Starting shot for vaccines

John F. Ryan is Director of the Commission Public Health directorate since September 2016.

Previously, in the same department, he was the Head of Unit responsible for a number of public health policy areas (cancer, drugs, promotion, monitoring, infectious diseases).

He was a Commission representative on the Board of the EU Lisbon Drugs Agency, and is currently the Commission representative on the Board of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

He also had the charge of dealing with tobacco control issues.
 Current priorities include the development of an EU cancer plan, antimicrobial resistance, vaccination policies, and the negotiation of financial instruments to support health, including research.

He has previously worked on the completion of the internal market, and on international trade negotiations. He is also an official of the Irish civil service (on leave). He is a fellow of the UK faculty of public health.

In May 2019, Dr. Thomas Steffen was appointed as State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Germany by Jens Spahn, Federal Minister of Health, Germany.

Since 2012 Dr. Steffen served as State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Finance working with Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, responsible for international policy and macroeconomic affairs, financial market policy and European policy. Prior to that, he, among other positions, was the Chief Executive Officer of the Insurance and Pension Funds Supervision and Member of the Executive Board of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

Dr. Steffen studied law and politics at the University of Mainz and the University of Burgundy, Dijon, France.

Professor Beate Kampmann joined the LSHTM from Imperial College London in May 2018 and is the Director of The Vaccine Centre @ LSHTM. She trained as a clinician-scientist in Paediatric Infectious Diseases in Germany, UK, France, USA and South Africa. 

Beate holds a Chair in Paediatric Infection & Immunity and was appointed as the Scientific Director (Theme Leader) for Vaccinology research at the MRC Unit The Gambia in July 2010. She directs a comprehensive childhood infection and immunity research program both in the UK and sub-saharan Africa. Over the last few years she has conducted a number of studies in both UK and West Africa investigating the scientific and implementation challenges of maternal immunization. She is the director of IMPRINT- the IMmunising PRegnant women and INfants network, one of the 5 MRC-funded networks for vaccines.

Senior international positions in various Pharmaceutical/ Biotech organizations, including GlaxoSmithKline, Celsion, Grünenthal and Daiichi Sankyo, strong expertise in Medical Affairs and Clinical Development, as well as Global Market Access, 20 years of experience in life sciences.

Odile Launay is Professor of Infectious diseases at the University of Paris. She is the Director of the Clinical Investigation Center in Vaccinology (CIC Cochin Pasteur), the only French clinical investigation center dedicated to vaccinal research based in Paris, since it is creation in 2005 and Coordinator of the French Innovative Clinical Network in Vaccinology (I-REIVAC) in the FCrin Program. She is member of the board of the College of Teacher of Infectious Disease (CMIT).

Sue Saville is a highly-experienced broadcast news journalist & conference host; she was the Medical Correspondent at ITV News for 12 years, after being Chief Correspondent at GMTV, & now chairs conferences, awards nights, medical symposia & webinars, as well as running bespoke Media Training and Crisis Communications courses, freelancing as a Reporter for ITV News and making corporate films. Sue started her career as a BBC News Trainee, with roles in regional and national TV newsrooms, including BBC Breakfast News. She worked in radio and television in Hong Kong after graduating with an MA from Oxford University and a Postgraduate Diploma from Cardiff University. Sue speaks French and German.