Esko Aho

Senior Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard University

Executive Chairman of the Board, East Office Industries Ltd; Consultative Partner, Nokia Corporation; and Former Prime Minister of Finland (Helsinki, Finland)

Before joining Nokia in 2008, Mr. Aho enjoyed a long and distinguished career in government service. He served as a member of Finnish parliament for 20 years, from 1983. He was elected to the Prime Minister’s Office in 1991 at the age of 36, making him the youngest prime minister in Finland’s history. During his premiership, Mr. Aho chaired the Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland. Under his leadership, he also brought Finland into the European Union. After leaving office in 1995, Mr. Aho spent one year as a Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University in 2000, leading a weekly study group on the European Union and its political and economic implications for global relations. He then served as the president of Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, from 2004-2008. During that time, Mr. Aho was invited to head a group of experts on reinforcing EU research and innovation performance, which submitted its report to the European Commission in January 2006. Furthermore, he chaired the steering group, which submitted the Proposal for Finland’s National Innovation Strategy in 2008.

Currently, Mr. Aho is a board member of Terveystalo, the largest healthcare service company in Finland. He is also an executive Chairman of the Board of East Office of Finnish Industries Ltd, which is founded by the leading Finnish corporation to enhance business opportunities in Russia.  Mr. Aho was just elected to Executive Board member at ICC – International Chamber of Commerce as of 1st July, 2013.  He is solely Scandinavian representative in the Board.  In addition he is an invited member of the Club de Madrid, an independent organization of former heads of state and government dedicated to strengthening democracy.

Mr. Aho graduated from the University of Helsinki with a master’s in social science.

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has been the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science since 2010. Between 2000 and 2010, she served as a Member of the European Court of Auditors. From 1975 to 1997, she was a Member of the Irish parliament (Dáil Eireann). In 1979, she became the first woman to be appointed as a Cabinet Minister since the foundation of the Irish state, and served as Minister with responsibility for the Gaeltacht until 1981. She has held various other ministerial posts, including Minister for European Union Affairs from 1987 to 1991, when she oversaw the preparation of the Irish presidency of the European Union in 1990; Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications (1992-’93). She was the Irish Minister for Justice (1993-’94) and one of the negotiators of the Downing Street Declaration, which was signed between the Irish and British governments. From 1997 to 2000, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn served as Non-Executive Director of both Aer Lingus and the Ryan Hotel Group. She has been a TV presenter and a columnist in the Irish Times newspaper, and is a former Member of the Governing Authority of the National University of Ireland Galway.

Phil Hogan T.D.

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government

Phil was first elected to the Dáil in 1989 and has  been successfully elected in all subsequent elections. He is one of Fine Gael’s most well-known politicians and was the Party’s Spokesman for Environment, Heritage & Local Government in the 30th Dáil.  He was also Fine Gael’s National Director of Elections in the 2011 Election.

Phil served as Minister for State in Department of Finance in the last Fine Gael Government at a time where job growth was at an all time high.  In Fine Gael, he has held a vast array of positions including Parliamentary Party Chairman, Director of Organisation, Enterprise Spokesman as well as Consumer Affairs, Regional Affairs and Food Industry positions.  Phil served as a Senator from 1987 – 1989. He is a graduate of University College Cork (BA, HDipEd)

Flor O’Mahony

Director of FIPRA

Flor O’Mahony is a member of the Board of Fipra International (Finsbury International Policy and Regulatory Advisers)and of its healthcare team. He is a former member of the European Parliament and of the Irish Senate and was adviser to the Irish Minister for Health and Social Welfare from 1973-1977. He is a member of the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin.

Martin Seychell

Deputy Director General for Health and Consumers

A graduate in chemistry and pharmaceutical technology, Mr. Seychell specialized in Chemical analysis. He has held important positions on several government boards and commissions in Malta, including the Food Safety Commission and the Pesticides Board. Mr Seychell occupied the post of Head of Directorate at the Malta Standards Authority between 2001 and 2006. He has been responsible for the implementation of a number of EU directives in the areas of risk assessment, food safety, chemicals and cosmetic products legislation, and has actively participated in negotiations on major technical proposals such as the new chemicals legislation, REACH, and in screening processes in the areas of free movement of goods, environment and agriculture during the process leading to Malta’s accession  to the EU. He held the post of Director of Environment in Malta between 2006 and 2011. As Director, he was responsible for a broad range of functions arising from the Maltese Environment Protection Act. He was appointed Deputy Director General for Health and Consumers at the European Commission in March 2011. 

