Melinda F. Moree, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, BIO Ventures for Global Health, California

Melinda Moree was named Chief Executive Officer of BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) on December 30, 2009. She served as Interim CEO of BVGH from July - December 2009 and has been a member of the board of directors since the company's inception in 2004. In her tenure as CEO, Dr. Moree has grown the organization and introduced two significant new programs -- the Pool for Open Innovation against Neglected Tropical Diseases and Global Health Connect – both of which find the common ground between the goals of global health and the pragmatic needs of companies to bring more biopharmaceutical companies into neglected disease product development. In addition, she has overseen the design of a new "Pay for Success" incentive aimed at increasing the number of companies working on products for neglected diseases. She has also significantly increased funding for the organization and overseen the opening of a San Francisco office.

Before joining BVGH, Dr. Moree was the Principal Investigator on the Malaria Policy Project conducted with the Center for Global Development, a member of the team evaluating the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and consulted with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations. Until early 2007, Dr. Moree was the Director of the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), a public-private-partnership with a mission to accelerate the development of malaria vaccines and to ensure that they are available and accessible to people in developing countries. While at MVI, she was instrumental in setting the overall vision for the program and in ensuring an organizational design and a sense of urgency that enabled rapid execution and solid relations with industry. Dr. Moree oversaw the growth of the program from $50 million to $300 million and a tripling in staff. Most importantly a key milestone event—proof of concept (efficacy) in children in Africa-- was achieved under her leadership.

Prior to joining MVI, Dr. Moree was Manager of Advanced Research at EKOS Corporation and worked in technology transfer at the University of Washington School of Medicine. This work was preceded by an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Diplomacy fellowship at the United States Agency for International Development. During the fellowship Dr. Moree began her first work on public private partnerships for the development of technologies and diagnostics for the developing world. She received her PhD in Medical Microbiology from the University of Maryland at Baltimore.