Alexandre Kalache


Alexandre Kalache is a medical epidemiologist specializing in the study of aging. Since 2012 he is President of the and since 2015 co-President of the . He formerly directed the World Health Organization global ageing programme at its Geneva headquarters following an academic career largely at the Universities of London and Oxford in the United Kingdom. Kalache has researched, written and spoken in the field of ageing issues as an academic, an international civil servant and an advocate.

Early life and education

Kalache was born into a multicultural family with an immigrant father and grandparents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He grew up in Copacabana.
Kalache graduated from the medical school of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro with distinction in 1970. He gained diplomas in infectious and parasitic diseases and medical education. He was awarded a master's degree in Social Medicine with distinction from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1977. He was awarded his PhD in Epidemiology by the University of London, UK in 1993.

Professional life

Kalache became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, Faculty of Community Medicine in 1984. He became an assistant professor, teaching geriatrics at Oxford University, and studied the global nature of population ageing.
He was named a Fellow of the International Association of Geriatrics and Gerontology in 1987, and a Fellow of the International Epidemiological Association in 1989.
In 1994 Kalache became a director of the World Health Organization. In 2000 he led a two-year international committee to define existing policy on population ageing, resulting in the publication of Active Ageing, a Policy Framework, released at the United Nations' World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid in 2002. Kalache became a Fellow the World Economic Forum in 1999, and a Fellow of the Aspen Institute in Colorado, USA, in 2003.
Kalache headed a WHO global project in 2006-7 to identify the key elements of an “age-friendly” city. The resulting assessment tool for use by city planners and advocacy groups, Global Age-Friendly Cities: a Guide was released on the International Day of Older Persons in 2007. In 2007 he was retired from his WHO position because of his age.
In 2009, Kalache was appointed Senior Policy Advisor to the President on Global Aging, , New York, USA. He was an Additional Representative to the United Nations for the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and also became a Global Ambassador to HelpAge International.
In 2010 Kalache was appointed Research Chair Professor in Elderly Health Care Development at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2011 he became an Associate Professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health in Granada, Spain, and was a member of the Brazilian Delegation to the United Nations' Open-Ended Working Group on the Human Rights of Older People.
In 2012 Kalache founded and became the inaugural President of the , an independent think tank based in Rio de Janeiro that develops and promotes policy related to population ageing. In the same year he was appointed as Thinker-in-Residence to the South Australian State Government and Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia and became a TEDx speaker. In 2015 he was additionally elected as Co-President of the sixteen-country consortium of the .

Personal

He is a multi-linguist, pianist and chef. He has an adult son and daughter and two grandchildren.

Appointments and memberships

Kalache has acted as Special Adviser to numerous organisations including the Matia Foundation of Spain, the Gulbenkian Foundation of Portugal, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of the US and the Robert Marinho Foundation of Brazil. He has been an adviser to the World Bank, the International Association of Geriatrics and Gerontology, the Brazilian and Spanish Ministries of Health, the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Government, the São Paulo State Secretary of Social Policy, Bradesco Seguros, the Brazilian Special Secretary of Human Rights and the Global Coalition of NGOs for the Human Rights of Older Persons.
Kalache has served on many boards from the World Economic Forum and the to university faculties, pharmaceutical and finance companies as well as private foundations:
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Awards

Kalache has been listed in the 100 most-influential Brazilians and is the recipient of awards in many countries both for lifetime achievement and for contribution to medical science.

Selected publications

Articles