Ray Chambers

In September 2018, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appointed Ray Chambers as WHO Ambassador for Global Strategy to advise him in mobilizing the international community to advance the global health agenda.

Most previously, Ray served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Health in Agenda 2030 and for Malaria. In these two positions, Ray was tasked with leveraging his business, strategy, and finance expertise to catalyze efforts to advance progress on global maternal and child health goals, and to eradicate malaria. Additionally, he co-chairs the End Malaria Council, alongside Bill Gates, and sits among the Board of Directors for the End AIDS Coalition, founded by Kenneth Cole.

Under his previous tenure as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria, Ray helped secure unprecedented funding for malaria prevention and control efforts. Between 2000 and 2015, these efforts contributed to the distribution of over 1 billion long-lasting insecticide treated bed nets to Africa, where the burden of malaria is greatest, and saving nearly 7 million lives globally from the disease. In 2009, Ray also helped form the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, the first head of state-level assembly expressly dedicated to mobilizing resources and to end malaria on the continent.

Ray has been a full-time philanthropist for nearly 30 years. His efforts are diverse and include mentoring, and revitalizing his home city of Newark, New Jersey. Among the organizations Mr. Chambers founded are the Points of Light Foundation (Founding Chairman), the America’s Promise Alliance (co-founded with Colin Powell), the National Mentoring Partnership, and Malaria No More (co-founded with Peter Chernin).

In his business career, Mr. Chambers was Chairman of Wesray Capital Corporation which he co-founded with former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. William E. Simon. Wesray was one of the most successful leveraged buyout firms, initiating the buyout movement with the fabled Gibson Greeting Cards transaction.