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 elected to the post of Director-General on 9 November 2006. The Assembly appointed Dr Chan for a second five-year term at its sixty-fifth session in May 2012. Dr Chan's last term began on 1 July 2012 and ended on 30 June 2017.

• Interview on taking office as Director-General - 4 January 2007

Dr Anders Nordström was the Acting Director-General of WHO from 23 May 2006 until 3 January 2007. He was appointed to this post by the WHO Executive Board following the sudden death of Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General, on 22 May 2006. Prior to that he had been WHO Assistant Director-General for General Management since July 2003.

A medical doctor from the Karolinska Institut, Sweden, Dr Nordström has a background that combines development experience in the field, national and international health policy and planning, and strategic leadership.

His first international assignments were with the Swedish Red Cross in Cambodia and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iran. He worked for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for 12 years, including three years as Regional Advisor in Zambia and four years as head of the Health Division in Stockholm. During this time the Agency was supporting programmes on health development and poverty reduction in some 18 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, working closely with United Nations agencies, and other global and international organizations.

During 2002 Dr Nordström was the Interim Executive Director for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In this capacity he laid the foundations for the Fund's present structure, through managing the Secretariat, preparing work plans, budget and recruitment. Prior to joining WHO, he was strongly engaged in global health policy dialogue, with a special focus on issues relating to health systems and human resources.

Dr Nordström took office as Assistant Director-General for General Management in July 2003 with a mandate to support the implementation of former Director-General Dr LEE Jong-wook's vision of a more effective and efficient organization that is equipped to "do the right things, in the right place". Working closely with colleagues in headquarters, regions and countries, as well as Member States and partners, important progress has been made in strengthening the planning and budget processes, improving management of human resources, and ensuring greater transparency and accountability.

LEE Jong-wook was nominated on 28 January 2003 by the World Health Organization's Executive Board for the post of Director-General of the agency and elected to the post on 21 May by the Member States of WHO for a five-year term.

Prior to his work as Director-General, Dr Lee was a world leader in the fight against two of the greatest challenges to international health and development - tuberculosis, and vaccine preventable diseases of children. Since the appointment as Director of the Stop TB Department in WHO in 2000 – and building on previous experience as head of the Global Programme on Vaccines and Immunization – Dr Lee rapidly built what is internationally recognized as one of the most successful and dynamic global public-private partnerships for health; the Global Partnership to Stop TB. Credited by the Boston Globe as having brought the leadership and political skills needed to build consensus and ‘spur former antagonists to work together’, Dr Lee led the growth of a remarkable and complex coalition of more than 250 international partners that includes WHO Members States, donors, NGOs, industry and foundations.

Dr Lee’s work in tuberculosis control and vaccines demonstrated his personal strategic focus on health interventions to reduce poverty. In accelerating movement to reach the global immunization goals – including polio eradication – and hastening progress towards the global TB control targets, he led efforts which will make a substantial contribution to reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Shortly after his appointment to Stop TB, he launched the Global Drug Facility (GDF) - a new initiative to increase access to TB drugs, with substantial financial support from several multilateral agencies, governments and foundations, the GDF has already made a significant impact and is increasingly being viewed as a model for increasing access to drugs for other diseases of poverty, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.

His commitment to action and focus on countries ensured that what counts is results – a feature that has been clearly evident from early in his career. As head of polio eradication initiatives in the Western Pacific from 1990 to 1994, he oversaw a reduction in reported polio cases from 5963 to 700 in the Region. In 1994, Dr Lee moved to WHO headquarters in Geneva as Director of the WHO Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunization (GPV) and Executive Secretary of the Children’s Vaccine Initiative – a global campaign to catalyze development of new and improved vaccines for children. He quickly established a reputation as a visionary leader and strong manager. Dubbed as WHO’s ‘Vaccine Czar’ by the Scientific American magazine in 1997, he was responsible for a series of strategic developments in GPV. These included an open approach to working with industry, a review of the short-, mid- and long-term mission of GPV, an increase in funding from $15 million to nearly $70 million between 1994 and 1998, and management reforms to assure the highest technical competence of staff and increase the proportion of women in professional posts.

In 1998, having joined the newly formed cabinet as Senior Policy Adviser to the Director-General of WHO, he was closely involved in the WHO reform process, and maintained a strong commitment to supporting Members States by strengthening the regional and country structure of the Organization. As Special Representative of the Director-General, he was responsible for several crucial WHO initiatives, including those in the Horn of Africa and East Timor.

