Gorik Ooms is a human rights lawyer, who graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1989. During most of his professional career he worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) Belgium, of which he was the executive director from August 2004 until May 2008.

In March 2008, Gorik Ooms obtained a PhD degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Ghent, Belgium, for his thesis on the subject: “The right to health and the sustainability of healthcare: Why a new global health aid paradigm is needed.” In August 2008, he joined the Department of Public Health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, Belgium. While remaining a post-doctoral researcher at the ITM, Gorik Ooms was appointed as Global Justice Fellow at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, and adjunct professor at the Yale School of Public Health for the 2009-2010 academic year. Since September 2010, he has been appointed as adjunct professor of Law at Georgetown University, Washington DC.

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Professor Wim Van Damme, PhD, MPH, MD, is a senior lecturer in Public Health, with focus on International Health Policies at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. From January 2013 onwards he is a SARChI chair in health systems at the University of Western Cape in South Africa. He is teaching public health to MPH students and at the Paris School of International Affairs. His fields of specialization are health services organization, national health system and health policy. He has recently been/is the principal investigator of different research projects: Health systems and access for the poor, Cambodia & China (PovIll); Impact of AIDS on health systems in Southern Africa, especially on human resources for health (ARVMAC); Impact of new international funding mechanisms on national health policies (INCO-GHIs). He is coaching PhD students from  Asia and Africa. He is an advisor to Belgian Development Cooperation on issues related to international health policies. He is the vice-chair of the Technical Evaluation Reference Group (TERG) of the Global Fund. He had previously worked for Medecins Sans Frontieres in numerous countries.

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Luc Van Leemput joined the Public Health Department of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, Belgium in April 2009. He is involved in administrative and financial coordination of Go4Health; in health policy support towards the Belgian Government and in an initiative to promote “Emerging Voices in Global Health”.

He is a registered social nurse and acquired an MSc in Health Sciences (health policy and management of health institutions). Prior to ITM, he has extensively worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a variety of African and Asian countries (Burundi, South Sudan, Guinée Conackry, Cambodia and China) and as operational coordinator in MSF headquarters.

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Natalie Eggermont is a final year student in medicine and the moral sciences at Ghent University in Belgium and is currently interning at ITM (Sept 2012 – May 2013). She has used much of her summer holidays to gain international experience, doing clinical work in DRC and Senegal, research projects in Uganda and Cambodia and an internship at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Her interests lie in empowerment, deepening democracy, transition (the sustainability-type), global justice and political economy. Natalie is an active member of the People’s Health Movement and climate activist in Belgium. She is the founder of the student organisation “UGent1010” that strives to make the University more sustainable. Currently she is board member of Health Systems Global.

She loves climbing and mountaineering, piano and contemporary dance. And inviting people over to taste how delicious vegan food can be!

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Eric A. Friedman is Project Leader, Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health (JALI) at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.  JALI is an international coalition of civil society and academics aimed at developing a global health treaty – a Framework Convention on Global Health – that aims to close global and national health inequities and better enable people to realize their human right to health.

Before joining the O’Neill Institute, Eric was Senior Global Health Policy Advisor at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). There he focused on HIV/AIDS, health systems, and the global shortage of health workers, and sought to increase the extent to which U.S. global health policy incorporates the human right to health.  He also served on the Board of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, an international partnership, and chaired a civil society-led health workforce advocacy coalition.  Eric’s primary interest is global health and human rights, especially the right to health, the importance of developing equitable, accountable health systems, and the responsibilities of all governments towards improving global health. He holds a law degree (JD) from Yale Law School and BA from Yale College.

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Devi Sridhar is a Senior Lecturer in Global Health Policy at Edinburgh University. She previously was a University Lecturer in Global Health Politics at Oxford University and faculty in the Blavatnik School of Government. She is currently coordinating the work of Work Package 4 on the Global Governance of Health.

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Dr Attiya Waris is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Commercial Law, University of Nairobi in Kenya and a Visiting Lecturer, National University of Rwanda. She is a member of the OECD GovNet and a member of the OECD Informal Task-force on Tax and Development. She holds a PhD in Tax Law and Development from Lancaster University, UK and holds two Masters of Laws one in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and another in Business and Commercial Law from the University of London as well as an Undergraduate Honours Law degree from the University of Nairobi.  She is also currently co-editor of the University of Nairobi Law Journal and the Journal of Australian Taxation and on the Advisory Board of the Juba Law Journal. She comes from a strong mixed practitioner and academic background having worked in the UK as well as several countries in Africa in various diverse institutions including academic institutions, law firms, Non-Governmental Organisations as well as the United Nations. She has published numerous articles and recently authored a book titled tax and Development: Solving the Fiscal Crisis through Human Rights (forthcoming 2013).

Her research interests include work on tax law combined with poverty alleviation, development and human rights with specific reference to developing countries. She is the coordinator of Work Package 3 from the University of Nairobi.

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Martin McKee is Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he co-directs of the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST), a WHO Collaborating Centre, and is research director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, a unique partnership of universities, national and regional governments, and international agencies.  He is also president-elect of the European Public Health Association. He trained in medicine and public health and has written extensively on health and health policy, with a particular focus on countries undergoing political and social transition.