"Zsuzsanna Jakab, a national of Hungary, has been appointed Regional Director for Europe of the World Health Organisation (WHO).The WHO Executive Board has confirmed Jakab’s nomination as the next WHO Regional Director for Europe on Tuesday.
She is scheduled to take up her new post on 1 February 2010, succeeding Dr Marc Danzon, 62, who has served as the Regional Director for Europe for the past 10 years.
Jakab is the first representative of Hungary to lead a WHO region.
Jakab was appointed Director of the European Union (EU) European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in March 2005. Before joining ECDC, she was Secretary of State in Hungary’s Ministry of Health. As the most senior civil servant at the Ministry, she was responsible for overseeing Hungary’s implementation of EU policies and laws in her area, administering the spending of EU financial assistance and managing Hungary’s national public health programme.
Jakab also played a key role in the negotiations leading up to the European Conference on Health and the Environment, held in Budapest in July 2004.
Before joining the Hungarian government, she worked at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Denmark for 11 years.
In October 2000, Jakab was appointed Director of Administration and Management Support at the Regional Office, responsible for supporting governing bodies; overseeing strategic and operational planning, monitoring and evaluation; supervising the work of WHO collaborating centres in Europe; and legal matters and administration.
Between 1991 and 2002, she held several posts at the Regional Office, including Coordinator, Division of Information, Evidence and Communication; Director, Country Health Development; and Coordinator, Policy and Country programme, and EUROHEALTH programme.
Born in 1951 in Hungary Jakab holds a Master’s degree from Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Budapest, a postgraduate university degree from the University of Political Sciences, Budapest, a diploma of the two foundation courses in public health at the Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden (public health sciences and qualitative methods/ public health science and epidemiology) and a postgraduate diploma from the National Institute of Public Administration and Management."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
21.01.2010