Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh is the Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region. She was elected by the 11 Member States of the Region in September 2013 and subsequently appointed by the WHO Executive Board at its 134th session in January. Dr Khetrapal Singh is an Indian national and the first woman to hold this post.
Dr Khetrapal Singh started her five year term as Regional Director on 1 February 2014.
She served for over two decades as a civil servant in India as member of the Indian Administrative Services. She was the Health Secretary of the State of Punjab, with a population of 22 million and a health budget of US$ 350 million.
In 1987 she moved to the Health, Population and Nutrition Department of The World Bank. In 1998 she joined WHO headquarters as Executive Director, Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments Cluster, and a member of the Cabinet of then Director-General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland. Dr Khetrapal Singh served as WHO Deputy Regional Director for the South-East Asia Region from 2000 to 2013. In February 2013, she joined the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India as Advisor for International Health, where her principal task was to strengthen global health outcomes and provide guidance to the Ministry to take forward the international health agenda.