Päivi Sillanaukee

Ambassador for Health and Wellbeing at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Päivi Sillanaukee (MD, PhD, eMBA) is the Special Envoy for Health and Wellbeing at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of Finland.

Previously she has served as Ambassador for Health and Wellbeing at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Director-General and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Deputy Mayor and Director of Social and Health Services in the City of Tampere, and held clinical and managerial positions in the Pirkanmaa Hospital District.

Dr Sillanaukee is a specialist in public health and management and doctor honoris causa from the University of Helsinki. She has worked on policies to promote public health, social protection, gender equality, innovation and digitalization.

She represented Finland in the WHO Executive Board from May 2018 to May 2021 and served as its first and third Vice Chair from 2018 to 2020. From September 2021 to September 2022 she served as Executive President of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe. She has been the co-chair of the Alliance for Health Security Cooperation (AHSC), she is member of the Steering Group of the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), member of Health Advisory Board of the UN Global Pulse Finland, Member of the HIMSS Board of Directors and Member of the IDAIR inaugural Board.