Maurizio Barbeschi, PhD, MBA, Prof,
Scientist, Director’s Office/ Operational Readiness IHR Core Capacity Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation
World Health Organization, Headquarters
Geneva, Switzerland
Professor Maurizio Barbeschi is currently the lead of the Health and Security Interface at the World Health Organization, Health Emergencies Programme Executive Office.
Professor Barbeschi’s role concerns the organization’s policy and technical aspects of the health security interface, including preparedness and response to deliberate outbreaks (including the alleged use of chemical and biological agents). He also provides strategic coordination for the safety and security implications of WHO activities related to high visibility events (mass gatherings).
In addition to Ebola, pandemic and other WHO outbreak field responses, Professor Barbeschi has served as a WHO representative for several international missions of relevance in the context of alleged use of chemical weapons mainly in, but not limited to, the Syrian Arab Republic (UNSC/UN Mission to Investigate Allegations of Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, 2013; the OPCW Fact-Finding mission 2014-2015; UN-OPCW Joint Investigation Mechanism 2015-2016).
He was formerly an inspector with the United Nation Monitoring and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC), the adhoc commission of the UNSC in Iraq until the war evacuation in March 2003. From 1994, Professor Barbeschi was a delegate in the Chemical Weapons Convention negotiations to the Conference of Disarmament, a Member of the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the CWC, and ultimately Senior Policy Officer of the verification division of the OPCW, before joining the WHO in 2003.
Professor Barbeschi was recently honoured by Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia) with a Professorship on Global Health Security. He holds a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Rome and an Executive MBA in Strategic Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management.
