The CEO of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Anne Aslett, on tackling the stigma around HIV/AIDS, changing social norms and reaching the most marginalised.
Great advances in medical treatments enable most people with HIV to live lives with life expectancy comparable to the general population. Unfortunately, stigma and negative social norms persist and must be tackled.
The Elton John AIDS Foundation is a global grant-making foundation focused on ending the AIDS epidemic. They’re based in London and New York, they fund services on the ground and organisations that are working in the field in up to 50 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia; they are also active in the UK and US. They are the fifth largest AIDS foundation in the world and were founded in 1992.
Anne shares her very touching personal story that brought her to the field of HIV/AIDS; she speaks with passion about the innovative ways they’re leveraging new technologies to reach those most marginalised individuals and communities; and she gives us a glimpse of what it’s like to work with Elton John to improve lives and change mindsets.
Thank you for downloading this episode of The Do One Better Podcast. Please leave us a rating and a review to help others find this show.
About Anne Aslett
Anne Aslett is the global Chief Executive Officer of the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) which she has served for almost 20 years. As International Development Director to EJAF UK, she managed more than £60m in grants to programmes in Europe, Africa and Asia, before taking over the UK Foundation as its Executive Director in 2008. When the US and UK Foundations merged their operations in 2018, Anne assumed her current role.
During Anne’s tenure Foundation has become the 5th largest AIDS funder globally; has saved the lives of over 5m of the most marginalised people in the world and raised awareness of HIV amongst more than 100m people.
Anne joined the Foundation from the commercial sector, where she managed a news information service for the UK leading print and electronic media, following over 5 years in print journalism and documentary film making on health and current affairs issues. She has served on a number of boards including for Comic Relief, the European Funders Group and most recently the UK’s HIV Commission.