Pate – World Bank Appointment
Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate
Washington, DC, July 1, 2019 – AIHA is thrilled to congratulate Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria, on his appointment today as the The World Bank Group’s new Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population and as the new Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents.
Dr. Pate, a member of AIHA’s Board of Directors since April 2017, brings more than 30 years of public health leadership and medical expertise to his new role at the World Bank Group.
Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Pate has worked tirelessly to champion efforts to strengthen health systems, train health workers, and mobilize resources to improve access to quality health services in Nigeria and other low- and middle-income countries around the globe.
Dr. Pate most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy and is an adjunct professor with the Duke Global Health Institute at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Pate served as Minister of State for Health in Nigeria, where he helped mobilize more than US$1 billion in additional financing for primary healthcare, implemented innovative programs such as prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, clinical governance, and chaired the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication. He led Nigeria’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative and previously served as Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency from 2008-2011.
“I’ve had the great pleasure of working closely with Dr. Pate since he joined AIHA’s Board of Directors two years ago. Over his long and distinguished career, he has made many significant contributions to global public health and development,” says AIHA President & CEO David Greeley. “With his extensive knowledge, keen insight, and entrepreneurial spirit, I expect his contributions to expand both in scope and reach through his leadership at The World Bank.”
Bio – Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate
Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy, a foundation that invests in maternal, child and reproductive health, nutrition and education, among other areas. He is an adjunct professor at Duke Global Health Institute, at Duke University in North Carolina and served as R.L. Menschel Senior Leadership fellow 2016 at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
From 2011 to 2013, Dr. Pate served as Minister of State for Health in Nigeria, where he helped mobilize more than US$1 billion in additional financing for primary health care, implemented innovative programs such as prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, clinical governance and chaired the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication. He led Nigeria’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative and previously served as Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency from 2008-2011.
Dr. Pate served as co-chair of the Harvard-London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine panel to review and advise the global health system on the lessons learned from the 2014 West African Ebola Outbreak. Since June 2010, Dr. Pate has co-chaired the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, which raised US$24 million domestically for investments to complement the Nigerian government’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative.
Prior to his public service in Nigeria, Dr. Pate worked at the World Bank as a senior public health specialist, overseeing programs in Africa and the East Asia and Pacific region.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Pate served as a resident physician at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He completed a sub-specialty fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Rochester Medical Center in upstate New York. He also served as a medical officer in Nigeria and with the British Medical Research Council Laboratories in The Gambia.
He earned a medical degree in 1990 from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, an MBA with a health sector concentration from Duke University, and a Master of Science in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Dr. Pate has been honored with numerous global health awards, including the 2012 Harvard Health Leadership Award, and has authored or contributed to dozens of peer reviewed publications and contributed book chapters.