Emer Cooke is as of 16 November 2020 the new Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency, based in Amsterdam. She also takes the role of Chair of the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA). She was the Director responsible for all medical product-related regulatory activities at the World Health Organization in Geneva between November 2016 and November 2020. In this role, Ms Cooke was responsible for leading WHO's global work on regulation of health technologies (medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, vector control products and devices), coordinating the regulatory teams (Prequalification, Regulatory Systems Strengthening, and Safety), and working with member states and international partners to assure the quality, safety and efficacy of appropriate health technologies. Ms. Cooke is a pharmacist with Masters degrees in Science and Business Administration from Trinity College Dublin. She has over 30 years' experience in international regulatory affairs and spent 14 years (2002 to 2016) in management positions at the European Medicines Agency as Head of Inspections and Head of International Affairs respectively. From September 1998 to July 2002, she worked in the Pharmaceuticals unit of the European Commission.

Teaching epidemiology, hygiene, health services organization and community medicine at the Medical School of the TurinUniversity. Head of the Regional Unit of Epidemiology and Health Promotion in the Piedmont Region. Certified occupational health and public health physician and epidemiologist. Research interests in the fields of epidemiology of occupational risks, environmental risks, inequalities in health and in health systems.

Thomas holds a PhD in virology from The Rockefeller University in New York (USA) and received his Master's degree in biology from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in Breisgau (Germany) prior to his work in the United States. After postdoc research activities at The Rockefeller University, he returned to his native Luxembourg in 2011 to take up a post as a post doc researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) where he established a research team working on hepatitis C virus with a focus on antiviral drug targeting and testing. He then moved on to work as a consultant for Deloitte, developing the Healthcare & Life Sciences activities while working in various countries across Europe. Then, Thomas spent 5 years as head of Life Sciences Sector at the national innovation agency (Luxinnovation) in Luxembourg, where he worked on the research and economic development of the life sciences sector in close collaboration with the government, research institutions and industry. During that time, he also assumed the role of manager of the Luxembourg BioHealth Cluster, reuniting the Luxembourg life sciences actors. Thomas is now, since September 2017 working at the Directorate of Health (Ministry of Health) where he is in charge of coordination, strategic development, digital health and international relations and acts as a lecturer at the University of Luxembourg. As a member of the Luxembourg COVID-19 crisis cell, Thomas has been in charge of the national testing strategies (diagnostic and large scale testing). Thomas assumes the co-lead of the national digital health taskforce for the transformation of the healthcare sector. On an international level, Thomas assumes the roles of a board member of the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee (SCRC) of WHO Europe.