Professor Michel Kazatchkine has spent the last 25 years fighting AIDS as a leading physician, researcher, administrator, advocate, policy maker, and diplomat. He has played key roles in various organizations, serving as Director of the national Agency for Research on AIDS (ANRS) in France (1998-2005), Chair of the WHO's Strategic and Technical Committee on HIV/AIDS (2004-2007) and first Chair of the Global Fund's Technical Review Panel. From 2005 to 2007, he served as French Ambassador on HIV/AIDS, Board member and Vice-Chair of the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (2005-2007). In 2007 Pr Kazatchkine was elected Executive Director of the Global Fund, a position in which he served until March 2012. In July 2012, he was appointed as the UN Secretary-General's special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and central Asia. Prof Kazatchkine has been a member of the Global Commission on drug policies since its creation in 2010.