Dr Lee probably knew WHO better than most, having worked for more than 20 years in technical, managerial and policy positions at all levels in the Organization – country, region and headquarters. He began his WHO career in 1983 as a leprosy consultant in the South Pacific, and a year later was appointed team leader for leprosy control in the South Pacific. In 1986 he moved to the Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, initially in the Regional Leprosy Control Programme and later as Regional Adviser on Chronic Diseases.

Since Dr Lee took office as Director-General, the Organization has achieved some notable milestones in public health; ratifying the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (the first public health treaty negotiated by WHO); adopting a revised set of International Health Regulations; and leading the health response to avian influenza, the Asian tsunami, and the Pakistan earthquake.

The Director-General released several landmark publications with the aim of prompting a substantial response to some of the greatest health challenges facing the world, most notably the annual World Health Reports, which have focused on the AIDS treatment gap (2004); the appalling burden of suffering and death faced by pregnant women and children, with a call to 'make every mother and child count' (2005); and a commitment to address the health workforce crisis facing most developing countries (2006). The Report for 2007 takes the theme of health and security, emphasizing the central relationship between health, peace and human security.

Prior to joining WHO, Dr Lee worked for two years at the LBJ Tropical Medical Centre in American Samoa. A national of the Republic of Korea, he received his Medical Doctor (MD) degree from Seoul National University Medical School of Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Hawaii, School of Public Health.

Dr Lee was born in 1945. He is survived by his wife and son, two brothers and a sister and their families.

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland was born in Oslo, Norway, on 20 April 1939.

A medical doctor and Master of Public Health (MPH), Gro Harlem Brundtland spent 10 years as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system. For more than 20 years she was in public office, 10 of them as Prime Minister. In the 1980s she gained international recognition, championing the principle of sustainable development as the chair of the World Commission of Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission).

Dr Brundtland's first choice of career was neither environmentalist nor politician, but to become a doctor like her father. He was a specialist in rehabilitation medicine, a skill much in demand following the Second World War. When Gro Harlem was 10 years old, the family moved to the United States where her father had been awarded a Rockefeller scholarship. The seeds of internationalism were sown in the young Gro.

Dr Brundtland inherited another passion from her father - political activism. At the age of seven, she was enrolled as a member of the Norwegian Labour Movement in its children's section and has been a member ever since, leading the Labour Party to election victory three times.

The sense of global awareness that began in her childhood developed when, as a young mother and newly qualified doctor, Gro Harlem Brundtland won a scholarship to the Harvard School of Public Health. Here, working alongside distinguished public health experts, Dr Brundtland's vision of health extending beyond the confines of the medical world into environment issues and human development began to take shape.

Returning to Oslo and the Ministry of Health in 1965, the next nine years were to be very hectic for Dr Brundtland. At the Ministry she worked on children's health issues including breastfeeding, cancer prevention and other diseases. She worked in the children's department of the National Hospital and Oslo City Hospital and became Director of Health Services for Oslo's schoolchildren. All this at the same time as bringing up her own family and representing Norway in international conferences.

Such energy, enthusiasm and commitment brought an unexpected change of career. In 1974, Dr Brundtland was offered the job of Minister of the Environment. At first, believing she did not have enough experience of environmental issues, she was reluctant to accept the post. But her conviction of the link between health and the environment changed her mind.

During the 1970s she acquired international recognition in environmental circles and a political reputation at home. In 1981, at the age of 41, she was appointed Prime Minister for the first time. Gro Harlem Brundtland was the youngest person and the first woman ever to hold the office of PrimeMinister in Norway. With two other periods as Prime Minister from 1986-1989 and 1990-1996, Dr Brundtland was Head of Government for more than 10 years.

Throughout her political career, Dr Brundtland has developed a growing concern for issues of global significance. In 1983 the then United Nations Secretary-General invited her to establish and chair the World Commission on Environment and Development. The Commission, which is best known for developing the broad political concept of sustainable development, published its report Our Common Future in April 1987.

The Commission's recommendations led to the Earth Summit - the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Dr Brundtland finally stepped down as Prime Minister in October 1996. In her successful bid to become Director-General of the World Health Organization her many skills as doctor, politician, activist and manager have come together.

Dr Brundtland was nominated as Director-General of the World Health Organization by the Executive Board of WHO in January 1998. The World Health Assembly elected her for the position on 13 May 1998.

In her acceptance speech for the World Health Assembly, Dr Brundtland said: "What is our Key mission? I see WHO's role as being the moral voice and the technical leader in improving health of the people of the world. Ready and able to give advice on the key issues that can unleash development and alleviate suffering. I see our purpose to be combating disease and ill-health - promoting sustainable and equitable health systems in all countries".

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland took office on 21 July the same year.