Wolfram Sterry

Professor & Chairman, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Humboldt University, Berlin

Wolfram Sterry is Professor and Chairman at the Department of Dermatology and Allergy, University Hospital Charité, Humboldt University, Berlin. Professor Sterry obtained his medical degree from the University of Cologne, where he also completed his doctoral thesis summa cum laude and his dermatology training. He has previously held faculty positions at the University of Kiel and the University of Ulm. Professor Sterry’s research interests include T cell mediated skin diseases such as psoriasis and cutaneous oncology, including malignant lymphoma and melanoma. He has participated in numerous clinical trials and has published 599 scientific articles and many book chapters. He sits on five editorial boards and is the editor in chief of the Journal of the German Dermatological Society JDDG.

Professor Sterry is a member of numerous national and international societies and has served in various leadership roles. He is the past-president and board member of the German Dermatological Society, past-president of the European Society for Dermatological research, founding member and past president of the European Dermatology Forum, and since 2011 has been president of the International League of Dermatological Societies. 

Rory O’Connor

Vice President of Medical and Regulatory Affairs, Pfizer

Dr Rory O’Connor qualified in Medicine from the University of Liverpool in 1978 and trained in Cardiology and General Medicine before joining the pharmaceutical industry in 1989. He has been with Pfizer for 19 years, originally with Global Research & Development in Sandwich UK, working in neuroscience development with responsibility for antipsychotic and neuroprotective agents. In 1996 he moved to Pfizer HQ in New York as Medical Director Neuroscience, leading the strategic development and launch of a novel antipsychotic, including direction of the associated global phase IIIb/IV clinical program. In 2000 he assumed responsibility for Medical Affairs for Pfizer’s European operations, based in New York. In 2009 he returned to Europe from New York and is currently Vice-President, Medical Affairs, Primary Care Business Unit for Europe. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians (UK).

Seán Sherlock TD

Minister for Research and Innovation

Seán Sherlock was appointed as Minister of State with special responsibility for Research and Innovation at the Department of Education and Skills, and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in March 2011 by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.  He is a TD for the Cork East Constituency.

Minister Sherlock is currently a member of Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Jobs, a member of Cabinet Committee on Climate Change and the Green Economy and Chairperson of the Research Prioritisation Action Group 

First elected to the Dáil in 2007 and appointed Front Bench Labour Party Spokesperson on Agriculture and Food 

As Minister of for Research and Innovation, Minister Sherlock has responsibility for a number of areas in the Department of Education and Skills, including:   

• All aspects of policy in relation to Research & Innovation in Higher Education
• Driving the response of the higher education institutions to the commercialisation challenge, including in particular enhancing the capacity of Institutes of Technology to partner with industry in regional innovation
• Curriculum development and reform in STEM subjects
• Taking forward, as may be agreed by Government, the substance and recommendations of the Hunt Report including Recommendations in relation to research and research careers performance metrics

Marko Mrsnik

Director in the European Sovereign Ratings Group at Standard & Poor's

Marko Mršnik is Director in the European Sovereign Ratings Group at Standard & Poor’s. His direct analytical responsibilities include France, Belgium, Spain and Greece. He is also involved in rating other sovereigns as well as sovereign related entities primarily in France, Belgium and Spain.  

Marko is the author of Global Aging Reports in 2010: The Irreversible Truth and 2013: Rising To The Challenge, analysing the impact of the demographic changes on the long-term sustainability of public finances and creditworthiness across the world economies. He regularly publishes analytical commentaries on credit related matters.

Prior to joining S&P in 2007, Marko was economist in the European Commission in Brussels, specializing in macro-economy of the euro-area and EU, with particular reference to public finances, where he co-authored the EMU Sustainability Report and Public Finances in EMU. He had previously worked as a consultant for the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and an M.A. in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe, Belgium, where he was also a researcher and tutor. Marko is fluent in Slovene, English, French, Spanish, Croatian and Serbian.

