Melanie Walker

• Deputy Director, Special Initiatives
  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

MD with residency, fellowship and sub-specialty training, and additional studies in business and computer science. Former: practitioner in the developing world, World Health Organization; positions in health/science philanthropy. Currently, Deputy Director, Special Initiatives, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Special Initiatives team has managed more than US$ 700 million in learning grants across almost a dozen cross-cutting learning areas including development finance and urban poverty. Author of numerous publications spanning macroeconomics, health and poverty alleviation. Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum (2011).