Ricardo Baptista Leite

Member of the High-Level Council

Chief Executive Officer, HealthAI – The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health, Geneva; Founder & President, UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health

Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite is a Portuguese-Canadian medical doctor, global health advocate, and policy leader at the intersection of health, technology, and governance. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of HealthAI – The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health, a Geneva-based nonprofit committed to fostering the development and adoption of responsible artificial intelligence in health. HealthAI serves as an implementing partner for the World Health Organization and other international institutions, with the purpose of creating a global regulatory network that advances responsible, equitable, and scalable AI solutions to improve the health of all citizens.

Dr. Baptista Leite trained as a physician specialising in infectious diseases and brings over 15 years of combined experience in clinical practice, academic research, and international health policy. He completed postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard Medical School, and previously worked as a practising physician in the Portuguese National Health Service. He also served as a medical volunteer during the COVID-19 pandemic and as part of a humanitarian mission at the Lviv Regional Hospital in Ukraine.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Baptista Leite served four consecutive terms as a Member of Parliament in Portugal (2011–2023), where he sat on both the health and foreign affairs committees. He also served as Deputy Mayor of Cascais and as a City Councillor in Sintra.

He is the founder and president of the UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health, a network of current and former policymakers from over 110 countries dedicated to advancing health on the global political agenda. He chairs the Global Health Policy Lab, an academic collaborative between Harvard University and Charité University based in Berlin, and the Centre for Global Health at NOVA University's Information Management and Data Science School in Lisbon.

Dr. Baptista Leite was appointed by the Obama Foundation as an Obama Leader 2024–2025, in recognition of his contributions to public service and global health leadership.