Filipino-American assigned to Bill & Melinda Gates Institute

A Filipino-American was named recently as the new director of the prestigious and influential Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Jose “Oying” Rimon was named recently after an eight-month international search for a new director.

In his announcement, Dean Michael Klag lauded Rimon for his outstanding work serving as interim director during the search process and identified him as a visionary leader.

He is also a senior scientist in the faculty of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.

Rimon is the most senior Filipino to serve in a major leadership position in the international population and reproductive health community since the days of Rafael Salas, the first executive director of the United Nations Population Fund.

Prior to joining Hopkins he was a senior officer at the Global Health Policy and advocacy group of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, based in Seattle, Washington.

He led the development and management of a global portfolio of policy and advocacy grants and partnerships covering family planning and reproductive health; maternal, neonatal and child health; and nutrition.

He was a key planner and core member (with special responsibility for foundations and civil society engagement) of the highly successful London Summit on Family Planning team which raised $2.6 billion of new money from donors.

He was the cochair of the Social and Behavioral Change Working Group of the foundation. He received a “Wall of Fame” recognition award (given at the foundation’s annual conference) from his peers for his role in the global revitalization of the family planning agenda.

Rimon has 30 years of leadership experience in public health and is a recognized expert in evidence-based policy and advocacy, strategic communication, social and behavioral change, branding and marketing, establishing private-public partnerships, and managing large and complex multi-issue international health programs.

He has a long track record of entrepreneurship establishing organizations that have since thrived and raising funds from bilateral and multilateral donors, corporations, foundations and individuals.