Statement from the Board of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc.

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (“CHAI”) was founded in 2002 as a Clinton Foundation Initiative. Today, the CHAI Board of Directors, which is fully committed to and proud of CHAI’s life-saving work, announced the following changes will be implemented if Secretary Clinton is elected President of the United States:

1. The five members of CHAI’s Board appointed by the Clinton Foundation will step down from the CHAI Board (President Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Bruce Lindsey, Ira Magaziner, Maggie Williams);
2. CHAI’s current bylaws will be amended to remove the Clinton Foundation’s right to appoint members of the CHAI Board;
3. Five new independent Board members will be selected by the remaining Board members as quickly as possible, in consultation with leading experts in the global health and development field, including CHAI’s long-term supporters and partners;
4. The organization will continue to use the acronym “CHAI” but the Clinton name will no longer be used;
5. Current management will remain, and the new CHAI Board will put in place by the end of 2016 an orderly succession plan for the CEO, Ira Magaziner, and other senior management appointed by the Board;
6. All aspects of the transition will be carried out responsibly and seamlessly, with the priority being sustaining the life-saving services upon which millions depend and the extraordinary daily work of CHAI staff who make those services possible;

If Secretary Clinton is elected President, the changes outlined here will be implemented and CHAI would become an organization completely independent of the Clinton Foundation.

Background on CHAI

• CHAI was founded by President Clinton in 2002 to address what at the time seemed an impossible task: to make life-saving AIDS drugs available to millions of people for whom the diagnosis had become a death sentence. Fourteen years later, more than 11.5 million people in over 70 countries have access to life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs at 90 percent lower cost because of CHAI, including more than 800,000 children. That is more than half the adults and three quarters of the children on treatment today.
• CHAI has also organized the training of thousands of healthcare workers as part of an effort to address critical shortages in poor countries and help others build strong, self-sufficient health systems, and expanded access to high-quality, low-cost treatment and diagnostics for many other diseases and conditions.
• These achievements have been made possible by individuals, institutions, and governments from around the world. Much work requiring CHAI’s expertise remains to be done, and CHAI will count on the continued support of its current donors and partners, and that of others.
• The Board’s focus is ensuring that CHAI’s life-saving work, whether addressing AIDS, Malaria, tuberculosis, or malnutrition, continues. The people who depend upon the work are our utmost priority.