What future in 2021 for the The Global Health Perspectives Podcasts by Derek Yach? and for the Foundation itself?

As for now (May 7, 2021) Derek has only hosted one interview in 2021, on February 9 for the podcast. Is there a future for this podcast that has lost its place on the Foundation's front page and is now at the bottom of the "press room" section (scroll down, keep scrolling down unto "media tools")? What is its audience? Does it deserve a future? The Foundation's blog that was never very prolific has produced 3 articles (all in January 2021). Among the published articles in 2021 one finds 3 by Derek, all in March. Besides Derek, what are the other 24 staff members and 7 board members doing to help and justify their often significant compensation? As for grants, since there is zero communication from the Foundation about them, except once a year in the very limited format of the IRS tax return 990 form (scroll down), one can only wait until later in 2021 to find out what happened in 2020. Beyond the podcast, what future for the Foundation?

I reproduce below the list of all the podcasts (as of April 2021), taken from this other post where I noted the lack of transparency concerning the frequent (and substantial) links of interests between the guests and the Foundation

37. Cother Hajat, 2/9/2021, is a member of the Vitality Institute, as is (or was) Derek. His bio page on the Vitality Institute website, presents him that way:

"Derek Yach has focused his career on advancing global health. He is the Chief Health Officer (CHO) of Vitality, and leads the Vitality Institute." Derek's Linkedin profile mentions he remained as a consultant until August 2017, before becoming FSFW's President. His bio as posted on the FSFW's site.

 

36. End of year recap, 12/18/2020,    

 

35. Bengt Wigberg,   12/16/2020

 

34. William Kamkwamba, 11/25/2020,  

 

33. Harry Shapiro,  11/16/2020, Harry works for KAC, based in London, that is funded by FSFW. Funding is not disclosed in the interview presentation.

 

32. Michael Cummings, 10/30/2020 

 

31. Elise Rasmussen, 10/17/2020,  Global Nicotine and Tobacco Forum

 

30. Karl Fagerstrom, 10/9/2020. 

 

29. Dr. Sudanshu Patwardhan, 9/30/2020  co-founder with his spouse of the Centre for Health Research and Education (CHRE). has received several grants from the FSFW. Amounts estimated at $450,000 and $723,399. Not mentioned (at this time) in their grants database.

 

28. Daniel Malan, 09/17  Derek now mentions that the guest was the recipient of a grant from the FSFW for the production of its report Contradictions and conflicts: "This report was made possible by a grant from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World." he does not mention the amount (not yet available, only public with the next PPF 990 form?) nor the fact Daniel had also previously received another grant for another report ($85,000 or so) with the University of Stellenbosch.

 

27.  Tony Leon 09/4, South African politician and consultant.

 

26. Donald Kenkel,  08/25, Economist from Cornell University, received 2 grants from FSFW in 2020. Here you can see the usual opaque description of the grant in the FSFW database. No mention either of the connection with the Foundation in this post about Kenkel's recent work. No mention of the connection during the interview. Why such secrecy? 23 minute podcast

 

25. Karen Nelson.   08/19.  President Craig Venter Institute no info available about eventual grant

 

24. Kevin McGuirr   08/06.   UCSF-San Francisco Study Center     FSFW grantee (around $3 million grant)

 

23. Samrat Chowdhery  07/27   KAC's grantee and now President of INNCO that is an FSFW grantee. We greatly appreciate Samrat we interviewed on June 3, 2018

 

22. Corinna Lathan  07/16  FSFW Board member (3,397 in 2018, 50,000 in 2019)

 

21. Villoo Murawala Patell   07/06  CEO of  Avesthagen, FSFW grantee (1,457,767 in 2019 and 2M+ in the future) Press release  also this video (October 2019)

20. Konstantinos Farsalinos  06/29

19. François Millard  06/22   Vitality Group

18. George Bostock  06/3  Cambridge Design Partnership     FSFW Grantee  (104,320 in 2018, 514,433 in 2019, 277,000 future)

17. A message for World No Tobacco Day, by Derek Yach   05/30 (Derek Yach, President's compensation was $813.700 for 2018 and $974.481 for 2019)

16. Jed Rose  05/29     FSFW grantee Rose Research Center (4,7M in 2019, 20,7M future)

15. Dyborn Chibonga  05/26   FSFW Board Member ( 37,500 in 2018, 50,000 in 2019)

14. Melonie Kastman  05/19   FSFW contractor for documentary film, The True Cost of a Cigarette, amount unknown

13. Gerry Stimson    05/14   FSFW Grantee KAC  ( 787,000 in 2018,  1,3M in 2019,  6 million future)

12. Dr Tikki Pangestu.  05/12 

11. Marewa Glover   05/05     FSFW grantee (489,225 in 2018, 1,7M in 2019, 7,3M future)

10. Angela Hofmann   05/01    new FSFW Board Member (since December 2019, 0 in 2019)

9. Dr. Pooja Padwarthan  04/29   FSFW Grantee CHRE (450,115 in 2019 + 732,399 future)  

8. Ethan Nadelmann  04/24 

7. Darshita Gillies   04/20   FSFW Board Member    (3,397 in 2018,  50,000 in 2019)

6. Chitra Subramaniam    04/16 

5. Nilesh Jain  04/13. FSFW Grantee Clinivantage (36,000 in 2018)

4. Yuchen Xue  04/09    FSFW Employee

3. Shlomi Madar  04/07   Signal Analytics is a FSFW contractor (2,130,000 in 2019)

2. Candida Nakhumwa  04/03   FSFW Employee

1.  Riccardo Polosa  04/01   FSFW Grantee  COEHAR (8,000,000+ in 2019, 22,000,000+ to come)