman of the United Nations Global Compact Network Netherlands, and President of the European trade association COCIR. He is also Steering Committee member of the Partnership for Health Systems Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR).

Dr. Anja Schreijer

Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam 

Anja Schreijer is a medical specialist in infectious disease control who has worked for various national and international governments, WHO and ECDC. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she chaired the National Consultation on Infectious Disease Control, which was responsible for making scientifically sound agreements about the medical content for nationally uniform control of infectious diseases. In addition, she was a permanent member of the national outbreak management team that advises the Netherlands’ government on pandemic control. She has a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology and she is a Member of the Advisory Committee on Public Health Emergencies (ACPHE) that is recently established by the European Commission.  Doctor Schreijer is currently working as Medical Director of the Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Center in Rotterdam, affiliated with the Erasmus Medical Center. 

Anja strongly believes in the interdisciplinary approach to disasters and pandemics and also advocates for integrated advice and targeted communication around interventions. 

Guillaume Simonian

 Unit head, humanitarian policy and interagency coordination, WHO 

Guillaume Simonian is unit head, humanitarian policy and interagency coordination in WHO Headquarters, overseeing the development of WHO humanitarian policies, coordination with UN, NGOs, Red Cross humanitarian partners, the global health and peace initiative, and the attacks on healthcare programme. 

Guillaume was before taking this position the WHO Representative in Bulgaria (2023-2024), overseeing WHO diplomatic liaison, representation, as well as strategic, technical, and operational programmes of WHO in Bulgaria. Prior to this he was Ukraine WHO Deputy Representative (2020-2023). In Ukraine Guillaume oversaw WHO operational programmes related to health systems, public health, emergency preparedness and International Health Regulations (2005) core capacities building as well as incident manager for several graded emergencies. He oversaw in this role WHO’s wide-range support to health reforms including health and trust programmes, as well as COVID-19 response, polio outbreak, and war emergencies. 

Ingrid van Wees

Ingrid van Wees is a seasoned finance and risk management professional. She is a Director on the Board of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) and serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director on the Board of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

She was Vice President for Finance and Risk Management at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) from 2016 to 2021, where she oversaw the operations of the Office of Risk Management, Controller’s Department, and Treasury Department. Prior to her role at ADB, Ingrid was a Senior Director at the German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG) from 2004 to 2016. She began her career in the private sector, spending 12 years (1992–2004) with leading international companies in infrastructure and consumer goods.

Ingrid holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MSc from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

Mark Vermeulen

Executive Director Aidsfonds – Soa Aids Nederland

Mark Vermeulen is the Executive Director of Aidsfonds – Soa Aids Nederland. With Aidsfonds, he is actively committed to a world without new HIV infections and is working towards the broader goal of completely eradicating AIDS. Under his leadership, Aidsfonds is not only focusing on achieving zero new HIV infections in the Netherlands, but also on international cooperation with local organisations and communities in countries with a high HIV infection rate. Mark also advocates for more funding for the fight against HIV worldwide and is vice-chair of Funders Concerned About AIDS, an international coalition that is committed to increasing financial support for HIV programmes. He is committed to increasing access to care, HIV prevention and medical resources, especially for people who often fall outside the regular healthcare system. Mark has been living with HIV since 2007 and is an active member of the movement dedicated to ending AIDS in the world. He speaks openly about his life with HIV in order to remove the stigma and contribute to a better understanding of people living with HIV. Mark has a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from Erasmus University’s Rotterdam School of Management. He also has a master’s degree in political science and American studies from the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

Marijke Wijnroks

Head of the Strategic Investment and Impact Division at the Global Fund

Marijke Wijnroks is Head of the Strategic Investment and Impact Division at the Global Fund, overseeing four departments: Access to Funding, Programmatic Monitoring, Technical Advice and Partnerships, and Community, Rights and Gender. She was Chief of Staff at the Global Fund between 2013 and 2022 and served for a period of nine months as Interim Executive Director in 2017.

Marijke is a medical doctor who worked in South Sudan, Uganda, Bangladesh and El Salvador for NGOs and the UN. Before joining the Global Fund, Marijke was Ambassador for HIV/Aids and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Deputy Director for Social Development in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, overseeing policy development on HIV, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender, education and civil society.

Mayada El-Zoghbi

Managing Director KIT Institute

Mayada is the Managing Director of KIT Institute. She has over 30 years of development assistance experience working on improving the lives of poor and low-income people.  Prior to joining KIT, she was the Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion and worked at the World Bank in DC and Paris.