Dr. Rajeev Venkayya Joins Gates Foundation as Director of Global Healt...(n the foundation's GlobalHealth Program....),Health

Dr. Venkayya joins the foundation from the U.S. government, where he served most recently as special assistant to the President and senior director for biodefense on the White House Homeland Security Council. In that position, one of his key responsibilities was the development of the U.S. strategy for pandemic influenza, including the implementation plan for the strategy.

Dr. Venkayya has also served as an advisor to the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was one of 13 non-partisan White House Fellows appointed by President Bush in 2002.

He is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Previously, he was co-director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and director of the High-Risk Asthma Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.

Dr. Venkayya holds a medical degree from Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health, and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people, especially those with the fewest resources, have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Patty Stonesifer and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.