[Press Kit, International Conference on AIDS (16th: 2006: Toronto, Canada)]

Anders Nordstrom, MD (Sweden), Acting Director-General, World Health Organization
(WHO)
A medical doctor from the Karolinska Institut in Sweden, Dr. Anders Nordstrom is currently
the Acting Director-General of WHO. His first international assignments were with the
Swedish Red Cross in Cambodia and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iran.
He worked for the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) for 12
years, including three years as Regional Advisor in Zambia and four years as head of the
Health Division in Stockholm. During this time the agency supported programmes on health
' development and poverty reduction in 18 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
During 2002, Dr. Nordstrom was the Interim Executive Director for the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, laying the foundations for the organization's present
structure. He took office as Assistant Director-General for General Management in July 2003
with a mandate to support the implementation of Dr. LEE Jong-wook's vision of a more
effective and efficient organization equipped to "do the right things, in the right place."
Upon the death of Dr. Lee in May 2006, the WHO Executive Board appointed Dr. Nordstrim
Acting Director-General. He will hold this office until the election of a new Director-General
in November 2006. His priorities for this interim period are: to maintain momentum and
direction in WHO's technical work; to manage the election process efficiently and
transparently; and to continue work on management reforms.
Peter Piot, MD, PhD (Switzerland), Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
Dr. Peter Piot was appointed Executive Director of UNAIDS and Assistant-Secretary-General
of the United Nations in 1994. Dr. Piot joined UNAIDS from a position as Associate Director
of the Global Programme on AIDS of the World Health Organization. Dr. Piot had previously
served from 1980 to 1992 as Professor of Microbiology and Head of the Department of
Infection and Immunity at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. During
this period, he also launched and expanded a series of collaborative projects in Burundi,
C6te d'Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania and Zaire.
Dr. Piot was Associate Professor of Public Health at the Free University of Brussels from
1989 to 1992, and Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Nairobi from
1986 to 1987. In 1978-1979, he was Senior Fellow in infectious diseases at the University of
Washington in Seattle. In 1976, he became co-discoverer of the Ebola virus. He served as
the President of the International AIDS Society from 1991 to 1994.
Dr. Piot qualified as a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Ghent and received a
Doctorate in Microbiology from the University of Antwerp. He has received many awards for
scientific achievement and public service, and has published over 500 articles and 15 books.
H.M. King Albert II of Belgium awarded him a baronetcy in 1995.
President Mary Robinson (Ireland), Patron, International Community of Women Living
with HIV/AIDS and President, Ethical Globalization Initiative
Mary Robinson served as President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and as United Nations
(UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. Mrs. Robinson has spent
most of her life as a human rights advocate and always sought to use law as an instrument
for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights as
well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxemburg.
Now based in New York City, Mrs. Robinson is currently leading the Ethical Globalization
Initiative. Its goal is to bring the norms and standards of human rights into the globalization
process and to support capacity building in good governance in developing countries, with

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