Anders Nordström
Anders Nordström is a Swedish physician who served as Acting Director-General of the World Health Organization from 22 May 2006 to 8 November 2006.
Nordström trained as a physician at Karolinska Institutet and has experience in the field of national and international health policy and planning and strategic leadership. Nordström worked with the Swedish Red Cross in Cambodia and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iran. He has also worked for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency for over 12 years, including 3 years in Zambia.
In 2002, he was the Interim Executive Director for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He became Assistant Director-General for General Management at WHO in July 2003 and, on May 2006, Acting Director-General on the death of Lee Jong-wook. Later named WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Services, one of his main contributions was to advance policy for manpower in health services, especially for low-income countries.
He was the Director General for Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency from January 2008 to May 2010. In May 2010, after the effects of the Swedish aid-budget decline due to the financial crisis, Nordström was requested to step down from his position because of the agency's financial difficulties.
Later, in April 2012, the Minister for International Development Co-operation Gunilla Carlsson appointed Nordström as the declared "world's first Global Health Ambassador". On behalf of the Swedish Government he has the formal title as Ambassador and leads a team to oversee and strategically advise the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on a substantial global health portfolio. He still holds this position, with a two year break from April 2015, when Mr Nordström was appointed back to WHO as the organisation's country representative to Sierra Leone.
In April 2015, after a tenure as Sweden's Ambassador for Global Health, Mr Nordström was appointed back to WHO as the organisation's country representative to Sierra Leone.
