Governance

Governance Structure

The Research Investment for Global Health Technology Foundation (hereinafter, the RIGHT Foundation) has introduced and built a governance structure that ensures transparency and fairness in the selection of projects for new health care technology innovations and improvement of accessibility to them.

The governance structure of the RIGHT Foundation consists of four separate bodies: Board of Directors, Council, Selection Committee, and Management Team. Each body works independently and jointly contributes to the achievement of the missions of the RIGHT Foundation.

Council
Board of Directors
Selection Committee
Management Team

Council

The RIGHT Foundation Council is comprised of representatives from funding organizations who share the RIGHT Foundation’s vision and purpose.
The Council is the highest advisory body within the RIGHT Foundation and provides professional recommendations for the Board of Directors’ consideration.

Full Partner

Associate Partner

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is the highest decision-making body of the RIGHT Foundation and is composed of global health and business experts.
The Board of Directors has the right to decide on mid- to long-term strategies of the foundation and supporting project selections according to the recommendation report of the Selection Committee, and plays a responsible and fair role in achieving the mission of the RIGHT foundation.

Myongsei Sohn
Chairman

Myongsei Sohn, the Chairman, is an expert in preventive medicine and health policy in Korea. He holds the position of Professor Emeritus at Yonsei University College of Medicine and is a member of important international health committees, including the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) Revision Committee. Dr. Sohn has also held leadership roles, including the presidency of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and the Korea Society of Health Policy and Administration. He has contributed to global health as a special adviser to UNAIDS and through membership in the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (IBC). Dr. Sohn earned his master's and doctoral degrees in public health from Yonsei University College of Medicine.

Hani Kim
Executive Director

Hani Kim's educational background is in biology, and she later extended her research into public health. She currently plays an active role in global health as the Executive Director of the RIGHT Foundation. Her career includes positions as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology, followed by roles as a researcher and professor at Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto. She also served as a research director at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and worked as a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Hani Kim received her bachelor's degree from Queen’s University in Canada and holds master's degrees in pharmacology and clinical pathology from the University of Toronto. She additionally obtained a master's degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the United States.

Eunyoung Jung
Ex-Officio Member

Eunyoung Jung currently serves as the Director of Health Industry Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Her career has encompassed a range of roles, including Director General for Mental Health Policy and Commissioner of Social Policy at the OECD Korea Policy Center, all within the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Eunyoung completed her undergraduate studies at Seoul National University's College of Pharmacy and earned master's degrees in health policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and in international health management from Imperial College London Business School.

Gieun Rhie
Ex-Officio Member

Gieun Rhie, presently serving as the Director of the Public Vaccine Development Support Center at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases within the Korea National Institute of Health, has held roles in research and public health in both South Korea and the United States. Her career includes positions at Brown University, Seoul National University College of Medicine, International Vaccine Institute, and Harvard Medical School. She has also worked as a health researcher at the National Health Center's Department of Biology, Director of Pathogen Defense Research at the Infectious Diseases Center of the Korea National Institute of Health, and Director of High-Risk Pathogen Analysis at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Gieun holds bachelor's and master's degrees in microbiology from Seoul National University's College of Natural Sciences and a doctoral degree from Brown Unversity’s MCB Program in the United States.

Fukuda Keiji
Member at Large

Fukuda Keiji serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees at the China Medical Board and a Member of the Board of Advisors at Ending Pandemics. His professional roles include Director of the School of Public Health at The University of Hong Kong, Assistant Director General for Health Security and Environment at the World Health Organization (WHO), and Epidemiology Chief at the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His educational background comprises a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Oberlin College, a Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Vermont, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of California, Berkeley.

Glenn Rockman
Member at Large

Glenn Rockman currently serves as a founding partner at Adjuvant Capital and holds director positions at VitriVax, Water Equity, Codagenix, InDevR, Inc., X-Vax Technology, Inc., and Univercells. His past roles include Executive Director at JP Morgan, a partner at Global Health Investment Fund, and Director at EuBiologics. Glenn majored in public policy at Princeton University.

Peter Hotez
Member at Large

Peter Hotez is currently the Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and the Head of the Vaccine Development Center at Texas Children's Hospital. His career includes serving as the Director of the Sabine Vaccine Institute, being an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine of the United States, and working as a researcher in disease and poverty at the Baker Institute of Public Policy. Peter majored in molecular biophysics at Yale University, received a doctoral degree in biochemical parasitology from Rockefeller University, and a Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of Cornell University.

Jessica Martinez
Ex-Officio Observer

Jessica Martinez currently serves as the Senior Program Officer for Scientific Partnerships in global health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Prior to joining the foundation, she held positions as the Chief Consultant at IQVIA and the Director of Corporate Strategy at Pfizer. Jessica majored in molecular biology at Princeton University and earned a master’s degree in diplomacy and political science management from Tufts University.

Selection Committee

The Selection Committee is composed of international experts with extensive knowledge and experience in the research and development of vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and digital health.
It serves as the key decision-making body in reviewing applications and selecting awards. The Committee evaluates award proposals and reports from applicants, and then recommends research projects for awards to the Board of Directors.

