The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently appointed Girindre Beeharry as the head of its India office which is headquartered in New Delhi, effective immediately.

In his new role as the director for the India office, Girindre will oversee the Gates Foundation's programmes, initiatives, policy, advocacy, grant making, and partnerships in India.

He will lead the foundation's work with India's central and state governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and corporate partners to continue the expansion of the foundation's work and strategic partnerships in India.

According to Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Gates Foundation, "Expanding our work and partnership in India is an important priority for the foundation, and we are very pleased that Girindre will be leading this effort. He has been a senior leader at the foundation the past few years and has played a pivotal role in defining its India strategy, expanding engagement, and developing effective grant programmes."

Beeharry has worked at the Gates Foundation since 2005. He most recently served as director of strategy for the global health program. Beeharry successfully led a team of strategy and evaluation experts to help guide planning across the global health programme and ensured the foundation's grant portfolio has the greatest possible impact on health in developing countries. He has also worked on developing access strategies for product development partnerships and accelerating access to new malaria drugs.

"Girindre's valuable experience and leadership at the foundation will help us build on our transformative work in India and will allow us to continue the momentum in developing and running scalable, measurable programs such as avahan and ananya in Bihar," said Mark Suzman managing director international policy and advocacy of the foundation.

Prior to his work at the foundation, Beeharry served as a business development leader for immunisation at Becton, Dickinson, and Company, where he worked on infectious diseases and cancers, and advancing research, discovery and production of new drugs and vaccines issues. Before Becton, Beeharry held a senior position at the World Bank and currently serves on the board of UNITAID.

Beeharry read Economics at Oxford University and the University of Paris-Sorbonne.