Srinath Reddy, the eminent cardiologist as its founder-president. The PHFI has emerged as the most important “think tank” on health policy in India, mainly because of the appointment of Dr K. This friendship was to stand him in good stead when he decided to start the Public Health Foundation in India (PHFI). As an “active” chairman, Gupta was able to collect significant donations to the Fund from the corporate sector including Bill Gates whom he counted as a personal friend. Gupta was proud of his work on the Global Fund: “I loved working with the Global Fund and consider it one of the most treasured aspects of my life experience.” His management and consultancy experience stood him in good stead while working with the Fund, enabling him to effect compromises among warring factions, neutralising the “bullying tactics” of the US as the single biggest donor and eventually getting elected its chairman. That is, where the members could put aside their inter-state differences and agree on something. An initiative of Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the UN, Mr Gupta was invited to join the board soon after its inception, A public-private partnership, where the “public” consisting of representatives from member-states and in an overwhelming majority, with Gupta being the sole “private” member representing industry, the fund was responsible for the largest disbursement of funds to tackle global disease.
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