Professor Michel Kazatchkine, MD, is a commissioner for the Global Commission on Drug Policy. He has dedicated over 30 years fighting AIDS and promoting global health as a physician, researcher, advocate, policymaker, diplomat and administrator. After medical school, Professor Kazatchkine, studied immunology at the Pasteur Institute and completed postdoctoral fellowships at St Mary’s Hospital in London and Harvard Medical School.

He has served as Chair of the WHO’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS and as a member of the WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Group on Tuberculosis. Between 2002 and 2005 he served as the first Chair of the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund. He served as Vice-Chair of the Board of the Global Fund between 2005 and 2006. From 2007 - 2012 he served as the Executive Director of the Global Fund. Between 2012 and 2017, Professor Kazatchkine was the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Since 2015, he is the Special Advisor to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. During his academic carrier, Professor Kazatchkine has produced more than 500 research papers and has served on numerous editorial boards.