Lene Overland

A global health and development executive with over 20 years of experience spanning public health and early childhood development, building health systems, leading multi-country regional portfolios, and driving policy change at national and continental scales. Served as Programme Director, Regional Director for Africa and CEO of Orbis Africa over a 12-year period, expanding the region from a single-country operation to a ten-country continental portfolio. Established scalable programme models, supported the development of national eye care plans and forged senior government partnerships as a member of Orbis’s Global Leaders Team. Subsequent roles as CEO of PSI South Africa (managing a $500M HIV prevention portfolio and a national COVID-19 vaccine alliance reaching 20M+ South Africans) and COO of Breadline Africa have broadened executive leadership across income diversification, governance, prescribed spend and cross-sector coalition building.

Distinctive strengths: Led Orbis’s Africa regional portfolio. Senior funder and partner relationship management, including PEPFAR, UKAid, Standard Chartered Bank, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and major national and international trusts and foundations. National policy influence across 6+ African governments. Nordic/Scandinavian institutional networks. Multi-sector coalition leadership at the national scale.