GAVI Secretariat

Helen Evans was appointed as the GAVI Alliance's first Deputy Chief Executive Officer in June 2009. In this role, Helen is responsible for oversight of strategic planning and the performance and management of the Alliance Secretariat. Prior to joining GAVI, Helen served for four years as the Deputy Executive Director at the Global Fund to Fights AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Helen is an Australian who has had 30 years experience as a senior manager in health and social policy. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Psychology and a graduate degree in Social Administration. Her career in health has included key posts within the Australian Government, including heading the Communicable Diseases Branch in the Australian Health Ministry for the first half of 1990s and heading the Australian Government’s Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health from 1997-2005. Helen has worked closely with AusAid, Australia’s development assistance agency, advising on HIV/AIDS programs in the Asia Pacific region. Helen represented Australia on the first UNAIDS Board.

Prior to joining GAVI in 2008, Nina directed the policy department at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, a product development partnership focused on the development of medicines for tuberculosis. In this capacity, she led the TB Alliances efforts to promote adoption and introduction of new TB drugs, co-chaired the Stop TB Partnership’s task force on retooling and was a member of the Center for Global Development’s working group on demand forecasting.

Nina has spent over 20 years in international health. For seven years she directed the Soros’ Foundations global public health programme, which focused on a range of critical issues, including strengthening health systems, TB, HIV/AIDS, and programs aimed at vulnerable populations. She also worked in maternal/child health, first with the Population Council and then with AVSC International (now Engender Health), focusing on the introduction of new programmes and technologies.

Nina holds degrees from Harvard and Columbia Universities, is member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the faculty of the department of population and family health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. She has served on the programme committees for Doctors of the World USA, Treatment Action Groups TB/HIV project, and the Open Society Institute’s Public Health Watch programme, as well as on the boards of the Stop TB Partnership, the European Observatory for Health Care Reform, AIDS Foundation East/West, the Open Health Institute in Moscow, and IGLHRC.

Mercy has been in charge of GAVI's Programme Delivery department (formerly Country Support) since 2003. She has oversight responsibility for supporting GAVI eligible countries to implement the introduction of new and under-used vaccines and strengthen their health systems. She has coordinated various GAVI work streams including the Hib study, which led to the creation of the Hib Initiative in 2005.

Mercy has more than 20 years experience working in policy development and implementation of integrated health services and immunisation programmes in developing countries. She is a medical doctor with a postgraduate degree in Tropical Paediatrics.

Mercy comes from Ghana. Prior to joining GAVI, she worked with the national immunisation programme and was also responsible for public health services at the district and provincial levels.

Joelle joined GAVI in July 2009 as Managing Director for External Relations, overseeing GAVI’s resource mobilisation, advocacy and public policy and communications activities. She has spent the last 20 years in senior management of global health organisations, most recently as Senior Vice President at the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria (GBC), as well as committee member and focal point for the private sector on the Board of Directors of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Her previous responsibilities included founding Director of Advocacy and Public Affairs at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), and US Executive Director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Joelle also brings experience from Africa, where she headed medical missions in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, as well as a private sector background: her prior career was as a junior executive in information technologies product marketing in California, France and Japan.

Joelle is a French and US national and holds a French master in management information systems from Paris-Dauphine University and a Master in Business of Administration (MBA) from HEC /ISA, France’s top business school joint program with Stanford University Graduate School of Business where she completed her last year of study.

Barry joined GAVI in February 2010. His career spans the commercial and cause-driven sectors with over thirty years’ experience in finance, general management and consulting. Barry brings to GAVI considerable knowledge of development financing from his immediately prior role as Chief Financial Officer of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He was integral to the development of the Global Fund’s financial management, fundraising and grant making for more than seven years from its inception in 2002.

Drawing on a background in business restructuring acquired while training with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Barry’s initial post-qualification years were devoted to the successful turnaround of a group of manufacturing companies in Ireland. Following that, he moved to Switzerland as general manager of a financial consultancy firm and later was Chief Executive of an internet enterprise. His desire to apply business acumen to the advancement of global needs led him to the World Wide Fund for Nature where he was responsible for financial planning and corporate marketing. He developed and implemented WWF’s corporate Conservation Partner initiative and managed other innovative fundraising mechanisms.

An Irish citizen, Barry is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Prior to joining GAVI full-time in April 2010, David Ferreira was the founding investment manager of Soul City Broad-Based Empowerment Company (SCBBEC), an investment company owned by the South African non-profit organisation Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication. David is currently a non-executive director of ADvTECH Ltd, a listed education company, as well as of SCBBEC. He also served as a non-executive director of the MIIU Company, which provided financial and technical assistance to South African municipalities seeking to create public-private partnerships; this was an appointment made by the Cabinet of the Mandela government.

David was a founding shareholder and director of Praxis Capital, a private equity business focused on South Africa’s healthcare and education sectors. Before Praxis, David's background was largely in project and corporate finance. He established and managed the Private Sector Investments Unit of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Prior to that, at the World Bank, David helped to design new financial instruments to enable governments in Asia and Latin America to attract private financing to infrastructure projects.

David started his career in South Africa as a human rights and labour lawyer. He also subsequently practiced with the US law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, assisting clients with financings in the bank, bond and equities markets.

David is a Rhodes Scholar, with an MSc from the London School of Economics, an MA from Oxford University, and BA and LLB degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Prior to joining GAVI in August 2010, Debbie was the Director of Law and Governance at the London Development Agency. In this capacity Debbie led the legal and governance support for the acquisition of the Olympic Land and Olympic Legacy for Londoners post 2012, led the negotiations for the transfer of the Olympic legacy and provided support for numerous multimillion regeneration projects involving Government stakeholders, the Mayor’s office, leading banks, major developers and the Third sector. Debbie was also Secretary to the Board and Board committees of the London Development Agency as well as being a member of the Executive Team.

Debbie has over 20 years experience as a solicitor with international expertise in supporting organisations in periods of significant change, ensuring legal compliance and maximising commercial opportunities. Debbie started her career at Allen & Overy, solicitors, moving to Harland and Wolff Holdings plc in Belfast, Eurotunnel plc, Angel Trains Ltd (a subsidiary of RBS at that time) and National Air Traffic Services Ltd where she has provided legal support in a multi jurisdictional and international environments for large and prestigious projects.

Debbie holds a law degree from Warwick University and is a member of the Law Society in England and Wales.

Cees joined GAVI in November 2009 to establish the Internal Audit function. Prior roles include Vice President Internal Control of a large, publicly listed multinational; partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in its external audit practice; and partner with KPMG in its risk management and internal audit advisory practice.

Cees has also been CFO of a medium-sized retail company and corporate controller of a large scientific research institute. He is currently a member of the Advisory Council of COSO, the not-for-profit organisation that publishes internal control and risk management frameworks that are used by organisations all over the world.

A native of The Netherlands, where he has spent most of his career, Cees also lived and worked in the Unites States for a period of ten years. He is a Dutch Chartered Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor, and also holds an MBA, from Florida Atlantic University. Throughout his career, Cees has been able to develop and apply theoretically sound concepts to achieve major improvements in internal control and risk management in practice, under oftentimes very challenging conditions.