Bas Knol

Manager of the Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey

Bas is communications expert with broad experience in the financial industry (banking, asset management and pensions). After working 11 years for ABN Amro in various positions, he joined Aegon in 2001.

He manages the Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey and is responsible for marketing communications at Aegon Global Pensions. The survey in 2013 questioned 12,000 employees and retirees in 12 countries on their attitudes towards pension preparedness and the role of the government and employers in providing retirement benefits.

Bas has a bachelor’s degree in hotel management, a master’s degree in sociology and he is a chartered European financial analyst (CEFA).

Jeff Huber

President, Home Instead Senior Care

As president of Home Instead Senior Care, Jeff oversees the day-to-day operations of the global franchise network including training, franchise standards, legal, marketing, communications, project management, technology and franchise development.  He also provides strategic leadership on key initiatives such as CAREGiverSM Leadership (becoming an employer of choice at all levels of the organizations), Living Home Instead (defining and operationalizing a strong culture), the Leadership Institute (equipping owners and management teams to become better leaders) and PEAQ (Pursuing Excellence by Advancing Quality)—the Home Instead quality assurance program developed in conjunction with J.D. Power and Associates.

Jeff joined Home Instead Senior Care in 1998 as a Franchise Development Manager when the company was a 125-franchise network.  Today, Home Instead Senior Care annually provides more than 50 million hours of service through nearly 1,000 franchise offices in 17 markets.   In his career at Home Instead Senior Care, Jeff also served as Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Development Officer and Vice President of Franchise Development.  

Jeff graduated summa cum laude from Creighton University and magna cum laude from the Creighton University School of Law.  Prior to joining Home Instead Senior Care, Jeff practiced law for four years and served as a law clerk for a United States District Court judge.

Marc Wortmann

Executive Director of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI)

Marc Wortmann is Executive Director of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), the federation of over 75 national Alzheimer associations around the world. Marc studied Law and Art in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands and was an entrepreneur in retail for 15 years. During this time Marc was a member of the Parliament of the Province of Utrecht and worked closely with various charities and voluntary organisations. He became Executive Director of Alzheimer Nederland in 2000 and had overall responsibility for the organisation, public policy and external relations, branches and fundraising.   From 2002 to 2005 he chaired the Dutch Fundraising Association and was Vice-President of the European Fundraising Association from 2004 to 2007. He has been a speaker at many international conferences on campaigning, raising awareness, fundraising, public policy and ethical issues. Marc joined ADI in 2006, where his main responsibilities are management, public policy and external relations, fundraising, communication and ADI’s annual conference.

His main achievements have been a greater visibility of dementia and ADI in global health policy, resulting in a WHO-ADI report on dementia in April 2012 and a significant increase of ADI programmes thanks to additional funding.

Jane Barratt

Secretary General, International Federation on Aging

Jane Barratt is the Secretary General of the International Federation on Aging (IFA) comprising government and non-governmental members in 62 countries and representing some 50 million older people. She brings to this position over 35 years of experience in both public and private sectors in the fields of public health, community and aged care, and ageing and disability.

Dr Barratt strives to strengthen the roles and relationships between government, NGOs, academia and industry in order to help shape and influence policy to improve the quality of life of older people. She is a strong contributor to the international dialogue on the social, political, cultural and physical environments that impact on the lives and human rights of older people.

Over many years Jane has lead in organizational management, staff development and the analysis of operations leading to improvements in policies, programs and client outcomes across sectors and disciplines. She is an international speaker and facilitator of some repute, with a flair for thought provoking sessions that call on audiences to take action.

Dr Barratt is a Churchill Fellow, and recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in Canada in recognition of her commitment and passion to enhance the understanding of issues relating to ageing and engaging in dialogue with governments and the private sector to improve the quality of life of older people.

She represents the IFA at the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is directly responsible for the formal relations with the Ageing and Life Course Department, World Health Organization. Jane holds adjunct academic positions, executive and board positions on ministerial, government and non-government organizations including Age Macular Degeneration Alliance International and Baycrest which is one the world’s premier academic health sciences centers focused on ageing.

Naoise Ó Muirí

Lord Mayor of Dublin 2012-2013

Lord Mayor Naoise Ó Muirí was elected the 343rd Lord Mayor of Dublin at the Annual City Council meeting held in City Hall on Monday 25th June.

