biography of muhammad ali pate

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Muhammad Ali Pate

Muhammad Ali Pate, global director of the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank, director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, and the Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the  Department of Global Health and Population  at Harvard Chan School.

A U.S. and Nigerian national, Pate was until recently the chief executive officer of Big Win Philanthropy, based in the UK. He formerly served as minister of state for health in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

After joining the World Bank Group in 2000, Pate worked on health issues in several regions including Africa and East Asia and the Pacific. In his contributions to the World Economic Forum and the World Bank Group, he has worked with some of the countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and has led programs that resulted in significant changes to health care systems and disease control around the world.

Pate is an MD trained in both internal medicine and infectious diseases. He has a Masters in health system management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and an MBA with a certificate in health sector management from Duke University.

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Former Health Nutrition and Population Global Director, Muhammad Ali Pate

[Former] Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population ｜ Director, Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF)

Muhammad Ali Pate is the Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice of the World Bank and the Director of Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents  (GFF), based in Washington DC. Dr. Pate was until recently the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy, based in the UK, and prior to that held several senior positions, including that of Minister of State for Health in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  He was previously in the World Bank Group where he joined as a Young Professional in 2000 and worked on health issues in several regions including Africa and the East Asia and Pacific.

Dr. Pate is an MD trained in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA from Duke University. Prior to this he studied at the University College London. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.

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Muhammad Ali Pate

Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population ｜ Director, Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF)

Muhammad Ali Pate is the Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice of the World Bank and the Director of  Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents  (GFF), based in Washington DC. Dr. Pate, a U.S. and Nigerian national, was until recently the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy, based in the UK, and prior to that held several senior positions, including that of Minister of State for Health in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  He was previously in the World Bank Group where he joined as a Young Professional in 2000 and worked on health issues in several regions including Africa and the East Asia and Pacific.

Dr. Pate is an MD trained in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA from Duke University. Prior to this he studied at the University College London. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.

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Muhammed Ali Pate, MD, MBA

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Muhammad Ali Pate serves as the Global Director of the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank and the Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents. He was formerly Minister of State for Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from July 2011 to July 2013, and after this was Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy. He was on the visiting faculty at the Duke Global Health Institute and in 2014 he founded the Chigari Foundation, a community engagement foundation in northern Nigeria. Dr. Pate is a founder and a co-chair of the Board of the Private Sector Health Alliance in Nigeria, which aims to catalyze innovation and synergy between public and private sectors to improve health outcomes. Dr. Pate has a medical degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, an MBA from Duke University and an MA in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

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Muhammad A. Pate

Muhammad Ali Pate is the Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard Chan School. He has worked on health issues in several regions including Africa and East Asia and the Pacific. In his contributions to the World Economic Forum and the World Bank Group, he has worked with some of the countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and has led programs that resulted in significant changes to health care systems and disease control around the world.

A U.S. and Nigerian national, Pate was previously the Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice of the World Bank and the Director of Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), based in Washington DC. Prior to his service at the World Bank, Pate was the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy, based in the UK, and prior to that held several senior positions, including that of Minister of State for Health in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Dr. Pate is an MD trained in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA from Duke University. Prior to this he studied at the University College London. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.

Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria

Currently serving as Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, and Director of the Global Financing Facility at the World Bank, Washington DC. Previously served as CEO, Big Win Philanthropy and as Minister of State for Health in the Federal Government of Nigeria. Interested in population dynamics, human capital and re-imagining primary health care systems.

Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate

Muhammad Ali Pate is Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University.

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Muhammad Ali Pate

Minister of health, nigeria.

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Dr. Pate is a Nigerian physician and politician who is the current Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Nigeria since 2023. He's also a professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University. He formerly served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population and director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) at the World Bank Group. Pate is also the former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria. On Tuesday, 11 October 2022, Pate, along with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Amina J. Mohammed were conferred with Nigeria's national honors. Pate was conferred with Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).

Earlier in 2019, Pate was appointed Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.[12] Pate was also the former Minister of Health in Nigeria. His appointment in July 2011 followed his role as the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in Abuja. 

