Speakers Profiles

Cristian Baeza is a Senior Health Specialist in the Human Development Department, Latin American and the Caribbean Region of The World Bank. Previously, he was the senior health systems and health insurance specialist for Social Security Policy and Development at the International Labor Organization, founder and CEO of the “Latin American Center for Health Systems Research”(CLAISS) in Santiago de Chile and CEO of the Chilean National Health Fund (FONASA). He has written and lectured extensively on health care financing and health systems in Latin America and has participated in a number of multilateral initiatives on health systems and health financing.

Peter Berman directs the International Health Systems Group, a multidisciplinary research, training and service program dedicated to strengthening the capacity of health care systems in low and middle income countries to improve health and equity in a cost-effective and sustainable way. Dr. Berman is a Principal Investigator at Harvard and has worked extensively on health system reform issues in a number of countries including Egypt, India, Colombia, Indonesia and Poland.

Lincoln Chen founded the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard in 2002 after serving five years as Executive Vice-president for Strategy at the Rockefeller Foundation. Prior to that, he was Chair of the Department of Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. Dr Chen graduated from Princeton University (BA), Harvard Medical School (MD), and the John Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Tsung Mei Cheng is host of the International Forum at Princeton University’s International Center, a program focused on global questions related to politics, economics and social issues. She has worked as a consultant within the Science and Technology Consulting Group. She is a lawyer from the National University of Taiwan and has a master’s degree in International Relations from Yale University. Her research work focuses on China’s Health Reform.

Dov Chernichovsky, a Graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Graduate School of CUNY, is a professor of health economics and policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He is a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, USA. He has been a staff member of and a consultant for the World Bank, and heads the health policy team of the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Israel. His research interests include health system finance and organization, provider reimbursement, cost accounting of health systems and facilities, public policy in health, and public-private mix.

Luis Ernesto Derbez is Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mexico. During the first two years of the Fox administration, he was Minister of Economy. Dr. Derbez worked for 14 years at the World Bank in charge of regional departments that included countries such as Chile, West and Central Africa, India, Nepal and Bhutan, among others. He studied economics at the San Luis Potosi Autonomous University, has a master’s in economics from the University of Oregon and a PhD from Iowa State University.

Maria-Luisa Escobar is currently working as external advisor to the Ministry of Social Protection of Colombia. She is Senior Health Economist within the Health, Nutrition and Development Network at the World Bank. Dr. Escobar is an economist with a specialization in Health Economics and Economic Development in Latin America, with field experience on health reform policy design. Her research interests include health benefit design, determinants of health care service demand and contracting, and extending health insurance to the uninsured.

David Evans is the Director of the Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy of the World Health Organization responsible for identifying the major causes of disease burden, the costs and effectiveness of health interventions through the WHO-CHOICE project, national health accounts, health system responsiveness and the fairness of the way households contribute financially to health systems. Dr. Evans has a Ph.D. in economics from the Australian National University.

Julio Frenk is Minister of Health of Mexico. Before this appointment, he was Executive Director of Evidence and Information for Policy at the World Health Organization, Vice-president of the Mexican Health Foundation and President of the Mexican Society for Quality of Healthcare Services. Dr. Frenk is a physician with a master’s in Public Health and Sociology and a joint PhD in Medical Care Organization and Sociology from Michigan University.

Pedro García is Minister of Health of Chile. Prior to his designation in February 2003, he was the Director of the Chilean Public Health Institute Director of the East Metropolitan Health Service and deputy director of the Salvador Hospital. Dr. García is a physician with a Master’s in Business Administration from A.Hurtado-Loyola College in Baltimore.

Cesar Gaviria is Secretary General of the Organization of American States since September 1994. Prior to that, he was President of Colombia. Mr. Gaviria studied economics at Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia.

Paul Gertler is currently Professor of Economics at Haas School of Business and of Health Services Finance of the School of Public Health at Berkeley University. His research interests include regulation and financing of healthcare services, as well as organizational structures of healthcare institutions.

