Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs harm reduction in the 1990s, helping to develop and evaluate harm reduction in the UK as a response to HIV/AIDS. Gerry has advised the UK Government, WHO, UNAIDS, UNODC, the World Bank and numerous governments around the world on issues relating to drugs, HIV infection and AIDS, and alcohol. He has also published over 220 scientific publications and several books. 

Currently, Gerry is Director of Research and Policy at Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction and Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship programmes. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014. 

Professor Michel Kazatchkine is UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Kazatchkine has spent the past 25 years fighting AIDS and working to improve global health as a leading physician, researcher, advocate, policymaker, diplomat and administrator.

He attended medical school at Necker-Enfants-Malades in Paris, studied immunology at the Pasteur Institute and completed postdoctoral fellowships at St Mary’s hospital in London and Harvard Medical School.

His involvement with HIV began in 1983, when as a young clinical immunologist he treated a French couple who had returned from Africa with unexplained fever and severe immune deficiency. By 1985, he had started a clinic in Paris specialising in AIDS, which now treats over 1,600 people.

From 1998 to 2005, Professor Kazatchkine directed the French National Research Agency (ANRS), the world’s second largest AIDS research programme. He has produced more than 600 research papers focusing on auto-immunity, drug therapy, immuno-intervention and HIV pathogenesis, in addition to serving on numerous editorial boards.

From 2005 to 2007, Professor Kazatchkine was France’s global ambassador for HIV/AIDS and transmissible diseases. As Ambassador he championed France’s contributions to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and the establishment of Unitaid.

In 2007 he was elected as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. In his five years at the helm of the Fund, more than $20 billion in additional donor commitments and pledges were mobilised and he oversaw a major expansion of the Global Fund’s operations and grant portfolio, establishing the Fund as the major international financer of health programs. He strongly emphasised the Fund’s role as a model partnership for development at the national and global levels and promoted innovative approaches to health financing, including Debt2Health and the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria. His leadership of the Global Fund consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s leading advocates for health and human rights.

In 2012, Professor Kazatchkine was appointed as the UN Secretary General‘s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the part of the world where the AIDS epidemic is expanding at the fastest rate.

Dumitru is a physician and worked as a surgeon at the Central Penitentiary Hospital in Republic of Moldova since 1995. From 1997 to 1999 he was involved in designing, from 2000 to 2003 in managing and from 2003 to 2006 in advising the prison tuberculosis programme for the Republic of Moldova. In 2000 he designed and implemented the pilot project on needle and syringe exchange in prisons of the Republic of Moldova. From 2003 to 2006 he managed the Republic of Moldova’s Tuberculosis (TB)/IDA Programme Implementation Unit, financed by the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Since 2006, Dumitru has been working at the Global Fund, as the Fund Portfolio Manager for tuberculosis, HIV and malaria grants for several eastern European countries.

Dumitru is a physician and worked as a surgeon at the Central Penitentiary Hospital in Republic of Moldova since 1995. From 1997 to 1999 he was involved in designing, from 2000 to 2003 in managing and from 2003 to 2006 in advising the prison tuberculosis programme for the Republic of Moldova. In 2000 he designed and implemented the pilot project on needle and syringe exchange in prisons of the Republic of Moldova. From 2003 to 2006 he managed the Republic of Moldova’s Tuberculosis (TB)/IDA Programme Implementation Unit, financed by the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Since 2006, Dumitru has been working at the Global Fund, as the Fund Portfolio Manager for tuberculosis, HIV and malaria grants for several eastern European countries.

David MacKintosh has spent two decades working in drug and alcohol policy. This has included experience at national level (Cabinet Office), regional (Greater London Authority) and local civic levels (City of London). From 2001 – 2020 he led the work of the London Drug and Alcohol Policy Forum including its involvement in the 2006-07 AGIS programme undertaking a threat assessment in relation to methamphetamine and was a supporter of the Club Health – Healthy and Safer Nightlife of Youth Project 2008-2013. His work around improving safety in the night time economy, relaunched in early 2020, is acknowledged as the UK best practice guidance and has informed work internationally.

David Wilson, the World Bank's Global AIDS Program Director and former Lead HIV Specialist, has dedicated nearly 25 years to HIV/AIDS work. He has conducted research and managed programs in over 50 countries, with approximately 100 scientific papers published.

His areas of expertise include HIV epidemiology, HIV prevention science, and program evaluation. His prevention programs have been recognized as best practices by the World Bank, WHO, and DFID, contributing to advancements in international HIV prevention science. Furthermore, he has provided technical consultancy and advisory services to several international agencies, including USAID, DFID, EU, AUSAID, SIDA, NORAD, UNAIDS, UNICEF, and WHO.

Harry is the Director of DrugWise the international Knowledge hub, promoting evidence-based information on drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

He has worked in the drugs field for over 35 years, most recently as Director of Communications for DrugScope. He was DrugScope’s main media spokesperson, managing editor of Druglink and has written extensively on all aspects of drugs and drug-related issues combining this with lecturing, public speaking and advisory work for government. He remains the managing editor of DS Daily.

The title for Harry’s 2016 Alison Chesney and Eddie Killoran lecture was: ‘The Needle and the Damage Done’; drug users, media and stigma