Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), is scheduled to speak at the Monday, June 25, Plenary Session during the 2012 Busan convention.
Chan, from the People's Republic of China, has previously served as Director of Health in the Hong Kong Government and as a representative of the WHO Director-General for Pandemic Influenza and WHO Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases.
Dr. Chan, who began her career in public health in 1978, considers the improvements in the health of the people of Africa and the health of women to be the key performance indicator of WHO and wants to focus WHO's attention on those in greatest need. She is also known for her initiatives in the management of the 1997 H5N1 Avian Influenza and the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Hong Kong.
Dr. Chan was given the distinction for the Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom and was also appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. She was elected to the post of Director-General of WHO in 2006. Her term will run through June 2012.
