Pape Amadou Gaye, MBA

President Emeritus, IntraHealth International

Founder, the Baobab Institute

Pape Gaye is a native of Senegal and a lifelong advocate for family planning, the global health workforce, and access to health care for all.

Under his leadership as president and CEO of IntraHealth International, from 2004 to 2020, the organization made human resources for health and family planning crucial parts of the worldwide conversation on global health. Gaye draws on three decades of leadership in international health and development as he oversaw work in 40 countries to strengthen their health workforces and health systems.

During his watch, IntraHealth led two of the US government’s flagship human resources for health projects (the Capacity Project and CapacityPlus) and established official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO). Gaye has long advocated for a greater focus on the health workforce. In May 2016 at the World Health Assembly, the WHO and member states responded to such advocacy efforts with the first-ever global health workforce strategy, Workforce 2030.

Gaye is a frequent international speaker on issues related to family planning, capacity-building, and the global health workforce. In the United States, his testimony on Capitol Hill during a 2014 Ebola-focused congressional hearing brought the role of frontline health workers to the fore. As a panelist during the White House Global Summit in July 2016, he urged the incoming US president to focus on international aid and human resources for health as powerful investments in our shared future. His editorials appear regularly in the Huffington Post, Devex, and other media outlets.

Partnership, Gaye believes, is essential. He forges strong collaborative relationships with diverse stakeholders—from ministries of health to private-sector partners to local health workers—to meet the enormous health challenges we face in low- and middle-income countries.

Gaye began his career with the US Peace Corps and went on to work with the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Committee and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before his appointment as CEO at IntraHealth, he led the organization’s regional office for West, Central, and North Africa.

Gaye holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Los Angeles. His board and advisory services include the Duke University’s Global Health Institute, the Global Health Council, InterAction, Last Mile Health, Living Goods and MedAditus. Gaye is the founder of the Baobab Institute  a newly established NGO registered in Senegal dedicated to Human Capacity Development.