Derek Yach is a global health consultant who lives in Connecticut, USA.
He is a passionate advocate of health promotion and disease prevention and advances private-public partnerships and technology innovation as the means to accelerate progress in global health.
Throughout his career, he has led tobacco control, smoking cessation and harm reduction research and policy development. This started in South Africa, continued at the World Health Organization, the Foundation for a Smoke Free World, and through his publications and engagement in lead public and private tobacco and harm reduction related institutions.
Yach is the former chief health officer of the Vitality Group, senior vice president of global health and agriculture policy at PepsiCo, director of global health at the Rockefeller Foundation, and a professor of global health at Yale University. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed articles on global health and has served on several advisory boards, including the World Economic Forum, Cornerstone Capital, Clinton Global Initiative and the Wellcome Trust. He currently serves on the APCO International Advisory Group and is consultant/adviser to several biotech companies and to the Catholic Medical Mission Board.
Yach is a native of South Africa and has an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Georgetown University, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Cape Town, a Bachelor of Science degree (Hons Epi) from the University of Stellenbosch, and a Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is an enthusiastic open water swimmer.