Chairperson
Ann Mills-Duggan
Former Head of Translation at Well come Trust

Ann Mills-Duggan currently serves as Director of AMD Biomedical Consulting and is Co-Chair of the GHIT Selection Committee (Tokyo). Dr. Mills-Duggan was previously at the Wellcome Trust where she worked in a number of roles including the Head of Translation. Prior to joining Wellcome she spent over twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry, latterly with UCB and previously with GlaxoSmithKline and GlaxoWellcome, working in research, licensing, alliance management and life science investing. Ann is a graduate of the University of Bath and earned her PhD at Imperial College, London.

Member
Betsy Wonderly Trainor
Alliance Director, Diagnostics, Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X)

Betsy Wonderly Trainor currently holds the position of Alliance Director of the Diagnosis Program at the Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X). She has actively contributed to the international public health field through previous engagements with industry and with FIND and the World Health Organization (WHO), with a focus on developing and implementing diagnostics for viral diseases in LMICs. Mrs. Trainor's academic journey includes degrees in human development from Cornell University, infectious disease research at Harvard Medical School, and executive education training in product management at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Member
Christian Lienhardt
Research Director, French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Montpellier, France.

As Research Director at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, Christian Lienhardt has made significant contributions to the field of infectious diseases and epidemiology. His previous roles include serving as an infectious disease and clinical epidemiologist at institutions such as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratories, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, and the World Health Organization. Christian pursued his medical and infectious diseases studies at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Strasbourg, France and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.

Member
Gerald Voss
Executive Director, SciPeo Srl, Science & People

Gerald Voss is the Scientific Director of the TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI, Lelystad, The Netherlands) and the Executive Director of SciPeo Srl, Science & People (Grez-Doiceau, Belgium), a life sciences and coaching consultancy. Gerald previously served as the Interim Director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (New York, USA) and led the organization through a merger with the International AIDS Society. In the past, he was with GSK vaccines (Rixensart, Belgium), overseeing the R&D portfolio for Diseases of the Developing World. During his tenure, Gerald established and lead Product Development Partnerships in HIV, TB, and malaria with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Aeras, the Malaria Vaccine Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gerald holds a Ph.D. in Biology from Göttingen University (Germany) and received his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School (Boston, USA).

Member
Joon Sup Yeom
Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Yonsei University College of Medicine / Severance Hospital

Joon Sup Yeom holds the position of Professor within the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine at Yonsei University College of Medicine. He has conducted research and academic work focused on tropical endemics such as malaria and dengue fever, as well as infectious and fever-related diseases. Joon Sup Yeom earned degrees up to a Doctor of Medicine from Yonsei University and a professional diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Member
Melissa Malhame
Principal, MM Global Health Consulting LLC

Melissa is currently the principal of MM Global Health Consulting. Her extensive background includes over two decades in the vaccine industry, with roles at Merck Vaccine, Dynavax Technologies, and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. Malhame earned her Master’s in Business Administration from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management.

Member
Michael Hawkes
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry School of Public Health, University of British Columbia

Michael Hawkes (BEng, McGill U; MD, U of Alberta; PhD, U of Toronto; DTM&H, Peru; FRCPC, Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases) is a clinician-scientist at the University of British Columbia. In addition to a clinical practice in consultant Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the BC Children’s Hospital, he leads a translational research program in global pediatric infections. Diseases of focus include some of the leading infectious disease killers of children in the world today: malaria, pneumonia, Ebola, and HIV. He operates field sites in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. His research is improving outcomes in children with serious infections in some of the least developed areas of the globe.

Member
Shabir A. Madhi
Professor Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences Professor of Vaccinology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Shabir A. Madhi currently holds the positions of Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His career includes roles such as Executive Director of the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases. He has served on multiple scientific committees of international organizations, including being the current deputy Chair of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). Shabir undertook all his under-graduate and post-graduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Member
Thomas J. White
Senior Research Fellow, Human Rights Center, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

Thomas J. White is currently a Core Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and a scientific advisor for the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). He had a rich career spanning over 30 years and has published five books on molecular diagnostic and forensic applications of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). His previous positions encompass Vice President of Research at Cetus Corporation, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Roche Molecular Systems, and Chief Scientific Officer at Celera Diagnostics. Thomas earned his doctoral degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and conducted pre- and postdoctoral research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Member
Valerie Nkamgang Bemo
Deputy Director, Emergency Response Global Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Valerie Nkamgang Bemo's distinguished career includes roles with various international NGOs, where she contributed to clinical and public health efforts. Currently, she serves as the Deputy Director of Emergency Response at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, actively participating in major disaster response initiatives worldwide. Valerie’s academic achievements include an MD from the University of Cote d'Ivoire, an Epidemiology Diploma from the University of Paris, and an MPH from the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Management Team

The Management Team is in charge of the business management of the RIGHT Foundation

Executive Director
operates and manages the business and the entire organization of the foundation

Chief Strategy Officer
acts as a strategic partner to establish and carry out strategies of the foundation

Strategic Planning
develops programs of the foundation and establishes strategies, establishes and manages international cooperation networks, manages projects, and forecasts and manages crises

Investment Management
establishes standard investment operation rules and manages compliance with regulations throughout selection and management of projects; manages the progress of portfolio-level projects

Finance and Operations Management
manages HR and finance of the foundation, conducts financial due diligence of projects, manages the operation of the foundation, operates the board of directors, etc.

Government and Public Relations
communicates with councils and the government, carries out communications of public relations, supports new investment attraction, operates councils, etc.