Tore Godal: pragmatic opportunist championing global public health

Recently retired as head of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) secretariat and as a health advisor to leading global entities, Tore Godal is now a Special Advisor to the Norwegian Prime Minister. He is nevertheless continuing to fight for better global health, cogently articulating the needs of the world's poor and disadvantaged. He is a leading leprosy expert, ex-director of the world's premier agency for research and training in tropical diseases, instigator and prime mover of some global innovative public–private health sector partnerships, adept fund mobilizer, and advocate of the ‘let's get it done’ school of leadership. Few individuals are, therefore, more experienced or better suited for such a crucial and much-needed role.