Dr Katey Einterz Owen is the Director for Neglected Tropical Diseases at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this capacity, Katey has end-to-end responsibility for the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio in controlling, eliminating and eradicating the diseases described in the London Declaration on NTDs. This includes active investment in lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil transmitted helminths, guinea worm, human African trypanosomiasis and visceral leishmaniasis; diseases that collectively put at risk approximately one billion people in the world. The portfolio funds projects with global private and public partners across the value chain, from research and innovation through on-the-ground delivery of interventions in Africa and Asia.

Previously, Katey was the Deputy Director for Vaccine Development at the Gates Foundation, working with partners across sectors to drive innovation, execution, and sustainability in vaccine development, commercialization, and distribution of affordable, fit-for-purpose, safe and effective vaccines for the poorest countries in the world.  Disease targets included polio, rotavirus, pneumonia, HIV, malaria, TB, Ebola, HPV, typhoid, ETEC, and shigella.

Katey joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2013 from the pharmaceutical industry, after demonstrating success in vaccine development, manufacturing, and commercialization across a portfolio of vaccines.  She combines a technical end-to-end view of product development and quality manufacturing with a commercial understanding of the for-profit pharmaceutical business, coupled to a solutions-focused mindset and disposition.  Her perspectives have also been shaped by her oldest sister, who spent her career as a primary care physician and health-district chief in rural northern Cameroun.  Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Katey carried out academic research on influenza at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill (London).  She earned her PhD in molecular virology from Purdue University.