Directory

Robin Coupland is a medical adviser in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

He joined the ICRC in 1987 and worked as a field surgeon in Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Angola, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. He has developed a health-oriented approach to a variety of issues relating to violence and the design and use of weapons.

A graduate of the Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, UK, he trained as a surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and University College Hospital, London. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985. He is the holder of a Graduate Diploma in International Law from the University of Melbourne in Australia.

As part of his current position he has focused on the effects of violence and weapons both conventional and non-conventional. He has developed a public health model of armed violence and its effects as a tool for policy-making, reporting and communication.

His current work has two tracks: first, the feasibility of an ICRC operational response in the event of use of nuclear, radiological, biological or chemical weapons; second, improving security of health care in armed conflicts. He has published medical textbooks about care of wounded people and many articles relating to the surgical management of war wounds, the effects of weapons and armed violence.

Henry works as a Doctor in Emergency Medicine, and as a National Lead for Health Informatics. He has served with the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, mainly concentrated in Afghanistan where he worked alongside the Afghan Government in assisting the reconstruction of community medical provision. He is currently a Deployable Civilian Expert for the UK's Stabilisation Unit and an officer in the Royal Marines Reserves.

Alan Gelb is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. His recent research includes aid and development outcomes, the transition from planned to market economies, the development applications of biometric ID technology, and the special development challenges of resource-rich countries. He was previously director of development policy at the World Bank and chief economist for the bank’s Africa region and staff director for the 1996 World Development Report “From Plan to Market.

Mike Farrar is an independent management consultant and former Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation. He joined the organisation in May 2011.

Mike was chief executive of the North West England SHA from May 2006 to April 2011. He was previously chief executive of West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authorities, chief executive of Tees Valley Health Authority and head of primary care at the Department of Health.

Mike was also a board member of Sport England, and in August 2009 was appointed as National Tsar for Sport and Health. Mike was also awarded the CBE in 2005 for services to the NHS and is an honorary fellow of the University of Central Lancashire.

Sir Michael Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College, London and Director of the Institute of Health Equity (UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health).

Professor Marmot has been awarded honorary doctorates from 14 universities and has led research groups on health inequalities for 40 years. He was Chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization in 2005, and produced the report entitled: ‘Closing the Gap in a Generation’ in August 2008.

At the request of the British Government, he conducted the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England, which published its report 'Fair Society, Healthy Lives' (aka The Marmot Review) in February 2010. This was followed by the European Review of Social Determinants of Health and the Health Divide, for WHO Europe in 2014. He chaired the Breast Screening Review for the NHS National Cancer Action Team and from 2011-2004 was a member of The Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health. He is currently Chair of the PAHO Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Region of the Americas.

He set up the Whitehall II Studies of British Civil Servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality. He leads the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and is engaged in several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. He served as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2010-2011, and President of the World Medical Association (2015-16) and he is President of the British Lung Foundation. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in 2000 he was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities.

Internationally acclaimed, Professor Marmot is a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and a former Vice President of the Academia Europaea. He won the Balzan Prize for Epidemiology in 2004, gave the Harveian Oration in 2006, and won the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research in 2008.