MPact’s team is a reflection of our commitment to upholding a diverse global perspective on issues concerning the health and human rights of gay and bisexual men. Our staff of experts in the field are primarily headquartered in Oakland, California but our work extends to 62 countries around the globe.
MPact is led by an international Board of Directors and a collegially appointed Steering Committee of globally recognized advocates and HIV and AIDS professionals representing every major region of the world, the majority of whom are ages 29 and under.
Sean Howell
Sean is an activist turned entrepreneur as co-founder, he services as CEO at the LGBT Foundation, which works to leverage the LGBT Token and the benefits of blockchain technology for the empowerment of the LGBT community. Prior to the LGBT Foundation he served as President of Hornet ; where, he built a 25 million user gay social network and the largest LGBT newsroom in the world publishing daily in 7 languages on five continents. Previously, he was a fellow of the World Affairs Council, trustee, and President of the Young Professional International Network.
He helps many organizations leverage technology to expand their impact; serves on various nonprofit boards and committees: UNAIDS, E-CDC, PFLAG and co-chair at the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at John Hopkins; is a founding member of the UN Global Coalition for HIV Prevention and technical advisor to UNDPs and the World Bank LGBTI Index.
Inad Quinones Rendon
Inad is a gay man, a person living with HIV, a lawyer, an artist, a baker, a cyclist, a writer, a storyteller, a hopelessly romantic, and a part-time lover. Hailing from the Philippines and residing in Thailand, he is working with APCOM as Organisational Sustainability and Strengthening Consultant. He strengthens the organization’s regional and global advocacy, key population, and community engagements and programs. These programs include creating legal environments, technical assistance to key population networks, capacity building, community monitoring, and country program review, among others.
He is a member of U=U Global Community Board. The UGCB will work closely with the Prevention Access Campaign to integrate U=U into national and global HIV/AIDS responses to greatly improve the lives of people living with HIV. He sits on MPact Global Action’s Board of Directors. MPact advocates for equitable access to effective HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support services for gay men and bisexual men, including those living with HIV, while promoting their health and human rights worldwide.
For Inad, there is a gap in the HIV movement and programming. He believes that we need to go beyond the awareness and knowledge and start cultivating empathy. Although theoretical knowledge in HIV is very crucial and important, HIV programs should also foster emotional understanding and achieve a certain level of empathy.
Othman Mellouk
An orthodontist by profession, Othoman Mellouk joined the Association de Lutte Contre le Sida (ALCS) in Morocco in 1994, where he participated in the development of the first prevention program targeting men having sex with men in North Africa and the Middle East.
From 2002 to 2010 he was the chair of the Marrakech city branch of ALCS, and was in charge of international relations of ALCS. He is also one of the most active advocates for access to treatment in the MENA region with a particular focus on the question of intellectual property rights and their effect on access to treatment. In January 2010, Othoman Mellouk became co-chair of MPact.
Daniyar Orsekov
Daniyar Orsekov is the founder and Executive Director of “Kyrgyz Indigo”, an LGBTIFAQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, families, allies, queer people) organization based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He has been engaged in LGBT activism in Kyrgyzstan since 2004 and have worked extensively with LGBT people, not only in the capital city of Bishkek, but also throughout the country and in other parts of Central Asia.
In 2004, working with other activists, Daniyar helped to found an initiative support group for lesbian and bisexual women and transgender people which provided training and inspiration and support for its members.
As executive director of Kyrgyz Indigo, he is responsible for development of the operational, financial planning and management of the organization in addition to overseeing monitoring, evaluation and risk management. In his role, he is actively involved in drafting the anti-discrimination draft law in Kyrgyzstan, which will include SOGI in the processes of writing HIV state programs as member of Country Coordinating Mechanisms on behalf of MSM/TG in Kyrgyzstan. His membership in the Country Coordinating Mechanism allows him to advocate for increases to the state budget for health issues and to include costs for HIV prevention programs for MSM/TG. Together with UNFPA and ECOM he organized the first ever training on MSMIT in Kyrgyzstan.
Najeeb Ahmad Fokeerbux
Najeeb Ahmad Fokeerbux is the Founder and President of Young Queer Alliance (YQA) and has over 5 years’ experience working with LGBT youth. Since 2005, he has been passionate and engaged in initiatives that aim to empower young people and previously held positions of responsibility in various organizations such as the Rivière-du-Rempart Youth Centre Advisory Committee, the Youth Action Movement, the Organisation Miss-Roi D’Été, We Help You and Jeunesse Militante. Currently, Najeeb is enrolled as student in master’s in business administration (specialization in Public Administration) at the Open University of Mauritius. He enjoys hiking, badminton, Zumba, playing chess and online games.
Jorge Saavedra
Currently Executive Director of the AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami and Global Public Health Ambassador for AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Member of the Board of Trustees of IAPAC and is also a Member of the Strategy Committee of the Global Fund representing the Developing Country NGOs, Member of the Executive Committee GayLatino Network and of the MSMGF Steering Committee. Dr. Saavedra based in Mexico, is a Medical Doctor from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with two Master’s degrees— one in Public Health and another in Health Policy and Management both from Harvard University. He has been Director General of the National AIDS Program of Mexico (2003-2009), where he was the first openly gay person to achieve a high-level position inside Mexico’s federal government. He has also been Deputy Director General of Planning and Innovation at the Ministry of Health of Mexico (2001-2003). Since Jorge’s times as Head of the National AIDS Program in Mexico, where he arrived through an open merit-based contest, he was in charge of launching the universal access to ART program in 2003, the first time a developing country did it entirely with domestic resources. He has several publications mainly related with AIDS Economics and the latest ones on the global response to Ebola (Lancet Nov 23, 2015 and BMJ May 19, 2016). Dr. Saavedra’s permanent residency is in Mexico.
Don Baxter (Emeritus)
Don Baxter is a founding Co-Chair of the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) since its establishment in 2006. He served as the Executive Director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO), the national federation for the HIV community response in Australia, for the period 2001-2011. During that decade and the years subsequently he has been involved in a range of board director positions with global and Asia Pacific HIV agencies, with a particular focus on MSM in the HIV pandemic.
In addition to the MSMGF (2006 – 2021) these include the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria (2011-14) and its Communities, Rights & Gender Advisory Group (2014-2016) and on-going roles with the board of APCASO (2002 – ), ICASO (2005 – 2017) and AIDS Project Los Angeles (2015 – 2018).
Don’s early HIV involvement was in the initial grass-roots HIV community response in Sydney’s gay community from 1983 – from which he subsequently served in national leadership positions and as a member of key advisory and decision-making bodies in Australia’s national HIV response – in both elected positions and Ministerially-appointed ones.