Acting Regional Director
Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab has been Acting Regional Director for the Western Pacific since March 2023, after a period as Officer-in-Charge of the Western Pacific since August 2022. Dr Jakab will serve as Acting Regional Director until a new Regional Director takes office on 1 February 2024. The new Regional Director will be nominated by the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific in October 2023 and appointed by the WHO Executive Board in January 2024.
Dr Jakab has served as WHO Deputy Director-General since 2019 after serving as WHO Regional Director for Europe from 2010-2019.
She has held a number of high-profile national and international public health policy positions in the last 3 decades, including as the founding Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm, Sweden. Between 2005 and 2010, Dr Jakab built the centre into an internationally respected centre of excellence in the fight against infectious diseases.