Naoise studied Engineering at the National University of Ireland, Galway and is a member of Engineers Ireland.  He is self-employed and runs an Irish-owned technology company.  He is married to Fionnuala and they have two young daughters.  He is a Gaeilgeoir and a big GAA fan.

A member of the Fine Gael party, he represents the Clontarf Ward on Dublin City Council. He was first elected to Dublin City Council in 2004 and was re-elected in 2009.  He is Chair of the Environment & Engineering Strategic Policy Committee and a member of the Audit Committee, Protocol Committee and Corporate Policy Group.

“I want to be seen as a ‘happy warrior’ for the city, doing as much as I can in practical terms to try and make our city a happy home for all; a great community in which to live and to raise a family; a city welcoming of everybody irrespective of colour or creed.”

Commissioner Claire Keatinge

Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland

Claire Keatinge took up her post as the very first Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland in November 2011.

The work of the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland is guided by the legislation under the Commissioner for Older People Act (Northern Ireland) 2011.

Prior to her appointment as Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland, Claire was Director of the Alzheimer’s Society in Northern Ireland and was responsible and accountable for services, external affairs and promoting the rights of people with dementia.   Prior to this, Claire was the Director (Community Development and Health) for Age Concern NI and was responsible for leading health promotion and public health work with older people through community development.

Baroness Sally Greengross

Member, UK House of Lords and President, International Longevity Centre, UK

Baroness Sally Greengross has been a crossbench (independent) member of the House of Lords since 2000 and chairs five All-Party Parliamentary Groups: Dementia, Corporate Social Responsibility, Intergenerational Futures, Continence Care and Ageing and Older People (Co-Chair). She is the Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Choice at the End of Life, and is Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Equalities. Sally is Chief Executive of the International Longevity Centre - UK; Co-President of the ILC Global Alliance; and was a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission from 2006-12.  

Baroness Greengross was Director General of Age Concern England from 1987 until 2000. Until 2000, she was joint Chair of the Age Concern Institute of Gerontology at Kings College London, and Secretary General of Eurolink Age.

Baroness Greengross is Chair of the Advisory Groups for the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing (ELSA) and the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA). She is President of the Pensions Policy Institute and Honorary Vice President of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health.  Baroness Greengross is Patron of the National Association of Care Caterers (NACC) and Patron of Care & Repair England. She holds honorary doctorates from eight UK universities.

Paul Mcgarry

Senior Strategy Manager Public Health Manchester, Manchester City Council

Since 2003 Paul has led Manchester’s multi-agency Valuing Older People (VOP) partnership.  The partnership works across public and community sectors, and with local residents, to improve the quality of life of Mancunians in mid and later life.  The partnership has placed a specific focus on reducing social exclusion experienced by older people living in Manchester’s disadvantaged communities.

Manchester City Council is recognised as a forward-thinking local authority and in October 2009 published, “A Great Place to Grow Older”, a ten-year strategy to create an ‘age-friendly’ Manchester.  In June 2010 Manchester was one of nine cities worldwide to be admitted into the World Health Organisation’s Age-Friendly Cities programme. 

Key programmes have included the award-winning “Positive Images” campaign, an innovative intergenerational programme and joint work with a range of academic and research institutions. 

Paul manages a nine-strong multi-agency workgroup

including local authority, health, third sector and academic staff.  Paul is a member of the Working with Older People journal editorial board, was a member of Dublin Age-Friendly City conference Advisory Board and co-chairs the Age Action Alliance UK group

on age-friendly environments.  In 2012 Paul was a founding member of the UK Consortium of Urban Ageing, which brings together VOP, Keele

University and the Beth Johnson Foundation. 

Paul has had a number of journal articles on ageing

published and given presentations to a wide rage of events including in Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.  He has an MA in social gerontology and is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Keele.

