On today’s show we welcome Derek Yach, the founder and president-designate of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.

Topics Include:

• Derek’s school and university years in South Africa.
• Developing an interest in social change and long distance swimming.
• Derek’s return to South Africa from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
• Comparing the US health system to more successful models such as in Sweden.
• Reasons for the shortcomings in such a wealthy country as the United States.
• Pushing towards marketing healthier foods in the agricultural sector and food industry.
• Derek’s goal of reducing smoking through a new approach.
• The conceptual framework behind inclusive Derek’s approach to the problem.
• How these tactics are applicable to other industries and issues.
• Integrated well-being and the holistic view of individual health.
• A new initiative from Derek for the shortfall of tobacco farmers.

Bio:

Derek Yach has focused his career on advancing global health. He is the Chief Health Officer (CHO) of Vitality, and leads the Vitality Institute. Previously, Dr. Yach was SVP Global Health and Agriculture Policy at PepsiCo, headed global health at the Rockefeller Foundation, was a Professor of Global Health at Yale University, and is a former Executive Director for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health of the World Health Organization (WHO). At WHO, he served as cabinet director under Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland where he led the development of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Global Strategy on Diet and Physical Activity.

Dr. Yach also established the Centre for Epidemiological Research at the South African Medical Research Council. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles covering the breadth of global health. Dr. Yach serves on several advisory boards including those of the Clinton Global Initiative, the World Economic Forum and the NIH’s Fogarty International Centre, and was nominated in September 2014 as the Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Ageing. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Cornerstone Capital and regularly participates in cross-sector commissions such as the 2015 Lancet Commission for Planetary Health.

Learn more about Derek Yach at The Vitality Institute , LinkedIn and Twitter.

Check out this episode!