Jemilah Mahmood

Executive Director
, Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, Sunway University, Malaysia
Profile / Bio: 

Prof. Tan Sri Dr. Jemilah Mahmood is the Executive Director, Sunway Center for Planetary Health, Sunway University, Malaysia.

Tan Sri Dr. Jemilah Mahmood is a medical professional with more than two decades of experience managing crises in health, disasters, and conflict settings. She is currently a Professor and Executive Director of the newly established Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University in Malaysia.  She is currently a member of the Malaysian Climate Action Council and Consultative Council for Foreign Policy and a Senior Fellow of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre. Dr. Mahmood is also the Pro-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University Malaysia.

She was the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health and a member of the Government of Malaysia’s Economic Action Council from April 2020-September 2021. Previous appointments include the Under Secretary-General for Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit secretariat at the United Nations, and Chief of the Humanitarian Response Branch at UNFPA. She is the founder of MERCY Malaysia, a southern-based international humanitarian organization.

Dr. Mahmood is currently on the board of the Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia, National University of Malaysia, CVS Foundation, and ALAM Foundation in Malaysia and joined the board of Roche in Switzerland.

She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards including the Merdeka Award in 2015 and the ASEAN Prize in 2019, for her contribution to peace, community development, and humanitarian work.

Dr. Mahmood graduated with a Doctor of Medicine (MD), has a Masters in Obstetrics & Gynaecology from the same university, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists United Kingdom. She also completed executive education at the International Management and Development Centre, IMD Lausanne.

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