Dr. Ala Alwan will, on February 1, 2012, take up his appointment as the new regional director for the World Health Organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO-EMRO) headquartered in Cairo. He will take over from Dr. Hussein Abdel-Razzak Al Gezairy for a five-year term.
In a related development, Dr. Margaret Chan has been nominated for a second five-year term as the director general of WHO. She was the only candidate proposed to the WHO executive board and was nominated by the People’s Republic of China. If confirmed by the World Health Assembly, Dr Chan’s new term will begin on July 1, 2012, and continue until June 30, 2017.
While Dr Alwan is a native of Iraq, Dr. Margaret Chan is from the People’s Republic of China. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She has been serving on important positions in WHO since 2003 and was elected to the post of director general in November 2006.
As for Dr. Alwan, he graduated in Medicine from the University of Alexandria, practiced medicine in Scotland and obtained his postgraduate training and qualifications in the United Kingdom. He has held important positions in WHO. He served as assistant director general for Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health at WHO Headquarters from 2008 until the end of 2011.