Dr Hiroshi Nakajima served as WHO’s fourth Director-General from 1988 to 1998.

Dr Nakajima was born on 16 May 1928 in Chiba City, Japan, and died on 26 January 2013, in Poitiers, France. He studied medicine at the Tokyo Medical College obtaining his MD degree in 1955 and a PhD in medical science in 1960.

Dr Nakajima was employed in research in psychopharmacology at the National Institute of Health and Medicine, in Paris, France from 1958 to 1961, further specializing in basic and clinical neuropsychopharmacology from 1961 to 1967.

Dr Nakajima returned to Japan as the Director of Research and Administration at the Nippon Roche Research Centre in Tokyo from 1967 to 1973.

He first worked at WHO from 1973 to 1976 as a scientist in Evaluation and Control of Drugs at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. He was then Chief of Drug Policies and Management at WHO until 1979.

Dr Nakajima was elected Regional Director for the WHO Western Pacific Region in January 1979 and was re-elected for a second term of office in in 1983. In 1984 he was awarded the Kojima Prize, the highest award given in Japan for public health. He was author of more than 60 scientific articles and reviews in the field of medical and pharmaceutical sciences.

In January 1988 the WHO Executive Board elected Dr Hiroshi Nakajima as the fourth Director-General of WHO, succeeding Dr Halfdan Mahler. He was the first Japanese citizen to head a United Nations agency.

During his first term, in 1988, WHO’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched. Under Dr Nakajima’s leadership mounted significant campaigns to combat malaria, dengue, guinea worm, and other infectious diseases. He also lobbied to increase international support to end female genital mutilation.

Notable programmes from his second term include: DOTS (directly-observed treatment, short course), the strategy for tuberculosis care and control that began in 1995; the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness Initiative; and the expansion of the Global Programme for Childhood Immunization.

Dr Nakajima decided not to seek re-election for a third term, and ended his tenure as Director-General of WHO in July 1998.

Dr Halfdan Theodor Mahler served 3 successive terms as Director-General of WHO, from 1973 to 1988.

He was born on 21 April 1923 in Vivild, Denmark, and died in Geneva, Switzerland, on 14 December 2016.

Dr Mahler obtained his medical degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1948. Building on postgraduate work in public health, his first international activities were in tuberculosis and community work in under-developed countries: he directed an anti-tuberculosis campaign for the Red Cross in Ecuador between 1950 and 1951.

In 1951, Dr Mahler joined WHO and spent nearly 10 years in India as a Senior Officer attached to the National Tuberculosis Programme. He was appointed as Chief of the Tuberculosis Unit at WHO headquarters in Geneva in 1962, and in 1969 was appointed as Director, Project Systems Analysis.

Under Mahler's lead, WHO increased projects to strengthen basic health services – these projects were the predecessors of the formal primary health care programmes that would follow. Dr Mahler was appointed as Assistant Director-General of WHO in 1970, and retained the direction of Project Systems Analysis in this role.

Mahler was then elected as WHO's third Director-General in 1973. In the same year, the WHO Executive Board issued the report Organizational study on methods of promoting the development of basic health services, and a search for balance between the vertical (single disease) and the horizontal (health systems) approach began.

Throughout his work with WHO Mahler believed that the poor and under-privileged deserve the best possible health care, which led him to focus strongly on the development of health systems.

In 1975 WHO and UNICEF produced a joint report, Alternative approaches to meeting basic health needs in developing countries, which examined successful primary health care programmes and led WHO to re-construct its approach to primary health care.

The following year, Mahler launched the "Health For All by 2000" goal at the World Health Assembly. He was re-elected as Director-General in 1978, and WHO launched its Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year 2000 in 1979. Key elements of this strategy can still be seen in WHO’s efforts to help countries reach universal health coverage.

Mahler completed the work started by his predecessor, Marcolino Candau, overseeing the eradication of smallpox. This achievement triggered the creation of the Expanded Programme on Immunization. Throughout Dr Mahler’s three 5-year terms as Director-General the global rate of child vaccination increased from 5% to 50%.

Dr Mahler was outspoken on many issues, warning about lax hygiene, fad diets, misleading drug labels, and reliance on expensive health technologies, while championing policies to encourage new mothers to breastfeed. The first edition of WHO’s Model list of essential medicines was also published under his leadership. After leaving WHO, Mahler focused on reproductive rights and family planning. He was director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation until 1995.

Dr Marcolino Gomes Candau served as WHO’s second Director-General from 1953 to 1973.

Dr Candau was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 May 1911, and died in Geneva in 1983. He completed his medical studies at the School of Medicine of the State of Rio De Janeiro and at the School of Hygiene and Public Health of the Johns Hopkins University, in the United States of America.

