Sir George Alleyne

Sir George Alleyne from Barbados was elected and served as Director of the Pan American Health Organization(PAHO), Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO). He served two four-year terms in this position until the end of January 2003, and was elected director emeritus thereafter. After his retirement, he was appointed by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to serve on the Independent High-level Commission on Non-Communicable Diseases from 2018 until 2019.  He also served as United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean region 2003–2010,  appointed to the position by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in February 2003.  In addition, in October 2003 he was appointed Chancellor of the University of West Indies.

Sir George was made a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1990 New Year Honours and awarded the Order of the Caribbean Community in 2001 - the highest honor that can be bestowed on a Caribbean national. In October 2008 he received the Science of Peace Award from the Inter American Heart Foundation. On June 14, 2017, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Toronto.

Sir George is a prolific writer and has a collection of over 100s of publications to his credit on issues pertinent to global public health and medicine.