Githinji Gitahi, a Kenyan medical doctor who serves as the Group Chief Executive Officer of Amref Health Africa has been appointed to the Board and Scientific Advisory of Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases (EID).
CEPI is focused on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “blueprint priority diseases”, which include: the Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the Nipah virus, the Lassa fever virus, and the Rift Valley fever virus, as well as the Chikungunya virus and the hypothetical, unknown pathogen “Disease X”.
Dr Gitahi was the Managing Director for Monitor Publications Limited in Uganda from August 2006 to 2009, as well as General Manager for Marketing and Circulation in East Africa for the Nation Media Group from August 2009 to December 2011.
Also the former co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, he was in July 2021 appointed as a Commissioner in the Africa COVID-19 Commission.
Chair of CEPI, Jane Halton welcomed the new five members by explaining they have been brought in to help CEPI better prepare for the next health crisis.
“These appointments will provide invaluable knowledge and new ways of thinking to further enrich CEPI’s discussions as we push our ambitious plan forward,” said Halton.
52-year-old Gitahi has worked both in public and private sector in various positions such as a medical officer and Quality Manager at Avenue Group, Medical Services Manager at Madison Insurance Limited and Medical Marketing Manager and Group Product Manager for Panadol and Hedex at Glaxo SmithKline.
He was also Marketing Manager at Glaxo SmithKline East Africa as well as the Head of Marketing Expert Relations at Glaxo SmithKline Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East.
Between March 2008 to December 2001, he held senior positions at GlaxoSmithKline and worked at the Avenue Group.
He has presented as a speaker at Medical conferences both inside and outside Africa like Health Systems Global Sympousium 2018, Health & Climate Change conference 2019.
Also, Dr Gitahi is a member of the Board of Directors of the Standard Group and holds Board member positions in Amref Health Africa. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Safaricom Foundation as well a member of the Governing Board of the Africa Centre’s for Disease Control and prevention (Africa CDC) as well a Board Member of Women Lift and Safaricom Foundation.
Dr. Gitahi graduated from University of Nairobi with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
He holds Master’s degree of Business Administration in Marketing from United States International University. He also has a Certificate for Strategic Perspective for Non Profit Management from Harvard University.
On 12 December 2018, Gitahi was awarded a presidential commendation of Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear in recognition for his contribution to the health sector at Amref Health Africa.
Other new appointees to the CEPI Board are:
Dr L. Rizka Andalucia, Director-General for Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, as Board voting member (investor)
Cyrus Ardalan, Chairman of OakNorth Bank, Trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), and a senior adviser at Alvarez and Marsal, as Board voting member (independent)
Professor Samba Sow, Director General of the Center for Vaccine Development – Mali (CVD-Mali) and former Minister of Health for Mali, as Board voting member (independent)
Anita Zaidi, Director of the Vaccine Development, Surveillance, and Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases programs and President, Gender Equality Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (investor)
The appointments were approved during CEPI’s most recent Board Meeting, held on April 25-26 2022, in Bergen, Norway.