WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE — Muna Bhanji, a former global pharmaceutical executive, and Kurt Newman, M.D., president and CEO of Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., have been elected to the Corus International board of directors.
Bhanji and Newman will serve three-year terms on the Corus board.
“Muna and Kurt bring valuable health care experience to the Corus board,” said president & CEO Daniel Speckhard. “Muna is recognized for her leadership in the global pharmaceutical industry, and for working with payers and governments to enable access to medicines and vaccines and Kurt is a pediatric surgeon and leader of a health system that provides world-class pediatric health care. We will draw on their insights and expertise as we continue to build our global health portfolio.”
Bhanji is a former senior executive with Merck, one of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies. Among her roles in more than three decades with the company, she served as senior vice president of Global Market Access & Policy, Global Human Health. In that role, she developed pharmaceutical access and affordability strategies in a highly regulated environment, working with key stakeholders to support access to medicines in the US, Europe, Japan, China and the emerging regions of Latin America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.
She recently served on the board of Possible Health, a Nepal-focused NGO that delivers high quality, affordable healthcare to rural, underserved communities. She also previously served on the board of the Foundation of Managed Care Pharmacy, the research, education, and philanthropic organization supporting AMCP, the leading professional association in managed care.
Since 2011, Newman has served as the top executive of Children’s National Hospital, which is ranked as one of the top 10 pediatric hospitals in the nation and number one in neonatology by U.S. News & World Report. He is also a strong advocate for expanding mental health access for children and has led two national forums on this issue.
Newman joined Children’s National as a surgical fellow in 1984 and became Surgeon-In-Chief and Senior Vice President for the Joseph E. Robert, Jr. Center for Surgical Care in 2003. He serves on the board of the Economic Club of Washington, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Federal City Council, D.C. Chamber of Commerce, Fight for Children and YMCA Camp Sea Gull/Seafarer. Previously, he served as a board member of Commissioners of the Joint Commission, a member of the Board of Governors of the American Pediatric Surgical Association, and as Chair of the Surgery Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is also the Immediate Past-Chair of the Board of Directors for the District of Columbia Hospital Association and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) Board of Trustees He now serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee for CHA.
Newman is a Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Public Health. He is the author of a 2017 medical memoir, Healing Children: A Surgeon’s Stories from the Frontiers of Pediatric Medicine.
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Corus International is the parent of a family of long-serving organizations committed to ending poverty and building healthy communities in the world’s most challenging places. Drawing on a heritage of nearly 150 years, Corus connects and catalyzes non-profit and for-profit subsidiaries that include Lutheran World Relief, IMA World Health, CGA Technologies, Ground Up Investing and Farmers Market Brands LLC. Alongside communities in fragile settings, their dedicated experts integrate disciplines, approaches and people to grow local economies, eliminate extreme poverty, ensure access to quality health care, mitigate climate change and respond to humanitarian crises.