Rafael Vilasanjuan

Director of Policy and Global Development, ISGlobal

Rafael Vilasanjuan has been Director of Policy and Global Development of ISGlobal since March 2011. Prior to joining ISGlobal, he worked for over 12 years with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), starting as Communication Director in 1995 and later as General Director of its Spanish section. In 1999, when the organisation was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace, he was appointed General Secretary of MSF International, which he held until 2005.

During this period, he worked in conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Chechnya, Somalia, Sudan, West Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia. As General Secretary of MSF, he was a founder member of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), which develops and delivers new drugs for diseases in developing countries. He was Chair of the Gavi Civil Society Organisations Steering Committee from 2017 to 2018, and a member of that committee from 2016 to 2019.