CHAN, Margaret
Director-General, World Health Organization
Dr Margaret Chan, from the People's Republic of China, obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She joined the Hong Kong Department of Health in 1978, where her career in public health began.
In 1994, Dr Chan was appointed Director of Health of Hong Kong. In her nine-year tenure as director, she launched new services to prevent the spread of disease and promote better health. She also introduced new initiatives to improve communicable disease surveillance and response, enhance training for public health professionals, and establish better local and international collaboration. She effectively managed outbreaks of avian influenza and of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
In 2003, Dr Chan joined WHO as Director of the Department for Protection of the Human Environment. In June 2005, she was appointed Director, Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response as well as Representative of the Director-General for Pandemic Influenza. In September 2005, she was named Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases.
Dr Chan was appointed to the post of Director-General on 9 November 2006. Her term will run through June 2012.

FASHOLA, Babatunde Raji
Governor, Lagos State, Nigeria
Babatunde is the youngest Governor of Lagos State in the History of Nigeria and a lawyer by profession. He has served as Governor of Lagos State since 29th May 2007. He was conferred with the Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (equivalent to The Queens Counsel, in the UK) in 2002. He is the recipient of the 2009 Yitzhak Rabin Centre for African Development Governor of the Decade for Peace Award and the recipient of the 2010 Award of Excellence in Leadership of the Martin Luther King Jnr. Foundation. He is the recipient of the 2009 Good Governance Award from the Commonwealth Business Council and IC Pubications. In Nigeria, he is The Guardian, The Vanguard and The Sun newspapers' Man of The Year for 2009. In the past three and a half years, Mr Fashola (SAN), has demonstrated excellence and uncommon commitment to his avowed pledge to lead the change that will transform Lagos with a population of over 18 million and a geographical area of 3,577 Sq.Km into Africa’s Model Megacity". This vision informs the massive infrastructure renewal drive across all sectors within the State, such as Health which has witnessed the completion Public Paediatric Health and Diagnostic Centres, a Cardiac and Renal Centre, Trauma and Burns Centre, and the construction of Maternal and Child Health Complexes across the state. Some other significant healthcare programmes include The Blindness Prevention Program, Limb Deformity Corrective Surgery Program, Cleft Lip and Palate Reconstructive Surgery, Free Cancer Screening and Awareness programme, Hypertension and Diabetes screening exercise, Communicable Disease Programme and upgrading of Emergency Medical Services.

MATSUZAWA, Shigefumi
Governor, Kanagawa Prefectural Government, Japan
Governor Matsuzawa was born in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 1958. Upon graduation from the Faculty of Law, Keio University in 1982, he entered the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management. In 1984 he worked as the staff of Rep. Beverly Byron in Washington, DC, U.S.A. He ran for the Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly for the first time in 1987, and was elected to the Assembly as the youngest member in the history of the prefectural government. In 1993 Governor Matsuzawa was first elected to the House of Representatives, and served as its member for three consecutive terms. During these terms he tackled the structural reforms including postal privatization, crossing sectarian lines. He became a candidate for governor of Kanagawa Prefecture in 2003, and won the election. In April 2007 he was re-elected as Governor, garnering over 2 million votes. He has been promoting citizen-oriented policies based on the “On-site and Hands-on Approach” in order to realize progressive reforms in Kanagawa. He assumed the post of guest professor at Graduate School of Governance Studies, Meiji University in April 2008. [Major Publications] ・ “Do You Dare to Continue Smoking? ― Let’s Create a Smoke-free Society!” Gentosha, Inc. ・ “Ordinance on Prevention of Exposure to Secondhand Smoke in Public Facilities ― First Smoking Control Ordinance in Japan, Challenge of Kanagawa”, Toshindo Publishing Co. Ltd. ・ “Carrying out Manifesto-based Reforms”, Toshindo Publishing Co. Ltd.

