Dr. Katey Einterz Owen is the Director for Neglected Tropical Diseases at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the foundation’s lead for pharmaceutical industry engagement. Katey has end-to-end responsibility for the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio in controlling, eliminating, and eradicating the diseases of the London Declaration. This includes active investment in lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, STH, trachoma, Guinea Worm, HAT, and visceral leishmaniasis, diseases that collectively put at risk more than one billion people in the world. The portfolio funds projects with global private and public partners across the value chain, from research and innovation to project demonstration through on-the-ground delivery of interventions in Africa and Asia. In her role as the foundation’s liaison to pharmaceutical company leadership, Katey facilitates regular interaction between the CEOs of pharmaceutical organizations with Mr. Gates, to advance global health goals through collaboration and innovation. Previously, Katey was the Deputy Director for Vaccine Development at the Gates Foundation. She joined BMGF in 2013 from the pharmaceutical industry. 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 practical solutions for funding and delivery in LMICs, all with 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 and her older brother, who co-founded the program AMPATH-Kenya with the Kenyan MoH and Ministry of Education. 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.
