NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Mr. Lester Chinery is Director of Operations for the Concept Foundation and Program Director for the Quality of Reproductive Health Medicines program. Lester has over 20 years of senior level Reproductive Health/Family Planning experience working with Concept, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and its subsidiary company ICON Ltd, which he founded in 2000, serving as its Managing Director/IPPF Director of Procurement Services until 2008. Prior to that, Mr. Chinery was Contraceptive Social Marketing Manager for the IPPF European Network, introducing a range of low-cost contraceptives across Eastern Europe in partnership with commercial manufacturers. He was IPPF’s first representative at the time of formation of the RHSC and served on the Executive Committee in 2006.

Mr. John Skibiak is the Director of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC), an international partnership of public, private and non-governmental organizations dedicated to safeguarding access to reproductive health supplies.

Mr. Skibiak brings more than 30 years of experience in the development field, most of it spent in the field — managing, directing and leading reproductive health programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Prior to joining the Supplies Coalition in 2006, Mr. Skibiak was the Director of the Population Council’s Africa Program to Expand Contraceptive Choice and founder of ECafrique, a bilingual network of health care professionals seeking to mainstream quality emergency contraception services in Africa. A key player in the development and implementation of the WHO Strategic Approach, Mr. Skibiak has conducted strategic assessments of reproductive health needs in Africa and Latin America, and played a central role in the development of Ethiopia’s national Reproductive Health Strategy.

An anthropologist by training, Mr. Skibiak brings skills and professional experience in such areas as appropriate technology and micro-enterprise development — experience that has also enabled him to engage with nontraditional partners in the health field such as small businesses, legal services, the advertising industry and the pharmaceutical sector.