Director, Global Health Policy, PepsiCo
Dr Derek Yach is the director of Global Health Policy at PepsiCo, a new position in which he will direct the company's global health and wellness policies.
From 2005 to early 2007, he was at the Rockefeller Foundation, heading its global health programmes. Prior to that, he was Professor of Global Health at Yale University. In that role, he initiated new courses and research related to global aspects of chronic disease control as well as the governance of health.
Between 1995 and 2004, Dr Yach worked at the World Health Organisation where he was responsible for developing a new global 'Health For All' policy, which was adopted by all governments in May 1998 after two years of intensive consultation. He established the Tobacco Free Initiative and ensured that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was accepted by governments, as well as placed chronic diseases and injuries higher on the agenda of governments, non-governmental organisations and the private sector.
Previous research, based in South Africa, where he established the Centre for Epidemiological Research at the Medical Research Council, focused on quantifying inequalities in health, the impact of urbanisation on health, and on the epidemiology and effectiveness of control measures to address tuberculosis, measles, diarrhoeal disease and tobacco.