SROT, Bojan
Mayor of Celje, Slovenia
Bojan Šrot was born in 1960 in Celje. He studied law on Faculty of Law in Ljubljana and graduated in 1985. In the time of studies he was an active alpinist and joined several alpinist expeditions, also in Himalaja and Karakorum. After his graduation he worked in Court in Celje and Šmarje pri Jelšah, in 1991 he established his own law office. After 1997 he was employed as state secretary on Ministry for Justice in Ljubljana. Bojan Šrot is the Mayor of Celje since 1998. We can count the construction of Central Wastewater Treatment Plant and Centre for Waste Management with the Heating Plant, renewal of primary schools, the construction of new Football Stadium and Sports Hall, building of Regional Library and the City Marketplace as the most significant projects finished during his period in the City Hall. One of the important aspects of the future development of Celje is the improvement of quality of life, economic growth and city tourism in synergy with the rich tourism offer of the whole region. To achieve this goals the Municipality of Celje will provide funds for revitalisation of most important tourist attractions such as Šmartinsko Lake, The Old Castle and the Historic City Centre, stimulate transfer of knowledge and create a stimulative environment for business.

SHEN, Xiaoming
Vice-Mayor, Shanghai City, China
Prof. Shen Xiaoming graduated from Wenzhou Medical College in 1984. He secured his PhD from Shanghai Second Medical University (SSMU, now Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine) in 1991 and joined its faculty of pediatrics. He was promoted to full professor in 1996. Prof. Shen was Director General of Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, a tertiary health care provider run by Shanghai Municipal Government and a US-based charity, Project HOPE. He was the President of Xin Hua Hospital and President of SSMU until he joined Shanghai Municipal Government as Director General of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. He was elected as Vice Mayor of Shanghai in 2008. As a developmental pediatrician, Prof. Shen launched the first child lead poisoning programme in China and established an epidemiology-based model for lead poisoning prevention. He introduced newborn hearing screening to China and is currently running the largest screening program in the world. He is also Director of the WHO Collaborative Centre for Neonatal Health Care. He served as President of the Asian Pacific Society for Newborn Screening, Vice Chairman of Chinese Society of Child Health Care, and Honorary Chairman of Shanghai Pediatric Society. He also took the editorial positions in over 10 academic journals. He is the author of over 200 scientific articles and book chapters. He has lectured extensively worldwide and been a visiting or adjunct professor at many institutions including University of Hong Kong and Queensland University of Technology.

Bience Gawanas
Commissioner for Social Affairs, African Union
Advocate Bience Gawanas is a Namibian. She spent twelve years in exile as a SWAPO member and taught in various SWAPO refugee centers and returned to Namibia during 1989. She is married with four children.

Her qualifications include: LLB Honours from the University of Warwick in the UK; Utter Barrister Degree from Lincolns Inn in UK; Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She was called to the English and Irish Bar as a Barrister and as an Advocate to the Namibian High Court.

Her career includes: Nationally: Lawyer at the Legal Assistance Centre(1990-1991); a full-time member of the Public Service Commission (1991-1996); part-time lecturer on gender law at University of Namibia, Member and Chair of the Law Reform and Development Commission, Member of the Board of the Namibian Central Bank (1991-1996), Ombudswoman of Namibia (1996-2003) and from 2003 until present, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs.

Internationally – Was a member of: the International Advisory Council on Law and Justice of the World Bank, the UNAIDS Global Task Team on Donor Coordination and Harmonization (2005) and the UNAIDS Global Steering Committee on Universal Access (2006). Co-chair of the Global Health Workforce Alliance Task Force for Scaling-Up Education and Training of Health Workers; Currently Co-chair of the Global Leadership Group on Maternal Mortality, member of the Global Commission on Law and HIV, Board member of Synergos (Southern Affrica). As the African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, her work involves advocacy and the harmonisation and coordination of regional and continental social development policies and programmes including health, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, social welfare, labour, migration, social welfare of vulnerable groups, culture and sport.