Tom van Benthem

Euro Cities Amsterdam

Born in 1976, studied at the university of Amsterdam, now a  Master in political science. Has worked 5 years at the regional level of the province of Noord-Holland supporting cities in their policy tasks in the field of youth and well being. Now head of the policy department of public health of the city of Amsterdam. Member of the management team of the public health organisation, advisor to management and politicians on public health. Been a member of the Eurocities Health Inequalities working group since 2010, chair since October 2011

Kostas Mallios

Vice President at Intellectual Ventures

Mr. Mallios believes in the power of ideas and the individual’s ability to make a difference. His interdisciplinary experiences in building new businesses and expanding existing ones have spanned research and development, product development, mergers and acquisitions and business development.  Kostas Mallios is currently Vice President at Intellectual Ventures, an invention capital firm, where he manages the company’s business innovation strategy and R&D organization. Through invention and strategic partnerships across industry and governments, he is creating new business opportunities founded in invention that aim to address some of the world’s biggest challenges and opportunities. In addition, Mr. Mallios is designing intellectual property based business models that will generate new companies based on disruptive technology.

Prior to joining Intellectual Ventures, Mr. Mallios spent 15 years at Microsoft Corporation in a variety of executive roles. In his last role as a Partner and General Manager of Strategy and Business Development, he blended emerging technologies and business models to bring new technologies to market. Prior to  that, he led the Rich Media Group and Labs building transformative media experiences across Microsoft product lines. In addition, he spent several years in M&A where he drove business strategy for numerous deals. Prior to his M&A work, Mr. Mallios was Director in the Enterprise Program Management group, which helped execute Microsoft’s Enterprise market entry. Mr. Mallios has heldsenior positions in the publishing, consulting, and service industries.

Mr. Mallios received his M.B.A. in Management and Technology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and graduated from Siena College with a B.S. in Marketing Management. Mr. Mallios is a sought after speaker on innovation and new business trends. He has presented at multiple international conferences that include DLD, TED and the Aspen Institute.

Specialties: Product Innovation, Intellectual Property, Partnerships, Consumer Media Technologies, M&A

Arnoldas Abramavičius

Mayor of the Municipality of Zarasai, Lithuania and head of the Lithuanian national delegation to the Committee of Regions

Graduated from a Bachelor’s degree in Physics in 1992 and a Master’s in Public Administration in 2010.
Mayor of Zarasai municipality, Lithuania from 1997 to 2000 and again since 2007.
Chairman of Utena county regional development council since 2010.
Vice president of the EU Committee of the Regions (COR)
Former Chair of the COR Commission for Economical and Social Policy (ECOS) 2010-2012
Head of the Lithuanian national delegation to the COR
Steering committee member on the EU Forum of the Rights of the Child
Joint monitoring committee member on European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (2007-2013 EU Cross Border Cooperation Programme “Lithuania-Latvia-Belarus”)
Rapporteur on the COR opinion CONST-IV-022 “Strengthening the Global Approach to Migration: increasing Coordination, Coherence and Synergies” adopted on 17 June 2009.
Rapporteur on the COR opinion CIVEX-V-001 “Local and Regional Cooperation to Protect the Rights of the Child in the European Union” adopted on 10 June 2010.
Rapporteur on the COR opinion ECOS-V-26 “Active Ageing: innovation – smart health – better lives” adopted on 4 May 2012.

Manfred Huber

Coordinator, Healthy Ageing, Disability and Long-term Care, WHO

Manfred Huber has joined WHO in 2009, where he provides advice to Member States in Europe on health and social care reform for healthy ageing, better coordination of care and long-term care. Prior to this, he has been Director Health and Care with the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research in Vienna. Moreover, he worked for ten years with the OECD in Paris, where he was in charge of health and ageing, long-term care policy, as well as health indicators and health accounting. Manfred Huber is the author of a number of books and reports on health and social services for ageing populations. He has 25 year’s experience with international comparisons of health and social policies.

Manfred Huber graduated from the University of Munich with a Master of Science in Mathematics and holds a PhD in Economics.

Joost van der Vleuten

Policy Officer, DG CONNECT

Joost van der Vleuten (1961) is a Policy Officer / Seconded National Expert in the Directorate Sustainable and Secure Society at the European Commission, DG CONNECT. He works on policy, strategy and communication related to active and healthy ageing, in particular on the proposal for a Directive on Web-Accessibility, a proposal for the follow up to the Ambient Assisted Joint Programme (AAL JP) and the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP AHA).

Before joining the European Commission he worked as a strategist for the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands. He was project manager of the Dutch Energy Report 2008, Future of Electronic Communications, The Internet: a Shared Future and contributed to the Dutch Digital Agenda. Since September 2011 he is seconded in Brussels as a national specialist / policy officer at Digital Social Platforms of DG CONNECT. He used to be a speech writer and communication adviser cum trainer. He has a degree in Dutch language and literature from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. 