Eduardo González Pier is Head of the Economic Analysis Unit at the Ministry of Health of Mexico. Prior to his appointment, he worked at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He also worked as a consultant for Grupo de Economistas Asociados in Mexico City and was Social Security Policy Coordinator and Planning Coordinator within the Planning and Finance Department at the Mexican Institute of Social Security. Dr. González Pier holds a PhD in Economics from Chicago University.

Rebeca Grynspan is currently director of the subregional office of the Economic Commission for Latin America. Prior to this post, she was Vice President of Costa Rica and Coordinating Minister for the Economic and Social Sectors. She is an economist with an MA in Economics from Sussex University. Ms. Grynspan research interests include poverty alleviation and economic development in Latin America.

Isabel Guerrero is director of the World Bank program in Mexico and Colombia. She had done extensive work on Latin American economic crises, the impact on productivity, and the inequalities of the legal systems in the region.

Teh-Wei Hu is a Professor of Health Economics at University of California, Berkeley. He served as Associate Dean and Department Chair at the School of Public Health, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin. His areas of expertise are the application of econometrics to health care services research, health policy analysis, and tobacco taxation, particularly in cost-effectiveness analysis and cost analysis of mental health.

Jeremy Hurst is head of the Health Policy Unit at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The Health Policy Unit plays a leading role in the OECD’s Health Project the main theme of which is performance measurement and performance improvement in OECD health systems. Other projects include the development of healthcare quality indicators; waiting times for elective surgery; human resources in health care, among others. Jeremy Hurst is a graduate of the London School of Economics.

Evangeline Javier is Sector Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population within the Human Development Network at the World Bank. She is an economist with operational experience in health systems reform, maternal/child health programs & multisectoral approaches to human development issues.

Felicia Knaul is General Coordinator for the Modernization of Education at the Ministry of Education of Mexico and is currently on leave from her position as Lead Economist at the Mexican Health Foundation where she heads the project on Health and Competitiveness. Dr. Knaul is an economist with a master’s and PhD from Harvard University. Her research interests focus on social protection, equity in health financing, health reform, human capital formation and determinants of school drop-out.

Nora Lustig is currently President of the Universidad de las Américas, Puebla. As a researcher her work has focused on development economics with particular emphasis on the Mexican economy, the determinants of poverty and inequality, labor markets and living standards, economic crises, the costs of adjustment and social protection and public policies for the reduction of poverty. Dr. Lustig holds a PhD in Economics from Berkeley University.

André Medici is a Senior Health Economist in the Social Development Division of the Inter-American Development Bank. Prior to this position, he taught at the National School of Public Health and the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and served as President of the Brazilian Association of Health Economics. He has a master’s degree in economics from Campinas University and a PhD in economic history from São Paulo University. He joined SDS in January 2002 to develop activities related with the preparation of the IDB Health Strategy.

Christopher Murray is the Director of the Harvard University Global Health Initiative and the former Executive Director of the Evidence and Information for Policy Cluster at the World Health Organization. He has a medical degree from Harvard University and a PhD on health economics from Oxford University. Recently, he has worked on developing new approaches to the measurement of population health, cost-effectiveness analysis and the conceptualization, measurement and national application of health systems performance assessment.

Carlos Noriega is an economist with a PhD from Rochester University. He has worked as associate researcher at the Institute of International Studies (IIS) in Geneva, Switzerland and taught in diverse national and international academic institutions. Until November 2000, he was Undersecretary of Finance at the Ministry of Finance of Mexico. Currently he is working as a consultant and on research at Decide Consultores, where he is a founding partner.

Diego Palacio is Minister of Social Protection of Colombia. Minister Palacio is a surgeon with a specialization in human resources management from Los Andes University in Bogota. Prior to his appointment, he worked as advisor to the Ministry of Social Protection.

Uwe Reinhardt is a Professor at Princeton University since 1968 and has undertaken extensive research and publication in healthcare economics. He has taught courses in both micro- and macro-economic theory and policy, accounting for commercial, private, non-profit and governmental enterprises and health economics and policy. Professor Reinhardt has served on a number of governmental committees and commissions, including the National Council on Healthcare Technology.

