Pacific Friends Staff

Mr Bill Bowtell AO, Executive Director Pacific Friends
Bill is a strategic policy adviser, with particular interest in national and international health policy structures and reform. He trained as a diplomat, with postings in Portugal, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe. As senior adviser to the Australian health minister, Bill Bowtell played a significant role in the introduction of the Medicare health insurance system (1984). He was an architect of Australia’ successful and well-regarded response to HIV/AIDS. Between 1994 and 1996, Bill Bowtell was senior political adviser to the Prime Minister of Australia. He maintains a close interest in the potential impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the other communicable diseases, on the social, economic and political development of the Asia Pacific region. Since 2005, Bill was Director of the HIV/AIDS Project at the Lowy Institute for International Policy and, since 2009, the Executive Director of Pacific Friends of the Global Fund. Pacific Friends is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In these positions, he has sought to increase knowledge and awareness of the challenges posed globally, and to the Pacific region, by the three diseases. He has written and broadcast extensively on these subjects and participated in many international and Australian conferences and seminars especially in relation to HIV/AIDS.
Mr Tim Siegenbeek van Heukelom, Program Coordinator
Tim is the Program Coordinator for Pacific Friends of the Global Fund. He holds a Master’s degree in Public International Law from Utrecht University and a Master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Sydney. Tim is also a PhD candidate at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, where he is researching food security and conflict in relation to foreign agricultural investment in Africa.
Ms Helen Tauro, Administration Officer
Helen joined Pacific Friends in April 2009, looking after all administration aspects of the project. Prior to then Helen was based in Ireland for seven years working for Concern Worldwide, a NGO focusing on development in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
Pacific Friends operates under the auspices of the University of New South Wales Foundation.

Pacific Friends

Wendy McCarthy AO
Chair
Bill Bowtell AO
Executive Director

Pacific Friends of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a high-level advocacy organisation which seeks to mobilise regional awareness of the serious threat posed by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to societies and economies in the Pacific. In pursuing its goals Pacific Friends has a specific interest in highlighting the need to protect the rights of women and children in the Pacific.

In February 2009, Pacific Friends was launched under the auspices of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and with generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to join the group of Friends of the Global Fund organisations. Pacific Friends also raises support for the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the vital role it plays in resourcing effective country-based plans to reduce the impact and spread of the three pandemics.

Following generous support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to join the group of Friends of the Global Fund organisations, Pacific Friends has established itself under the auspices of the University of New South Wales. Through its advocacy Pacific Friends also raises support for the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the vital role it plays in resourcing effective country-based plans to reduce the impact and spread of the three pandemics.

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