Executive Director
Sunway Centre for Planetary Health
Prof. Dr. Jemilah Mahmood is a medical professional and humanitarian leader with more than two decades of experience across health crises, disaster response, and conflict settings. She is currently Professor and Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University in Malaysia, and holds a wide range of advisory and board roles both nationally and globally, including positions with the World Economic Forum, the Planetary Health Alliance, Roche, the Employees Provident Fund, and AirAsia, among others.
Her previous appointments include serving as Special Advisor on Public Health to the Prime Minister of Malaysia during COVID-19, Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit at the United Nations, Under Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Chief of the Humanitarian Response Branch at UNFPA. She is also the Founder of MERCY Malaysia, a leading humanitarian organisation from the Global South.
Her contributions to humanitarian action, public health, and planetary wellbeing have been recognised with numerous national and international honours, including the Merdeka Award of Malaysia, three Royal Awards, the Isa Award for Humanity from the Kingdom of Bahrain – of which she was the first ever recipient – the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Award from Morehouse College, and the ASEAN Prize.