Zsuzsanna Jakab

Zsuzsanna Jakab took up her duties as Regional Director on 1 February 2010. In January 2015, the WHO Executive Board appointed her for a second term, which began on 1 February 2015. A native of Hungary, she has held a number of high-profile national and international public health policy positions in the last three decades.

Before her election as Regional Director, Dr Jakab served as the founding Director of the European Union's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, Sweden. Between 2005 and 2010, she built ECDC into an internationally respected centre of excellence in the fight against infectious diseases.