As Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Michael Ryan leads WHO’s response to disease outbreaks, humanitarian crises and other public health emergencies.   

At the forefront of managing acute risks to global health for nearly 25 years, Dr Ryan first joined WHO in 1996, within a newly established unit responding to emerging and epidemic disease threats. He has worked in conflict-affected countries across the world and has led WHO’s operational responses to high impact events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the SARS epidemic. In addition he served as a Senior Advisor on Polio Eradication for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative from 2013 to 2017, deploying to countries in the Middle East. 

Dr Ryan is a founding member of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), which has aided the response to hundreds of disease outbreaks around the world.

Dr Ryan completed his medical training at the National University of Ireland, Galway, has a Master in Public Health from University College, Dublin, Ireland, and undertook specialist training in communicable disease control at the Health Protection Agency in London, United Kingdom and the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training.