Dr. Alex Coutinho served as the Executive Director of Inshuti Mu Buzima, PIH’s sister organization in Rwanda, from September 2015 to August 2018. From 2007 to 2014, Alex led the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), as Executive Director. IDI, part of the College of Medicine of Makerere University, Uganda, provides HIV prevention, care and treatment services, and training in HIV, TB and Malaria, while managing an extensive research portfolio. Among the outstanding achievements that were accomplished under Dr. Coutinho’s leadership was the implementation of the Saving Mothers Giving Life grant that reduced maternal mortality by 38% over two years in a district of 700,000 people.

From 2001-2007, Dr. Coutinho served as Executive Director of The Aids Support Organization (TASO), the largest HIV NGO in the world. During this period, TASO dramatically expanded prevention, care and support services, grew its funding from $3 million to $22 million annually, and launched an ART program which now reaches 100,000 people. Dr. Coutinho was also a founding board member of the Global Fund in 2001 and the vice chair of its technical review panel from 2002-2004. He is the former Chair of the Board of IAVI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and of IPM–the International Partnership for Microbicides. Currently, Dr. Coutinho continues to serve on the board of IPM as well as on several advisory boards including the UCSF pre-term birth initiative and the Ashinaga Foundation in Japan.

Dr. Coutinho earned his M.D. in 1983 and a Master of Science in Physiology in 1988 from Makerere University Medical School. He also received a Diploma in Primary Emergency Care from the College of Medicine of South Africa, and a Master of Public Health and Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the University of Witwatersrand. He holds an Honorary PhD from the University of Zurich.