John-Arne has held many international roles in health and research, including most recently as Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Norway. Prior to this, he was founding CEO of CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), which Wellcome helped to launch, and has been the Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway.
He has held academic positions at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Oslo. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the US National Academy of Medicine.
John-Arne trained in medicine and science, receiving his MD and PhD from the University of Oslo. He also has an MSc from the University of Oxford and MPA from Harvard University. His research has spanned basic science, epidemiology, clinical trials, health services research and global health policy, governance and financing. He has led the steering groups for the Ebola vaccine trial in Guinea and the Covid-19 WHO Solidarity Trial, and the Lancet Series on access and sustainable effectiveness of antimicrobials.
He has held many national and international board and advisory board roles, including board member of Science Europe and chair of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, and was a board member of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, PATH, Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) and Medicines Patent Pool (MPP).
He has served on expert and advisory bodies at the WHO and in global health, including more recently as chair of the ACT-Accelerator Financial and Resource Mobilization Working Group and a member of the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. He served on the Standing Committee on Science of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and on the Science and Research Committee of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and was co-chair of the Future of Global Health Initiatives.
