Chiesi USA Makes Changes to its Organizational Leadership

Dr. Paolo Chiesi, Vice President of the Chiesi Group and President of the Foundation since its inception, is succeeded by Maria Paola Chiesi, former Coordinator of the Foundation since 2010.

FREMONT, CA: Chiesi USA (key-ay-zee), the U.S. subsidiary of Chiesi Farmaceutici, an international research-focused Healthcare Group (Chiesi Group), announced the appointment of Maria Paola Chiesi as the President of the Chiesi Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 as an expression of the corporate social engagement of the Chiesi Group.

The foundation’s major goal is to improve access to newborn and respiratory quality treatment in countries with low to medium levels of resources through research and international cooperation projects in the field of global health. Dr. Paolo Chiesi, Vice President of the Chiesi Group and President of the Foundation since its inception, is succeeded by Maria Paola Chiesi, former Coordinator of the Foundation since 2010.

“I would like to thank the Chiesi Foundation Board of Directors for this appointment, which I am proud to accept with humility and gratitude, and which I will hold with the same dedication that has characterized the work of Dr. Paolo Chiesi over the past few years. I care very much about the foundation, its commitment beyond company boundaries,” said Maria Paola Chiesi, Shared Value & Sustainability Head of the Chiesi Group and elected President of the Chiesi Foundation. I immediately believed in the value of strategic philanthropy, combining economic resources and know-how to have a wider social impact and an active role in helping to solve the complexities that characterize our society. 

With this in mind, I traveled in 2010 to Burkina Faso, in sub-Saharan Africa, to visit the neonatal clinic of the San Camillo Hospital in Ouagadougou. From that visit, and from a deeper reflection on the inequalities of access to quality care, the NEST (Neonatal Essential Survival Technologies) project came about.”

The Chiesi Foundation works in the field of international health cooperation by sharing scientific information and resources and funding programs that promote the right to health of the world’s poorest people, focusing on newborn and respiratory health. Projects incorporate the NEST (Neonatal Essential Survival Technology) model, which seeks to reduce neonatal mortality rates by advancing the quality of care in those areas where access to quality care is not yet assured, and the GASP project (Global Access to Spirometry Project), which focuses on the advancement of specific clinical skills for the determination and management of chronic respiratory diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) through the application of spirometry.

Massimo Salvadori, who joined the Chiesi Foundation as Coordinator in February, supports Maria Paola Chiesi in creating and expanding collaborations with key stakeholders (local partners, NGOs, government agencies, and scientific organizations) and project management. Massimo began his professional career in international collaboration with Médecins du Monde (MdM), where he worked in Sierra Leone, Algeria, Mali, and Senegal on global health programs. He most recently worked as the Area Programme Manager for Western Africa at COOPI - International Cooperation.