The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday announced that Trevor Mundel, a senior executive at the pharmaceutical company Novartis AG, will join the foundation on December 1 “as president of the philanthropy’s global health group, a position that can influence the health of millions of people worldwide,” the Wall Street Journal reports (Guth, 9/14). “He succeeds Tadataka ‘Tachi’ Yamada, who left the foundation in June after five years as head of the global health program,” according to the Associated Press/Washington Post (9/13).

“As the program’s president, Mundel will lead the foundation’s efforts in developing and delivering drugs, vaccines and other tools to cope with diseases and illnesses, including initiatives to eradicate polio. He will oversee the organization’s global-health grants, which the foundation says total more than $14.7 billion to date,” the Seattle Times writes (9/13).