Chris joined Friends in 2016 and serves as its President & CEO. He leads the organization’s efforts to engage U.S. decision makers on the lifesaving work of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the importance of expanding global health investment.
At Friends, Chris has played a central role in two major global health financing wins: in 2019, achieving the first increase in U.S. support to the Global Fund in six years in the face of opposition from the then presidential administration; and, in 2021, approval of $3.5 billion in emergency COVID-19 funding for the Global Fund, the largest ever single appropriation to the organization. Chris also helped secure U.S. hosting of the 7th Replenishment of the Global Fund and the largest pledge to the organization in history. At Friends he has written widely on the connection between disease-focused programs and broader health goals.
Previously, as Chief of the Community Mobilization Division at UNAIDS, Chris helped make the case for investment in civil society as an essential part of the AIDS response. As Vice President and Director of Public Policy at amfAR, Chris defended global AIDS research and program funding and worked to advance domestic HIV policy and global key populations programming.
Chris authored the monograph that inspired the effort to create the first comprehensive US National HIV/AIDS Strategy, then coordinated the successful advocacy push to establish the Strategy, leading to important policy reforms. He helped develop and managed the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) Missing the Target series of reports on global HIV treatment scale up which received international attention. Chris co-founded and served as Executive Director at AVAC, an internationally recognized HIV research and prevention advocacy group.
As appropriations staff to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the late 1990s, Chris designed the first legislation to provide incentives for development and delivery of vaccines against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, a bill that helped advance the global dialogue on tackling major infectious diseases. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.