Richard J. Hatchett, MD, is Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, otherwise known as CEPI. CEPI is a partnership of public, private, philanthropic and civil organizations that supports the swift development and equitable access to new vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats.

Launched in 2017, CEPI has more than 20 vaccine candidates in development against priority pathogens, including Lassa fever, MERS and Nipah. CEPI plays a central role in the global response to the emergence of the novel coronavirus, and has created the world’s largest portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines – several of which are now saving lives around the world. CEPI also co-led COVAX, the sharing facility set up to deliver global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

CEPI’s five-year plan – called CEPI 2.0 - aims to systematically reduce the risk of future epidemics spawning pandemics through an innovative and access-focused programme of R&D. Central to this plan is the 100 Days Mission - an ambition, supported by the G7 and G20, to compress the timeline for the development of safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines to just 100 days. Achieving this would mean outbreaks of emerging pathogens with pandemic potential would be contained before they became global crises.

Dr. Hatchett was previously acting Director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and served as Director of Medical Preparedness Policy on the Homeland and National Security Councils under Presidents Bush and Obama. He was awarded a medical degree from Vanderbilt and completed clinical training in internal medicine and medical oncology at Cornell and Duke.

Penny Heaton, M.D., is the Global Therapeutic Area Head for Vaccines at Janssen Research & Development, L.L.C. In this role, she leads a global team focused on developing transformational vaccines to prevent some of the most devastating infectious diseases the world faces today.

Penny holds two decades of vaccine research and development experience. She recently served as the
Chief Executive Officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (Gates MRI), where she led the development of investigational products from pre‐clinical through late‐stage development against
multiple diseases including HIV, TB, malaria, pneumonia, enteric diseases, and polio. She has also led vaccine clinical research and development for companies including Novartis, Merck and Novavax. Notably, during her time at Meck, Penny co‐developed a rotavirus vaccine which has been licensed in more than 100 countries and universally recommended by the World Health Organization for infants worldwide. Penny began her career at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducting diarrheal disease surveillance and investigating outbreaks of foodborne and diarrheal diseases, influencing her life‐long passion for vaccine development.

A graduate of the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky, Penny is board‐certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. She is a member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar is the Director of the Wellcome Trust, Trust - a politically and financially independent global charitable foundation that exists to fund Science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone.

Sir Jeremy is a clinician scientist who before joining Wellcome was, for eighteen years, Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Viet Nam, where his research interests were in infectious diseases and global health with a focus on emerging infections, he has published almost 600 articles. He was named 12th in the Fortune list of 50 World’s Greatest Leaders in 2015 and was awarded the Memorial Medal and Ho Chi Minh City Medal from the Government of Viet Nam. In 2018 he was awarded the President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian of the Year Award. 

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, the National Academies USA, the European Molecular Biology Organisation and a Fellow of The Royal Society.  Sir Jeremy was knighted in the Queen’s 2018 New Year Honours for services to Global Health.

Dr Margaret Hamburg is the 21st Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where she served for almost six years. In that role, she was known for advancing regulatory science, streamlining and modernizing FDA’s regulatory pathways, and globalization of the agency. Before joining FDA, Dr. Hamburg was founding vice president and senior scientist at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation dedicated to reducing nuclear, chemical and biological threats. Previous government positions include Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Commissioner for New York City, and Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. 

Dr Hamburg earned her B.A. from Harvard College and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Professional recognition includes numerous awards, honorary degrees and memberships.