Keiji Fukuda

Keiji Fukuda is an American physician with expertise in influenza epidemiology. After joining the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005, Fukuda worked as Coordinator of the Global Influenza Program from 2006 to 2008 and was then appointed its Director. In March 2009, Fukuda was appointed Assistant Director-General for Health, Security and Environment ad interim for the World Health Organization, and he held this position from September 2010 to November 2016. The media referred to him as the WHO "flu chief" during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Before joining WHO, Fukuda was Chief of the Epidemiology Unit, Influenza Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After retiring from the WHO in 2016, he became the Director of the School of Public Health of Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong. In October 2020, senior management team of the University of Hong Kong decided not to renew his contract. Keiji will thus leave the University of Hong Kong in late 2021.