Michel Kazatchkine

Michel Kazatchkine has dedicated over 35 years to promoting global health as a physician, researcher, advocate, policymaker, diplomat, and administrator. 

Kazatchkine attended medical school at Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, studied immunology at the Pasteur Institute, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at St. Mary’s Hospital in London and Harvard Medical School.

Since 1984, he has been professor of medicine at the Université René Descartes in Paris. From 1990 to 2005, he was head of the Department of Clinical Immunology at the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou and director of research at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM). During his academic career, Kazatchkine has produced or coauthored more than 500 research papers and served on numerous editorial boards.

Kazatchkine was also director of the French National Research Agency (ANR), the world’s second largest AIDS research program. Under his leadership, ANR shifted its focus from domestic research to public health work in Africa and the developing world. 

From 2005 to 2007, Kazatchkine was France’s global ambassador for HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases. He also served on several major international boards and committees, including as chair of the World Health Organization’s strategic and technical advisory committee on HIV/AIDS and as a member of the WHO scientific and technical advisory group on tuberculosis.

In 2007, he was elected as the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, serving in this position until March 2012. His leadership at the Global Fund consolidated his reputation as a leading global advocate for health and human rights.

Between 2012 and 2017, Kazatchkine served as the UN under secretary general and special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Since 2018, he has been a special advisor to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Kazatchkine is a senior fellow with the Global Health Centre of the Geneva Graduate Institute and a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

Kazatchkine holds honorary degrees from Imperial College London, the Free University of Brussels, the Catholic University of Louvain, and the University of Geneva. He is an officer of the Légion d’Honneur and Ordre National du Mérite in France and an officer of the National Orders of Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Uzbekistan.