Enrique Ruelas is Undersecretary of Innovation and Quality at the Ministry of Health of Mexico. Prior to his appointment he was president of the International Society of Quality in Health Care, founder and President of the Mexican Society of Quality in Health Care and President of the Mexican Hospital Association. Dr. Ruelas is a physician with a master’s in public sector management from the Centro de Investigación and Docencia Económicas of Mexico and a master’s in health services management from the University of Toronto.

Manuel Ruiz de Chavez is Executive President of the Mexican Health Foundation. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice-president at the same institution. He was Undersecretary of Planning at the Ministry of Health of Mexico, Health Delegate and Commissioner and General Director of the Mexico City Health Services Institute. Dr. Ruiz de Chavez is a physician from the National Autonomous University of Mexico with a Master’s in Social Medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Richard Saltman is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Emory University School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also a research director of the European Observatory on Health Care Systems and Head of its Madrid research hub. Prior to this he was Director of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory. Dr. Saltman holds a doctorate in political science from Stanford University.

William Savedoff is a Health Economist in the Health Financing and Stewardship Department of the World Health Organization. Prior to this, Dr. Savedoff worked extensively on questions related to improving the accessibility and quality of public services as an Associate Researcher at the Instituto de Pesquisa de Economia Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro and for 10 years at the Inter-American Development Bank. Dr. Savedoff has a PhD in economics from Boston University.

Jaime Sepúlveda is General Coordinator of Health Institutes at the Ministry of Health of Mexico. He is a physician and has a Master’s degree in Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Population Sciences from Harvard University. Prior to his appointment, Jaime Sepúlveda was Director General of the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico and Under-Minister at the Ministry of Health of Mexico.

Guillermo Soberón is Executive Secretary at the National Commission for the Human Genome at the Ministry of Health of Mexico and President Emeritus of the Mexican Health Foundation. He is a member of a number of national and international scientific societies. Prior to his current position, he held the posts of Executive President of the Mexican Health Foundation, Minister of Health of Mexico and Dean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He studied medicine at the National Autonomous University and has a PhD on Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin.

Eduardo Sojo is currently head of advisors for public policies to the President. Prior to this post, he was coordinator of the Economic Cabinet for the Guanajuato state government. As an academic, he was professor and researcher at the Monterrey Technological and Higher Studies Institute (ITESM). Dr. Sojo studied economics at ITESM, has a master’s degree in economics and a PhD on Industrial Organization and Finance from the University of Pennsylvania.

Richard Suzman is the Associate Director for the Behavioral and Social Research Program at the National Institute of Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health. Dr. Suzman is also Director of the Office of the Demography of Aging. He has edited several volumes related to aging issues and its impact on economic growth.

Miguel Székely is Under-Minister for Planning and Evaluation at the Ministry of Social Development of Mexico. Prior to his appointment he was the head of the Regional Development Unit at the office of the President. His research work has focused on labor markets, income redistribution and poverty. Dr. Székely is an economist with an MA in Public Policy from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, an MA in Economic Development and a PhD in economics from Oxford University.

Roberto Tapia is Undersecretary for Prevention and Health Promotion at the Ministry of Health of Mexico. He started working at the Ministry in 1982 and has been Under-Minister since 1997. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Mexican Academy of Surgery and the Mexican Academy of Science, as well as the Mexican Society of Public Health, of which he was president. Dr. Tapia is a surgeon with a Master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard University and a doctorate in science from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Suwit Wibulpolprasert is Senior Advisor on Health Economics at the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand and Vice Chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He represents Thailand in diverse international health forums, including the World Health Organization and is President of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety. He studied medicine at Ramathibodi Medical School in Bangkok.

Rebeca Wong has a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan. She is currently an Associate Research Scientist at the Maryland Population Research Center. Dr. Wong’s research agenda focuses on the economic consequences of population aging, in particular in Mexico and among immigrant Hispanics. She has recently completed work on poverty and utilization of health services among the elderly.

Francisco Yepes holds a PhD on public health from Harvard University. He is currently Executive Director of ASSALUD. Prior to this post he was General Secretary at the Colombian Health Ministry and Vice-President at the Social Security Institute. His research focuses on health sector monitoring, health policy evaluation and municipal management.