Gaudenz Silberschmidt

Director Health and Multilateral Partnerships; External Relations, World Health Organization

Gaudenz Silberschmidt is Director, Health and Multilateral Partnerships of the World Health Organization (WHO) since May 2019 where is responsible for WHO’s engagement with partnerships, parliaments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and NGOs. He is also responsible for the creation of a WHO Foundation and a World Health Museum. He has advised the previous Director-General of WHO on reform issues since joining the WHO Secretariat in October 2012. He was appointed Director for Partnerships and Non-State Actors in February 2015, responsible for the process leading to the adoption of the Framework of Engagement of Non-State Actors (FENSA). From 2015-2017 he was also Director ad interim of Coordinated Resource Mobilization. 

Before joining WHO, Gaudenz was the Swiss Ambassador for Global Health, heading the International Affairs Division of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health from 2003-2012. He represented Switzerland as member of the Executive Board of the WHO, where he also chaired several negotiations during the World Health Assembly including the drafting group leading to resolution WHA 58.3 on the Adoption of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), and is a former member of the bureau of the OECD health committee. He initiated the OECD / WHO reviews of the Swiss health system and led the elaboration of the Swiss Health Foreign Policy. For the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute he chaired the external advisory group and regularly teaches in global health diplomacy courses in Geneva, Beijing, Nairobi, Jakarta and Cairo. Before joining the Swiss administration he was the Executive Director of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment. Gaudenz received his medical degree from the University of Zurich, holds a master degree in International Relations from the University of St. Gallen and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Public Health from the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel. During his internship at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India he completed a Medical Officer in Leprology course in Karigiri.