Governance
Board of Directors
President
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Alain MÉRIEUX
Alain MÉRIEUX
Alain Mérieux is President of Fondation Mérieux, created by his father in 1967.
He is also President of Fondation Mérieux and Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux, which he created with his wife in 2001. The two independent family foundations are dedicated to the fight against infectious diseases in developing countries. In 1994, Fondation Mérieux created the "P4 Jean Mérieux" BSL4 maximum-security laboratory in Lyon, which is managed today by Inserm.
In addition, Alain Mérieux is Chairman of Institut Mérieux, a bioindustrial group comprising 5 companies dedicated to global public health: bioMérieux, Transgene, Mérieux NutriSciences, ABL, Inc. and Mérieux Développement.
The Mérieux family has over a century of experience in infectious diseases in the field of vaccines and in vitro diagnostics. Alain Mérieux was born in 1938. He holds a doctorate in Pharmacy and is a former intern of the Lyon Hospitals and a graduate of the Harvard Business School (PMD).
In 1963, with Becton Dickinson, he created BD Mérieux, specialized in in vitro diagnostic solutions. He became majority shareholder in 1974 and changed the name to bioMérieux. The company is present today in more than 150 countries with over 7,700 employees. From 1968 to 1994, Alain Mérieux was Chairman and CEO of Institut Mérieux, taking the group to the position of world leader in the field of human and veterinary vaccines. He acquired Institut Pasteur Production in France in 1985 and Connaught Laboratories in North America in 1989.
From 1986 to 1998, he was also the First Vice President of the Rhône-Alpes Regional Assembly (France), in charge of International Relations, Economic Development, Research and Higher Education.
Honors and Awards:
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National Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil (1974)
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Commander of the National Order of Merit of France (1994)
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Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (1998)
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Commander of the National Order of Mali as a Foreigner (2004)
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Commander of the Legion of Honor of France (2004)
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Officer of the National Order of Burkina Faso (2014).
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Honorary member
Representatives of the founding members
Qualified Persons
Government Representative
Scientific Advisory Board
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Dr. Marie-Paule KIENY
President
INSERM
(France) -
Prof. Abdullah BROOKS
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
(United States) -
Dr. Kevin DE COCK
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(Kenya) -
Dr. Valérie D’ACREMONT
Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
(Switzerland) -
Prof. Hubert ENDTZ
Erasmus University Rotterdam
(Netherlands) -
Dr. Rana HAJJEH
WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean
(Egypt) -
Prof. Francine NTOUMI
Congolese Foundation for Medical Research
(Congo) -
Prof. Jean-William PAPE
GHESKIO Centers
(Haiti) -
Dr. Firdausi QADRI
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Bangladesh, icddr,b
(Bangladesh) -
Dr. Voahangy RASOLOFO
Institut Pasteur
(Madagascar) -
Dr. Wenhong ZHANG
Huashan Hospital of Fudan University
(China)
Management committee
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Jean-Pierre BOSSER
Director General
Jean-Pierre BOSSER
Director General
Since September 23, 2019, Jean-Pierre Bosser has been the Director General of the Mérieux Foundation.
Prior to this, he had been General and Chief of Staff of the French Army (CEMAT) since September 1, 2014. Upon reaching the age limit for his rank, he retired from the Army on July 31, 2019.
Born on November 14, 1959, in Versailles, he was educated at the St. Cyr Military Academy as a member of the "General Lasalle" class (1979-1981), and then continued his training at the Infantry School in Montpellier.
During his military career, before being promoted to Chief of Staff of the French Army, he held several executive positions:
- Director of Defense Protection and Security in Paris (2012-2014)
- Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff of human resources at Army headquarters (2007-2008)
- Director of the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan schools (2003-2005)
- Head of the Military Personnel Directorate of the Army (between 1996 and 2007)
- Head of the operations center of the Joint Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces in New Caledonia (1990-1992)
- He also served in the 8th Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment in Castres on three occasions: as Section Head (1982-1985), as Deputy Officer and Company Commander (1986 and 1990) and, after being appointed Colonel on October 1, 2000, as Corps Commander (2001-2003).
