Michel Zaffran

Biography

Michel Zaffran is Regional Vice-Chair for south Europe of Rotary International’s End Polio Now Countdown to History Campaign Committee.

During the period 2016–2021, Michel Zaffran was the Director of the Polio Eradication programme at the World Health Organization. During that time, he was also the chair of the Strategy Committee of the Global Polio Eradication initiative (GPEI).

He retired from WHO In March of 2021 after 33 years of service during which he held several positions:

  • Coordinator of the Expanded Programme on Immunization.
  • Director of project Optimize, a WHO-PATH collaboration aimed at catalysing a shared vision of the future of immunization logistics and supply chain systems.
  • Coordinator of the Access to Technologies Team of the Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunization, in charge of Vaccine Prequalification, Vaccine Supply Chain Management, and immunization programmes financing of
  • WHO representative on the Working Group which designed and launched Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
  • Deputy Executive Secretary of Gavi in 2006-2007.

Michel Zaffran is a French National born in Algeria. He holds a master’s degree in engineering from Ecole Centrale (France) and a certificate in Tropical Epidemiology.