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Past Events featuring Muhammad Ali Pate

April 18, 2024

Transforming Challenge into Action: Expanding Health Coverage for All

June 29, 2021

Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care After COVID-19

November 18, 2020

Supporting Fair and Equal Access to a COVID-19 Vaccine

April 10, 2020

How Can we Strengthen Global Healthcare to Handle the Pandemic? 

April 07, 2020

World Bank Group Response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

February 06, 2020

Obesity: Time for Global Action

October 29, 2019

Should We Use Entertainment Media to Shape Norms and Behaviors at Scale?

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Feb 13, 2023

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance announced today the appointment of Dr Muhammad Ali Pate as its new Chief Executive Officer. Dr Pate will be officially starting as CEO on 3 August 2023. A proven global health leader with experience at the national and international levels, Dr Pate will lead Gavi as it continues its work to support routine immunisation, outbreak response and COVID-19 vaccinations around the world.

Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, who was selected following a yearlong recruitment process personally overseen by the Chair of the Gavi Board, Professor José Manuel Barroso, will bring a wealth of experience to the role. A medical doctor trained in both internal medicine and infectious diseases, with an MBA from Duke University in the United States, Dr Pate served as Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health between 2011 and 2013. In this role, he led a flagship initiative to revive routine vaccinations and primary health care, chaired a presidential taskforce to eradicate polio and introduced new vaccines into the country.

While serving as Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population of the World Bank and Director of the Global Financing Facility at the World Bank between 2019 and 2021, he led the Bank’s US$ 18 billion COVID-19 global health response and represented the Bank on various boards, including those of Gavi, the Global Fund, CEPI and UNAIDS. He is currently the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and has served on several health-focused boards and expert panels in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors during his career.

Commenting on the appointment, Professor Barroso said: “Dr Muhammad Ali Pate stood out in a field of world-class candidates. With his knowledge and experience of both national immunization programming and international emergency response and global finance, I am confident that Gavi will continue to build on its vision and mission, as well as navigate the many challenges and opportunities we will face.”

Dr Pate, whose appointment was confirmed today at an extraordinary meeting of the Gavi Board, said: “I’m deeply honoured to be joining Gavi as its incoming CEO. Gavi is one of the most impactful organisations in global health, a testament to the great work of the Alliance partners and Secretariat staff. It will be my privilege to lead it, building on the work of Dr Seth Berkley, and continue to support countries to scale up critical routine immunisation programmes, reach more zero-dose children, expand access to new vaccines, transform primary health care systems, and help fight outbreaks and future pandemics.”

Sitting CEO Dr Seth Berkley has led Gavi for more than half of its existence, making it a centrepiece within the global health landscape, including recently co-establishing COVAX to serve countries during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, having so far shipped nearly 1.9 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 146 countries. Since Dr Berkley took the helm in 2011, the Alliance has averted 11.8 million future deaths (compared to 4.5 million between 2000 and 2010); and has helped immunise more than 676 million children – more than double the 305 million children reached between 2000 and 2010.

Thanks to Dr Berkley’s vision for health equity, Gavi has added a number of new vaccines to its portfolio during his tenure, including for HPV, polio, cholera and malaria, and in its current strategy cycle is focusing on reaching zero-dose children across marginalised communities. The Alliance also played an increasingly influential role in emergency response, developing vaccine stockpiles for diseases such as cholera and introducing innovative financing mechanisms to fund emergency purchase of Ebola and COVID-19 vaccines. The economic result of Gavi’s expansion of activities during his tenure has been profound, unlocking over US$ 160 billion of economic benefits compared to US$ 24 billion in its first ten years.

Commenting on Dr Pate’s appointment, Dr Berkley said: “Leading Gavi and helping the Alliance to continually surpass itself in terms of saving lives, protecting children and supporting countries during global health emergencies has been the greatest honour of my career. I am proud and humbled to have been part of what the Alliance has achieved, and I am confident in its future under Muhammad’s leadership: having worked with him during his time as Minister and at the World Bank, I know he understands intimately the landscape we work in and will be uncompromising in his drive for public health equity.”

Dr Berkley will continue to serve as CEO until 2 August 2023, while working with incoming CEO Dr Pate to ensure a smooth transition.

