Armenian pediatric oncologist Gevorg Tamamyan has entered the race to lead the World Health Organization, nominated by Botswana in the only cross-regional nomination in the field.
He is 1 of 6 publicly declared candidates seeking to succeed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the only one proposed by a member state of WHO’s African region.
“I am honored to announce my candidacy for Director-General of the World Health Organization, nominated by the Republic of Botswana,” Tamamyan said in announcing the nomination. “Botswana has shown the world what determined national leadership can achieve in the face of extraordinary health challenges. I am honored to be nominated by a country with such a powerful story of resilience and progress.”
He thanked President Duma Gideon Boko and the government of Botswana for their trust.
He is running against sitting health ministers and WHO regional directors. The other declared candidates are Hans Kluge of Belgium, WHO’s regional director for Europe; Hanan Balkhy of Saudi Arabia, who heads the agency’s Eastern Mediterranean office; Hanan Mohammed Al-Kuwari of Qatar, a former health minister; Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s health minister; and María Neira of Spain, a physician and epidemiologist and former WHO director.
WHO told Health Policy Watch that the names of candidates and the proposals received will be published on its website after the closure of the last Regional Committee session this year, expected at the beginning of November. More nominations may remain sealed until then.
The Executive Board shortlists candidates, and the World Health Assembly elects the next director-general in May 2027.
Tamamyan graduated from Yerevan State Medical University in 2010, earned a master’s degree in advanced oncology from Germany’s University of Ulm and a doctorate in oncology from Yerevan State Medical University, and holds a Doctor of Medical Sciences degree.
His training took him to St. Anna Children’s Hospital in Vienna, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas and the Dana-Farber and Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, and he completed postgraduate programs in cancer research and global health at Harvard.
He has headed Armenia’s Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Center since 2019, the same year he became chairman of the Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology at Yerevan State Medical University. He was appointed a professor in 2021.
Tamamyan co-founded the City of Smile Charitable Foundation, which covers treatment and related costs for children with cancer and blood disorders in Armenia, and OncoDaily, an oncology news platform where he is editor-in-chief. He is also chief executive of the Immune Oncology Research Institute.
He serves as president of the Asia branch of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology and of the POEM Group, a network connecting pediatric cancer centers, and co-chairs the St. Jude EURO Regional Advisory Committee.
His honors include fellowship of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the ASCO IDEA Award, and Young Leader Awards from the Union for International Cancer Control and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, a longtime cancer control advocate and former president of the Union for International Cancer Control, congratulated Tamamyan on the nomination in a post on social media.
Whoever wins will inherit an agency in the middle of its most severe structural downsizing in decades.
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