Before joining WHO, Dr Candau was Superintendent of the Serviço Especial de Saúde Pública (SESP), a cooperative public health programme of the Brazilian Government and the Institute of Inter-American Affairs. He also worked as Assistant Professor of Hygiene at the School of Medicine at the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Dr Candau first joined WHO in 1950 as Director of the Division of Organization of Health Services in Geneva, Switzerland. Within a year, he was appointed as Assistant Director-General of Advisory Services. He then moved to Washington, DC, as Assistant Director-General of the WHO Region of the Americas.

In 1953, the World Health Assembly elected Dr Candau as WHO’s second Director-General.

During his 20-year term, Dr Candau led a number of important initiatives. He oversaw a significant increase in the number of WHO Member States. This was partly driven by the fact that many countries (54 in total) became independent of their colonizers over this period, and needed to set up their own health services. Between 1953 and 1973 WHO moved from a membership of 81 countries, 1 500 staff, and a budget of US$9 million to a membership of 138 countries, 4 000 staff, and a budget of US$106 million.

On the public health front, Dr Candau is most remembered for leading the fight against smallpox, malaria, and onchocerciasis.

From 1967 to 1974 he directed WHO’s initiative for smallpox eradication, reducing the global tally of smallpox cases from 2.5 million to less than 200 000, leaving the disease endemic in only 7 countries by the time he left WHO.

Resistance to insecticides and treatments made malaria a more difficult challenge, yet during Dr Candau’s tenure , 700 million people were freed from the threat of malaria and a further 650 million were protected by insecticide spraying and surveillance.

In 1973, after serving 20 years as WHO Director-General, Dr Candau retired at age 62. The Twenty-sixth World Health Assembly, in 1973, recognized Dr Candau’s exceptional contributions to public health by formally naming him Director-General Emeritus of WHO.

Dr Candau was the author of numerous scientific papers covering a wide range of subjects, including public health administration, malaria, parasitology, biology statistics, and rural hygiene. He was also a member of the Council of the United Nations University, and an Honorary Fellow and Member of a large number of Associations. In 1974, he was awarded the Léon Bernard Medal and Prize by the World Health Assembly and the Geraldo Paul Souza Medal by the Public Health Association of São Paulo Brazil.

Dr George Brock Chisholm served as WHO’s first Director-General from 1948 to 1953.

Born in Oakville, Ontario (Canada), on 18 May 1896, Dr Chisholm died in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada) on 4 February 1971.

After fighting in the First World War, Dr Chisholm studied medicine at the University of Toronto. He focused his post-graduate work on psychiatry, interning at several hospitals in London, later pursuing further studies on the mental health of children at Yale University. Dr Chisholm also practised psychological medicine in Toronto.

During the Second World War, Dr Chisholm held various military posts, ending as Director of Medical Services and Chief of Personnel Selection, with rank of Major General. He was the first psychiatrist to head the medical services of any army.

The Canadian Government created the position of Deputy Minister of Health in 1944, and Chisholm was first the person to occupy the post until being elected as Executive Secretary of the WHO Interim Commission in July 1946.

Succeeding the League of Nations' Health Organization, the World Health Organization was established in April of 1948, with Chisholm as its Director-General.

It was Chisholm who proposed the name "World Health Organization", with the intent of emphasizing that the Organization would be truly global, serving all nations. Chisholm’s vision of WHO was a determining factor in the election for the post of Director-General. Parts of WHO’s constitution, including the definition of health as "…a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity", were first heard in Chisholm’s speech to the final meeting of WHO’s technical planning committee.

The WHO constitution also declares health to be a fundamental right of every human being, and recognizes that “the heath of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security.” Chisholm believed that the well-being of humanity is dependent on the world’s emotional health.

Under Chisholm’s leadership WHO dealt successfully with a cholera epidemic in Egypt, malaria outbreaks in Greece and Sardinia, and introduced a global shortwave epidemic-warning system for ships at sea. WHO also launched 2 long-term projects to standardize the names, descriptions, and strengths of drugs throughout the world.

Dr Chisholm did not seek re-election at the end of his term in 1953, and returned to Canada to settle with his family in British Columbia. Dr Chisholm was the author of numerous publications. He was also made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967, and received many honorary degrees.

Awards included the Medal of the Pasteur Institute, and the Lasker Award (1945 and 1953). After his time as WHO’s Director-General, Chisholm was Honorary President of the World Federalists of Canada and President of the World Federation for Mental Health. Dr Chisholm was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, of the American Psychiatric Association, The American Public Health Association and several other organizations.