Muhammad Pate to lead Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Dear Members of the Harvard Chan School Community,

I’m writing with the news that Muhammad Ali Pate, the Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, will be stepping down from Harvard Chan School this summer to take on a crucial new role as CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Muhammad will lead Gavi’s work to vaccinate children and adults worldwide, prioritizing not only the ongoing COVID-19 response but also routine immunizations and timely responses to future outbreaks.

Muhammad has deep expertise in population health management and vaccine distribution. As Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health from 2011 to 2013, he led a bold initiative to eradicate polio and expand primary care, including an effort to accelerate uptake of routine vaccinations. Later, he led the World Bank’s global response to COVID-19 and represented the bank on the boards of Gavi, the Global Fund, UNAIDS and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. While at Harvard Chan School, Muhammad has led a commission on the future of health and economic resiliency in Africa; the multidisciplinary, multinational group is expected to issue its recommendations later this year.

In all these posts, Muhammad has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to protect public health, coupled with a deep concern for equity and access. His experience, his skills, and his values make him an ideal candidate to carry on Gavi’s important work.

Muhammad was confirmed as CEO today by Gavi’s board and will begin his new role on Aug. 3. He will remain at the School until then and plans to teach a course on consequential leadership in global health practice in the Spring 2 semester.

Please join me in congratulating Muhammad and wishing him well in this new venture.

Sincerely, Michelle

Michelle A. Williams, ScD Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School

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Prof. Muhammad Pate

Member of the board of governors.

Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate is the Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice of the World Bank and the Director of Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), based in Washington DC.

Prof. Pate, a U.S. and Nigerian national, was until recently the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy based in the UK, and prior to that held several senior positions, including that of Minister of State for Health in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He previously worked in the World Bank Group where he joined as a young professional in 2000 and worked on health issues in several regions including Africa, East Asia and the Pacific.

Prof. Pate is an MD trained in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA from Duke University. Prior to this he studied at the University College London. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.

Muhammad Pate

Global Director for Health, Nutrition & Population Global Practice, World Bank

Dr Muhammad Pate is the newly appointed Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) and the Global Financing Facility (GFF), based in Washington DC. Dr Pate, a U.S. and Nigerian national, was until recently the Chief Executive Officer, Big Win Philanthropy, based in the UK, and prior to that held several senior positions, including that of Minister of State for Health in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was previously in the World Bank Group where he joined as a Young Professional in 2000 and worked on health issues in several regions including Africa and the East Asia and Pacific. He holds degrees in medicine and surgery from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, as well as an MBA, Degree and Certificate in Health Sector Management from Duke University, Durham, NC, and an MSc in Health Systems Management from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

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American International Health Alliance

Muhammad Ali Pate

Director at American International Health Alliance

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Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate is the Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard University TH Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Pate joined the World Bank Group in July 2019 and served for two years as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population and as the Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents. Previously, Dr. Pate served as the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy, a foundation that invests in maternal, child, and reproductive health, nutrition, and education, among other areas. He is an adjunct professor with the Duke Global Health Institute at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and served as the 2016 R.L. Menschel Senior Leadership fellow at Harvard University’s Chan School of Public Health.

From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Pate served as Minister of State for Health in Nigeria, where he helped mobilize more than US$1 billion in additional financing for primary health care, implemented innovative programs such as prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, clinical governance, and chaired the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication. He led Nigeria’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative and previously served as Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency from 2008-2011.

Dr. Pate served as co-chair of the Harvard-London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine panel to review and advise the global health system on the lessons learned from the 2014 West African Ebola Outbreak. Since June 2010, Dr. Pate has co-chaired the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, which raised US$24 million domestically for investments to complement the Nigerian government’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative.

Prior to his public service in Nigeria, Dr. Pate worked at the World Bank as a senior public health specialist overseeing programs in Africa and the East Asia and Pacific region.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Pate served as a resident physician at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He completed a sub-specialty fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Rochester Medical Center in upstate New York. He also served as a medical officer in Nigeria and with the British Medical Research Council Laboratoriesin The Gambia.

He earned a medical degree in 1990 from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, an MBA with a health sector concentration from Duke University, and a Master of Science in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr. Pate has been honored with numerous global health awards, including the 2012 Harvard Health Leadership Award, and has authored or contributed to dozens of peer reviewed publications and books.

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