16.02.2015

Tanja Wood leads the new office in Geneva

Leprosy NGO adopts new strategy, appoints new CEO and moves to Geneva, «the world’s health hub»

FAIRMED On 13th April ILEP, the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations, will start implementing its new strategy with the appointment of Tanya Wood as CEO. It will move its headquarters from London to Geneva.

President Jan van Berkel said today: «Leprosy is curable but progress on stopping transmission, preventing disability and ending the stigma of the disease is just too slow. In order to change this we have changed ourselves with a new strategy, a new CEO and a new home in Geneva. We slimmed down our governance and brought in new leadership in order to be more nimble at creating a world free from leprosy. We are moving to Geneva to learn and share with those working on other diseases, to ensure that leprosy is not left behind when new health initiatives are developed.»

René Stäheli, the current director of FAIRMED, who has been the head of ILEP for the past six years, is looking forward to the relocation of ILEP from London to Geneva: «London is the capital of finance and Geneva is the global center of international health organizations. Geneva is the right place for a federation that represents 14 organizations from Europe, America and Japan. At the same time this decision is strengthening ‘Genève International’»

Tanya Wood joins ILEP as Chief Executive from the International Council of Voluntary Agencies where she is Director of Partnerships and Policy. After a BA in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental & African Studies in London, she joined the British Red Cross and then the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies where she became Head of the IFRC’s Caribbean Regional Office. Tanya holds an MBA as well as an MSc in International Development Management.
Tanya Wood said: «I am looking forward to the challenge of working with people affected by leprosy, supporting them, through ILEP members to fight the stigma of leprosy, which can cause people affected and their families to be shunned and excluded from everyday life, their rights ignored.»