AFEW People

Frank de Wolf, MD, PhD

Frank de Wolf, MD, PhD, is medical microbiologist. He has been contributing to HIV/AIDS research since 1984. First as Coordinator of the Amsterdam Cohort Study and subsequently as Associate Professor and Head of the Clinical Virology Unit at the Department of Human Retrovirology of the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam.

In 1998 he became Co-Leader of the ATHENA project, together with Professor Joep Lange. One of the recommendations in the end report was to continue ATHENA structurally as a part of health care. This included the monitoring of all patients and the registry of new infections. As a result of this recommendation, Frank de Wolf founded the HIV Monitoring Foundation in 2001.

Since 2001, Frank has been Director of the Dutch HIV Monitoring Foundation that is responsible for the collection and analysis of data obtained from all HIV-infected patients seen in one of the 25 national HIV treatment centres in the Netherlands. With his expertise in HIV/AIDS research, he decides on research proposals and trains young researchers. Furthermore, he has a strong helicopter view of ongoing trends and international and political issues that affect the nature of HIV research.

Frank de Wolf is also Visiting Professor at the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology of Imperial College London, UK. In his work for AFEW, Frank de Wolf aims to connect the challenges in both prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS, using monitoring as a bridging tool.

More information about the HIV Monitoring Foundation can be found at: http://www.hiv-monitoring.nl/

Jaap Goudsmit, MD, PhD

Executive Vice President
Research & Development
Chief Scientific Officer
Crucell

Professor of Poverty-Related Communicable Diseases
Academic Medical Centre
University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Jaap Goudsmit, MD, PhD, currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President for Research and Development of Crucell, an Euronext and NASDAQ listed biotechnology company based in the Netherlands. He is also a member of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Poverty-Related Communicable Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine and Chair of the Centre for Poverty-Related Communicable Diseases (CPCD).

Dr. Goudsmit is a co-founder of both the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and EuroVac, the European Union AIDS vaccine effort. He chaired the IAVI Scientific Advisory Committee from 1996 to 2002 and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of IAVI.

Before joining Crucell, Dr. Goudsmit held various positions in the Academic Medical Centre at the University of Amsterdam, most recently as Chairman for The Research Institute for Infectious Diseases and for The Institute for Science Education. A board-certified medical microbiologist and full professor of virology at the University of Amsterdam, Dr. Goudsmit has taught and been a fellow in a number of institutions, including the National Institutes of Health and New York University.

Dr. Goudsmit has chaired several national and international committees, authored over 450 publications, and served as a reviewer for a number of leading peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Goudsmit received a PhD in virology from the University of Amsterdam and a medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Amsterdam.

Joost van der Meer
Executive Director

Joost van der Meer was appointed Executive Director of AIDS Foundation East West (AFEW) at a meeting of the organisation’s Board in Amsterdam in July 2005; and started working for AFEW in October 2005. Joost was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is a medical graduate of the University of Amsterdam and has a PhD in Medicine from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Joost has also gone through a number of courses, including in biostatistics, clinical and public health research methods, medical management course, management of AIDS projects, malaria prevention, and training techniques in different educational institutions including Leiden, Rotterdam and Johns Hopkins universities.

Joost van der Meer has had a very interesting and rewarding career path. From 1983 to 2002, he held different positions in various organisations and institutions, including: senior house officer at both St. Lucas and Prinsengracht hospitals in Amsterdam; general co-ordinator, project co-ordinator and programme officer at Wemos, a Dutch non-governmental organisation working on information and policy advocacy issues of international health; research co-ordinator for MSF in Uzbekistan; and head of mission/medical co-ordinator of  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)  in Ukraine. From 2002  to the time he joined AFEW, Joost worked as health advisor for MSF-Holland, supporting programmes in ten countries – Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Joost van der Meer has also been involved in medical research: he worked as a research fellow at the Public Health Department of Erasmus University in Rotterdam from 1990 to 1997. He also possesses teaching/training skills: from 1980 to 1982, he taught medical psychology, counselling techniques,   social and general medicine, concept and use of essential drugs to working groups and students of Erasmus University. Apart from his native Dutch, Joost van der Meer speaks five other languages, including English, French, German, a bit of Portuguese and some Russian. His hobbies include: listening to music, playing the piano, trekking, reading novels, writing, cycling, jogging, playing volley ball and cooking.

Ilona van de Braak

Ilona van de Braak is one of the founders of AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW), which was specifically designed to help reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) and was officially launched on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2001.

AFEW continues a wide range of HIV/AIDS programmes developed and implemented by Medecins Sans Frontieres – Holland (MSF-H) in the Russian Federation (RF), Ukraine and Mongolia between 1996 and 2001. At that time, Ilona served as Project Co-ordinator of HIV/AIDS Mass Media Campaign Programmes in the RF, Ukraine and Mongolia within MSF-H. When it became increasingly clear that a larger response was needed, Ilona and three (3) fellow MSF staff members set-up AFEW.

Prior to her work in the RF between 1991 and 1996, Ilona worked at the MSF-H Headquarters in Amsterdam in the Human Resources Department setting up systems for the recruitment of field staff. She also conducted short field missions in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Uganda. Before joining MSF, Ilona worked in the commercial sector for two (2) years, both in sales and human resource departments. Ilona gained her first working experience as a certified socio-therapist in health care settings in the Netherlands.

Ilona received higher vocational training as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse from Noordwijk – The Netherlands, a journalism and public presentation certificate from the School of Journalism, Utrecht, The Netherlands, and a Master’s in Business Administration (PR and Marketing) from The American Institute of Business and Economics – Great Falls, Virginia, USA / Moscow, RF.

Ilona worked within AFEW for almost three years as Head of Communications in Moscow. Since October 2004 she has been working as Director of the Europe Office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Еlena Agapova
Director of Finance

Elena has had over 10 years of experience working in various senior-level finance positions. Before joining AFEW she worked as a financial consultant to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in New York. Elena worked as a director of finance at several USAID-funded projects in Moscow, including the Institute for Election Systems Development (IESD) and the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES). In addition, she led the finance department at the real estate firm, Perestroika.

Elena obtained a Master's degree in Management from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Services, specializing in finance and accounting. She earlier attained a Master's degree in Economics from Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Elena also has had experience working as a research assistant at the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and in the finance department of the Open Society Institute in New York. Elena was an Edmund F. Muskie fellow, funded by the US Department of State. She is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).

Nicolas Cantau
Regional Director for Central Asian Republics

Nicolas Cantau received his Diploma of International Development Officer from Bioforce Institute, Lyon, France in 1994, and his Masters in International Humanitarian Aid from the University of Law, Aix-Marseille III, Aix en Provence, France in 1999.

Nicolas served as the Head of Mission of Medecins Sans Frontieres – Belgium (MSF) in the Russian Federation (RF) for five years (1995 to 1998 and 2001 to 2003). He has more than 10 years of experience working in the fields of humanitarian, international assistance, and served as Technical Officer for the World Health Organisation in the RF, as Head of Mission of MSF in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in other capacities in various humanitarian projects in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Former Republics of Yugoslavia and Azerbaijan.