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Francisco is Adviser to Director General Sandra Gallina on the External Dimension of Health. His career has been dedicated to the external dimension EU policies in various fields, holding a variety of management and diplomatic positions. This included trade, where he led the directorate in charge of strategy and analysis and health-related industrial and competition policy as head of section in the European Union's Delegation to China. Leading the Commission's market access unit, he has defended worldwide EU health-sector interests, with varied WTO, G20, OECD and G7 and international negotiation work. Another running thread in his career has been the chairmanship of high-profile committees in the Commission as well as in international fora. Amongst other dossiers, he currently leads work on the EU's new Global Health Strategy.

Dr Kerstin Vesna Petrič currently holds the position of Director-General of the Directorate for Public Health at the Ministry of Health of Slovenia. She assumed this position following a successful sixteen-year engagement as Head of the Division for Health Promotion and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases at the Directorate for Public Health at the Ministry of Health of Slovenia. From 1998 to 2004 she was the Head of Office for WHO relations at the Ministry of Health of Slovenia and acted as WHO Liaison Officer. From May 2022 she is also President of the WHO Executive Board.