Dr Zul Merali is the Founding Director of the Brain and Mind Institute at the Aga Khan University. He is a neuroscientist and pharmacologist by training (McGill University, University of Ottawa and Wharton), with over 40 years of academic engagement. Has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He has successfully used his academic and entrepreneurial ability to help advance forward thinking organizations to transform their approach to mental and brain health, locally, nationally and globally.

Drew Holzapfel serves as the Executive Director of The Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease (CEOi), a coalition of leading corporations investing in Alzheimer’s disease research, treatment and care.  He is also the Chief Operating Officer for the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative, a multi-year initiative initiated by CEOi and The World Economic Forum in 2021.  Drew is a Managing Partner at High Lantern Group.  Over the course of his career, Drew has held positions in the federal government and with pharmaceutical companies, including

Arthur W. Toga, Ph.D., is Provost Professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, and Director of the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Institute of Neuroimaging and Informatics.

Dr. Adesola Ogunniyi is Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and Consultant Neurologist to the University College Hospital, Ibadan. He received his undergraduate medical education at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), residency training at the University College Hospital, Ibadan specializing in neurology, and later had Neuroepidemiology fellowship at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, NIH, Bethesda, USA (1986-87).

Kaarin Anstey is an ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She conducts research in the fields of dementia epidemiology, dementia risk reduction, and older driver safety. She has developed evidence-based, freely available online dementia risk assessments that are used in clinical practice and research, including the recent CogDrisk. She has also led several dementia risk reduction trials using digital health approaches, and contributed to guidelines on dementia risk reduction.

Mr. Ryoji Noritake is the CEO, and Board Member of Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI), a Tokyo-based independent and non-profit health policy think tank established in 2004. He also served as Asia-Pacific Lead for Project HOPE, a US-based medical humanitarian aid organization. Through HOPE and HGPI, he has led health system strengthening projects in the Asia-Pacific region and engaged in the US Navy’s medical humanitarian projects.

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of The Netherlands with the collaboration of the World Dementia Council are hosting a high-level meeting on ‘Defeating Dementia’. The aim of the event is threefold:

• To discuss the challenges dementia poses to society and the urgency of this issue.

• To highlight the swift progress that could be made in care delivery, diagnosis and drug discovery.

• To agree on concrete actions to improve dementia care and to drive research forward, not least by increasing global public investment in dementia research.

The World Dementia Council has elected three new trustees, Professor Paulo Caramelli, Professor of Neurology, Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, Professor Miia Kivipelto, Professor in Clinical Geriatrics at Karolinska Institutet, center for Alzheimer Research in Sweden, and Dr Joanne Pike President and CEO Alzheimer’s Association in the United States.  

The World Dementia Council has appointed Niranjan Bose, Managing Director of Health & Life Sciences at Gates Ventures, Dr Howard Fillet co-founder and Chief Science Office of ADDF and Dr Joanne Pike, President and CEO of the Alzheimer's Association as new Council members. 

The World Dementia Council (WDC) elected Joanne Pike, Alzheimer’s Association president and chief executive officer (CEO) as its new vice chair. In this leadership role, Pike will advance the organisation’s global efforts to improve the lives of people affected by dementia.