In addition, between 1982 and 2003, he was regularly assigned to field operations with multinational security forces in Lebanon and during French relief operations: operation Manta and Epervier in Chad, the evacuation of nationals from Gabon, operation Trident in Kosovo as the Head of his regiment, and operation Boali in the Central African Republic, where he was also head of his regiment. In 1985, he led a technical military relief operation in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
Cited for merit, the Army General Jean-Pierre Bosser is a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the National Order of Merit, US Commander of the Legion of Merit, and Knight of National Merit in Mauritania. He has also been awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany, the 1st Class National Defense Medal from Portugal, and the First-Class Military Order from the United Arab Emirates.
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Dr. François-Xavier BABIN
Director of International Operations
Dr. François-Xavier BABIN
Director of International Operations
François-Xavier Babin is Diagnostics and Health Systems Director at the Mérieux Foundation since March 2018. He is in charge of increasing vulnerable populations’ access to diagnostics, by establishing infrastructure, reinforcing skills and processes, improving the management and efficiency of clinical biology laboratories, and assisting health authorities in their governance.
Previously he held roles at the Mérieux Foundation as Director of International Development from 2010 to 2018 and Asia Regional Manager based in Cambodia from 2004 to 2010. He implemented clinical biology and scientific cooperation projects, in Cambodia, Laos, China and India.
He started his international work in 2002 on hemoglobinopathies at Institut Pasteur in Cambodia. He did his residency in biomedical and industrial pharmacy at Hospices Civils de Lyon (France). Sent on temporary assignment to the French Embassy in Afghanistan, he implemented a program for the development of clinical biology laboratories. He was also an expert for the Ministry of Health in the reform of the policy on biology laboratory development.
Doctor of Pharmacy, he presented a dissertation on the implementation and the autonomy of biomedical research laboratories in developing countries.
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Bénédicte PANSIER
Director of Les Pensières Center for Global Health
Bénédicte PANSIER
Director of Les Pensières Center for Global Health
Bénédicte Pansier has been managing Les Pensières Center for Global Health in Annecy since 2016. Her mission is to foster knowledge sharing and exchanges among experts, researchers, health professionals and humanitarian workers worldwide.
Bénédicte has more than twenty years international experience in partnerships, marketing/communication, fundraising, external relations in the private sector, in non-profit organisations (UN, NGOs, Foundations) and in the academic sector.
From 2010 to 2016, before joining the Foundation, Bénédicte worked for public health organisations; firstly, focusing on diabetes and non-communicable diseases (International Diabetes Federation, University of Lugano, Switzerland) and later, focusing on vaccinations and social mobilisation.
Between 2003 and 2010, she worked for the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome, Italy, in order to establish private-public partnerships to fight global poverty and hunger.
After obtaining a degree in management from HEC Paris, Bénédicte began her professional life in the private sector at Unilever and later at L’Oréal in Paris from 1996 to 2002.
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Nicolas Zeller
Medical & Scientific Director
Nicolas Zeller
Medical & Scientific Director
Nicolas Zeller has been Medical Director of Fondation Mérieux since September 1, 2023. Born on January 1, 1976, he entered the Ecole du Service de Santé des Armées in Lyon in 1994. Following his training at the Ecole d'Application du Service de Santé des Armées du Val de Grâce in Paris, he served in various army units before being posted to a special forces unit and then to the Special Operations Command headquarters as medical advisor. After a year's study at the Ecole de Guerre, he joined the central directorate of the armed forces health service, as head of the studies and foresight office in the anticipation and strategy division. During his military career, he took part in numerous operational deployments in war zones. Nicolas Zeller is a Doctor of General Medicine, with emergency medicine and disaster medicine qualifications. He is an officer of the Légion d'Honneur and holds six commendations.
