PATH CEO to step down at end of 2019; search underway for new CEO
Media contact: Kate Davidson | media@path.org
Seattle, WA, April 8, 2019 – PATH announced today that President and CEO Steve Davis plans to step down at the end of 2019, after more than seven years leading the organization. Mr. Davis will continue to oversee PATH until a new CEO is in place, and will support the transition as a new leader comes on board. A global search will commence today to select his successor.
During his tenure as President and CEO since 2012, Mr. Davis has led PATH’s extraordinary growth and evolution into an internationally recognized social enterprise advancing health solutions and innovations at scale in more than 70 countries. Mr. Davis will continue to teach, write, and sit on several boards, and will remain deeply engaged in social innovation and global development.
“The Board of Directors and I congratulate Steve on his upcoming transition, and on the transformation he has led at PATH and within the broader global health sector over the past seven years,” said Dave King, PATH board chair. “The organization has steadily grown in size, impact, and global recognition under Steve’s leadership, while expanding our programs in digital health, vaccines, malaria, and primary care that improve the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of people across the world.”
For more than four decades, PATH has led efforts to accelerate greater health equity globally. Today, PATH’s 1,500 employees work alongside partners in the private sector, government agencies, foundations, and other social enterprises to provide end-to-end solutions for the greatest challenges in global health. From guiding the earliest stages of vaccine development to equipping health workers on the front lines of transnational disease outbreaks with the latest digital surveillance tools, PATH’s lifesaving innovations reach more than 150 million people every year.
“It has been a great privilege to serve as President and CEO of this incredible organization for the past seven years and work alongside colleagues who are passionate about innovation and social change, and believe in the global work PATH is doing,” said Mr. Davis. “Together we have strengthened our international programs and leadership, deepened and expanded our partnerships around the world, evolved our brand to reflect PATH’s role as a leading enterprise in global health innovation, and significantly improved our operations to advance the large-scale social progress that lies at the heart of PATH’s mission. I am excited to help ensure that PATH’s next leader is equipped to continue this momentum and build on our global health impact in the years and decades to come.”
Mr. Davis has traveled the globe advocating for effective interventions to improve health outcomes for underserved populations, and has become a leading voice and advisor on global development strategy and social innovation.
Prior to joining PATH as President and CEO in 2012, Mr. Davis served as Director of Social Innovation at McKinsey & Company, Interim CEO of the Infectious Disease Research Institute, CEO of the global digital media firm Corbis, and practiced law at the international law firm K&L Gates. Earlier in his career, he worked on Chinese politics and law and refugee programs and policies.
Over the last decade, Mr. Davis has led PATH to focus on strategic areas to achieve the greatest possible impact on global health outcomes. In service of achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals, PATH recently launched a bold strategy to improve the lives of 1.4 billion people by 2030. In the past year the organization signed an agreement with the WHO to accelerate digital health transformation across the globe and support countries in advancing their own digital health efforts, worked with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Health to improve surveillance capabilities and deploy health workers in response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak, and successfully advocated for increased U.S. government funding to support global outbreak preparedness programs. PATH has also dramatically improved private sector tuberculosis treatment in India, introduced the first PrEP services in Vietnam to reduce the risk of HIV infection, advanced vaccines for a range of infectious diseases ranging from malaria to rotavirus, and helped establish the Bridge Collaborative partnership to assess the impact of climate change on global health.
The organization has achieved numerous milestones in global health under Mr. Davis’ leadership and built out several important programs. PATH’s Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access collaborates with manufacturers to accelerate vaccine development and make vaccines more affordable. The Center for Malaria Control and Elimination brings together a full platform of capabilities and talent in the global fight against malaria. PATH introduced new data analytics and digital tools for eliminating infectious diseases, strengthening health systems, and responding to emerging epidemics as part of its suite of digital health services. The organization’s Washington, D.C.-based advocacy team has evolved to influence health policy at national and global forums. Mr. Davis has worked with his leadership team to develop an approach to strategic corporate partnerships that moves beyond transactional, single-project relationships and into strategic and sustainable multi-year models.
In addition to his role as PATH President and CEO, Mr. Davis is a lecturer on social innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Challenge Seattle. He serves on the boards of Philanthropy University and InterAction, and sits on several advisory groups, including the NYU College of Global Public Health, the AXA Stakeholder Advisory Panel, Medtronic Labs, CSIS Health Security Commission, and the stewards of the World Economic Forum Health and Healthcare Challenge. He has served on numerous boards and advisory groups, including chairing the boards of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, the United Way of King County, the Technology Alliance, N-Power, and several other organizations.
About PATH
PATH is a global organization that works to accelerate health equity by bringing together public institutions, businesses, social enterprises, and investors to solve the world’s most pressing health challenges. With expertise in science, health, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales solutions—including vaccines, drugs, devices, diagnostics, and innovative approaches to strengthening health systems worldwide. Learn more at www.path.org.