Biography

In September 2022, Aurélia Nguyen was appointed Chief Programme Strategy Officer at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance – the first person to hold the position. In this role, Aurélia provides strategic direction on Gavi’s vaccine portfolio; ensures cohesion and coordination in implementing Gavi’s current strategy and planning for the next strategic period; and incorporates key learnings into Gavi policies and programmes. 

Previously, Aurélia served as Managing Director of the Office of the COVAX Facility, beginning in October 2020. In this role, Aurélia led the coordination of procurement and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to 146 countries through COVAX, the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both high-income and lower-income countries. 

In a previous appointment, Aurélia served as Gavi’s Managing Director for Vaccines & Sustainability, leading the end-to-end work of designing Gavi’s vaccine programmes. She and her team were responsible for designing ways for Gavi’s resources to support financially sustainable vaccine programmes and markets, and ultimately increase uptake of life-saving vaccines. 

Prior to joining Gavi in 2011, Aurélia held a variety of posts between 1999 and 2010 within GlaxoSmithKline, where latterly she led the development of GSK’s policies on access to medicines and vaccines in lower-income countries. She has also undertaken research for the World Health Organization (WHO) on generic medicines policies.

Aurélia is a certified accountant and holds a Master’s degree in Health Policy, Planning & Financing from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics. Aurélia was named by TIME magazine to the 2021 TIME100 Next list honouring “the 100 individuals who are shaping the future of their fields and defining the next generation of leadership”.