Conn Murray

Limerick County Manager

My career commenced 34 years ago in my native County of Meath. I have since worked in 9 different local authorities including Clonmel, Limerick City, Cork City and was appointed City Manager in Waterford in September 2003.  Subsequent to that I was appointed Manager of Louth County Council in September 2007.  In August 2012 I was appointed CEO/Manager of both Limerick County and City Councils.

As a member of the County & City Manager’s Association I have served as Chairman of the Housing Committee for a considerable period of time and continue to serve as a member of the Committee.  I currently serve on the Board of the Private Rented Tenancies Board, the National Traveller Consultative Committee and the National Fire Directorate.  I also play a role on the Local Authority National Council, the Change Management Committee of the Local Government Management Agency and the Performance Management and Monitoring Group. 

Cllr Ann Schofield

Deputy Cabinet Member for Age Friendly

Ann Schofield is a Labour Councillor for Elswick, in Newcastle’s inner west. She was first elected in May 2011. Ann takes the lead role politically for championing actions required to make Newcastle an Age-Friendly City using criteria set out in the Dublin Declaration, to which Newcastle is a signatory. Ann also leads on issues of Digital Inclusion in the Council. 

Ann has worked locally, nationally and internationally in the public, voluntary and community sectors developing and supporting small user-led community groups who work alongside vulnerable adults. This includes practice, teaching and academic research in community development and social work; writing on the impact of large scale redundancy programmes in communities and the development of training materials for advocates working with people who have mental health problems.

In addition to being a Deputy Cabinet member, Ann has committee responsibilities including: Elswick Ward Committee, as a member of City Council and Board member of the Tyne and Wear Development Company.

She also serves as a Council representative on the Gateshead Newcastle partnership, Newcastle West Clinical Commissioning Group, North of England Refugee Service and Tyne and Wear Economic Joint Committee

Ann lives in the City Centre. In her spare time she relaxes with her family and reads too much!

Alex Kalache

Senior Policy Advisor to the President on Global Ageing at the New York Academy of Medicine

For the last forty years Alexandre Kalache has combined his medical, epidemiological and gerontological training with research, advocacy and activism on global ageing issues. 

Doctor Kalache completed his medical degree at the Federal University of his home city Rio de Janeiro in 1970, his MSc in Social Medicine (1977) and his PhD in Epidemiology (1983) at the University of London. He held the position of Clinical Lecturer at Oxford University`s Department of Community Health & General Practice, where he was one of the first to predict the significance of the demographic transition within emerging countries and the criticality of ageing as a development issue.

For twelve years, Kalache directed the global ageing programme at WHO, which later became known as the Ageing & Life-Course Programme (ALC). In this period, he launched a series of ground-breaking including the WHO Active Ageing Policy Framework and the global movement on Age-Friendly Cities.

In 2008 Kalache relocated to the United States to commence a new role as Senior Policy Adviser to the President on Global Ageing at the New York Academy of Medicine. He is also currently engaged with his newly-created (2012) International Longevity Centre (ILC-Brazil) in his birth city of Rio de Janeiro which is part of a global network of fourteen such centres.

Professor Kalache has been honoured with many awards. He has recently been listed in the 100 most influential Brazilians and has been the recipient of both life-time achievement and contribution to medical science distinctions in many countries. Among his most recent accolades are the Presidential Award of the International Federation of Ageing (2012), the United Nations` Life-time Achievement Award (2011) and the Brazilian Presidential Medal of Outstanding Merit (2010). 

John Beard

World Health Organization

John Beard, MBBS PhD, works with the World Health Organization in Geneva where he leads Departments addressing two key individual level determinants of health.  As Director of the Department of Gender, Women and Health he is responsible for evidence-based policies and programmes to achieve gender equality and improve the health of women. These roles involve working with all levels of government, non-government organizations, civil society and academia in the 193 WHO member states, and with senior members of many international organizations.

Dr Beard is an Australian physician who started his career with an Aboriginal Medical Service, before holding a range of senior public health and academic roles in Australia, and the USA.  He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Ageing, and the Advisory Board of the World Demographic & Ageing Forum.