26 Facts About Margaret Chan

Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun was born on 21 August 1947 and is a Chinese-Canadian physician, who served as the Director-General of the World Health Organization delegating the People's Republic of China from 2006 to 2017.

Margaret Chan was widely criticized for her handling of the 1997 H5N1 avian influenza outbreak and the 2003 SARS outbreak in Hong Kong, and for her frequent travels while serving as Director-General of the WHO.

Margaret Chan received a professional degree for teaching home economics at the Northecote College of Education in Hong Kong.

Margaret Chan received a bachelor of arts with a major in home economics in 1973 and a doctor of medicine in 1977 from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.

Margaret Chan received a master of science from the National University of Singapore in 1985.

Margaret Chan completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School in 1991.

Margaret Chan joined the Government of British Hong Kong in December 1978 as a medical officer.

Margaret Chan survived the transition from British to PRC-HKSAR rule in June 1997.

Margaret Chan's profile was raised by her handling, in those positions, of the 1997 H5N1 avian influenza outbreak and the 2003 SARS outbreak in Hong Kong.

Margaret Chan was criticised by the Legislative Council for her passiveness, for believing in misleading information shared by the mainland authority, and for not acting swiftly.

Margaret Chan was criticised for a lack of political wisdom was evident in her indifference to media reports and widespread public fear at that time.

Margaret Chan left the Hong Kong Government in August 2003 after 25 years of service to join the World Health Organization.

Margaret Chan was given the post of Director, Sustainable Development and Healthy Environment Department, until she could move on, in 2005, to the position of ADG.

From 2003 until 2005, Margaret Chan served as the Representative of the World Health Organization Director-General for Pandemic Influenza and as Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases.

Margaret Chan served two terms of five years apiece as Director-General of the WHO.

In February 2007, Margaret Chan provoked the anger of humanitarian and civil society groups including Doctors Without Borders by questioning the quality of generic medicines while on a visit to Thailand.

In 2010 Margaret Chan was criticised for "crying wolf" about the 2009 flu pandemic, which turned out to be much milder than expected.

Margaret Chan noted there were no signs of obesity in the country, which is a newly emerging problem in other parts of Asia.

Margaret Chan's comments marked a significant departure from that of her predecessor, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who said in 2001 that North Korea's health system was near collapse.

Margaret Chan is either winking at the reality to maintain contact with the North or she allowed herself to be fooled.

In 2014 and 2015, Margaret Chan was again heavily criticised because of the slow response of the WHO to the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa.

In 2016 at the request of the WHA, Margaret Chan launched the Health Emergencies Programme.

In 2018, Chan joined the Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health, a group convened by Michael R Bloomberg and Lawrence H Summers to address preventable leading causes of death and noncommunicable diseases through fiscal policy.

In 1997, Margaret Chan was given the distinction for the Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom and was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2014, Margaret Chan was ranked as the 30th most powerful woman in the world, based on her position as Director-General, by Forbes.

Margaret Chan is married to David Chan, who is an ophthalmologist.