Jean-François de LAVISON

President and Founder of Ahimsa Fund

Jean-François de Lavison worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 29 years, holding various international positions and participating in its international expansion in Europe, Asia, the Middle-East, Africa and Latin America. He was appointed VP, in charge of Global Health and International Affairs at bioMérieux and in the Institut Mérieux Alliance. During the same period, he was Treasurer of the well known Mérieux foundation. He has been elected President of the European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association (EDMA), the organization that represents the European in vitro diagnostics industry on a worldwide level. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Stop TB Partnership, and the focal point of the private sector constituency. He was a member of the Global Fund private sector constituency.  

Through his extensive international experience in both developed and developing countries, Jean-François has acquired unique skills in the field of global health. His strong commitment to providing a response to the urgent needs of emerging countries prompted the launch of Ahimsa Partners in January 2010. Ahimsa Partners’ objective is to engage, through a dynamic Global Health Diplomacy,  the various stakeholders in the global health landscape, in order to establish innovative initiatives throughout the world.  

Jean-François is the founder and President of Ahimsa Fund, a non-profit organization (endowment fund) whose objective is to make good health contagious accessible to the most vulnerable populations. Ahimsa Fund focuses on the world’s most underprivileged populations and develops realistic, innovative, cost-effective and replicable public health initiatives with the objective of empowering the local population.