APCOM Board Members

Zhen is from mainland China and is currently based in Beijing where he has been actively involved as a volunteer in the HIV/AIDS response since 1996. This has included volunteering with the Beijing Gay Hotline since 1998, as a co founder and board member of the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute and also as Coordinator of the CIDA Civil Society Program in China since 2002. During this time, Zhen has worked to establish and maintain close links with many of the MSM NGO’s in Mainland China. 

Zhen Li was graduated from the University of International Business and Economy (UIBE) in China and has been working for Chinese government for more than 8 years before his involvement in HIV/AIDS career.

Masao is from Japan and has been involved with social services and human rights based programs for the gay and lesbian community for the past 16 years. This has involved a keen interest in program development particularly around outreach and the elimination of stigma and discrimination in Japanese society. Masao was one of the founders of the AIDS NGO network in Japan for the Kobe ICAAP.

Masao is currently the chief of Public Relations at the Japanese Foundation for AIDS Prevention (JFAP) and a core member of the AP-Rainbow network.
 

Manvendra is a gay activist from the Indian state of Gujarat. He is a qualified yoga teacher and has conducted many yoga and self development workshops for MSM, Transgender and HIV positive people, in addition to conducting HIV/AIDS awareness lectures and workshops for various institutions. Manvendra is the Chairperson and Founder of Lakshya Trust, the first community based organisation in the State of Gujarat working on HIV/AIDS prevention amongst MSM and transgender populations.

In recognition of this work, in 2006 he was awarded the UNAIDS Civil Societies Award for outstanding contributions to HIV/AIDS prevention. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of SHAN (Sexual Health Action Network), a network of NGOs working on HIV/AIDS issues in the state of Gujarat.

Joey is from Tonga and has a range of experience, involving the running of her own business, as a professional hairstylist and caring for her 5 children.  She has been an active promoter for HIV & AIDS awareness in Tonga and the South Pacific for over 20 years, where as a transsexual (leiti) Joey has witnessed first hand the harassment and discrimination suffered by many leiti’s in the region.

Given the culture of the pacific which is open to humour, song and dance, Joey founded the Miss Air New Zealand Galaxy Queen Pageant in order to raise awareness and visibility and to support the leiti community. Joey is also currently the Executive Director of the Tonga Leiti’s Association (TLA).

Sunil is from Nepal and has been working with MSM and sexual minorities on HIV/AIDS prevention, human rights and social justice issues since 2001. This has often involved working under the threat of arrest and imprisonment. He has worked for HIV affected communities with many international organisations, including the Global Fund, UNAIDS, World Health Organisation (WHO), Human Rights watch and Amnesty International.

Sunil is also the founder and president of the Blue Diamond society (BDS), which has been the recipient of The Utopia Award in 2005 and the Felippa De Souza Award in 2007. In 2008, Sunil was elected to the Nepali parliament, making him one of only a few openly gay members of any national parliament in the Asia and Pacific region.

Dédé is from Indonesia and has been actively involved in the pro democracy movement and the HIV response for over 20 years. He founded Indonesia’s first MSM organization, Lambda Indonesia and is also the co-founder and a member of the board of trustees of the GAY NUSANTARA Foundation. The organization works for the sexual health of gay men, transgender, and male sex workers and now also on sexuality, sexual health and well-being more generally.

Dédé received the Felipa de Souza Award from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in 1998, and the Utopia Award for Pioneering Gay Work in Asia in 2001.

Lenny is from Jakarta in Indonesia with a background in tourism and hotel management and experience in many hospitality establishments. She has been working in the community sector for over a decade after witnessing first hand the many challenges faced by the transgender (Waria) community. With a particular interest on HIV prevention, care, and support Lenny started working as a field coordinator for LSM IAKMI. She has been involved with various aspects of HIV service delivery, programming, and the administration of HIV organisations.

Lenny is currently program manager for Yayasan Srikandi Sejati which works primarily with Warias on HIV service delivery.

Hua is a researcher and transgender activist from Thailand who is currently working on a research project coordinating with the Center for Health Policy Studies at Mahidol University. The focus is on the sexual health and human rights of Thai male to female transgender, in order to advocate to both government and NGO’s for improved interventions. She also is the recipient of a research grant from the Southeast Asian Consortium on Gender, Sexuality and Health to support further research in this area.

Hua has also worked with Sisters, a transgender project of Population Services International (PSI) Thailand, in the role of transgender program supervisor. Sisters is the first ever transgender-specific program in Thailand focused on building knowledge, understanding and awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention.

Andrew is from Malaysia and has over 15 years experience in the advertising industry. Since 2002, Andrew has been active in the field of HIV/AIDS when he became a member and volunteer of the Kuala Lumpur AIDS Support Services Society (KLASS), a grassroots CBO in Malaysia. Andrew continued his involvement to become Honorary Secretary and Vice President of KLASS with a keen interest in advocacy for and greater involvement of people living with HIV (PLHIV).

Andrew is currently an Executive Committee Member of the Malaysian AIDS Council with his focus on establishing support groups for PLHIV and scaling up services to marginalised communities. Andrew is also currently involved in providing counselling, hospital and home visits to PLHIV, sexual health education for school and university students and is a member of the APN+ MSM Working Group.

Paul is from The Netherlands and has a background in international development. Working in this arena has shown him the dramatic and devastating impact of HIV and AIDS in many countries and especially on vulnerable populations like MSM and TG. As a volunteer he worked with groups of gay men and other MSM in The Netherlands and Sri Lanka.

He joined Hivos, the Humanist Institute for Co-operation with Developing Countries, in 2007. In Hivos, he is the programme officer for LGBT Rights and MSM-HIV. He is based in the Hivos head office in The Hague, The Netherlands, where he works on sharpening the policies and strategic thinking about MSM and HIV interventions of Hivos and helping to broaden the LGBT Rights programme. At Hivos, Paul’s work includes developing capacity building initiatives, organising conferences, setting up linking opportunities and workshops, as well as increasing donor interest, coordination and funding for both LGBT Rights as well as MSM and HIV work.

Clif is from the United States and has a background in law which has influenced his approach to the issues of HIV, health and development and also his interest in the human rights of sexual minorities.

Clif has worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) since 1997; and since 2005 has been the USAID's HIV Team Leader for the Asia-Pacific Region and is based in Bangkok, Thailand.  In his current role he helps guide efforts in strategic thinking and priority setting, the development of new models for service delivery, and advocacy and coordination with other HIV donors and stakeholders.

He is also a lead for USAID globally for HIV prevention of male-to-male sexual transmission, and serves on the U.S. government's Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator's technical working group for most-at-risk populations.

Edmund is from the United States with a background in International Policy and modern Chinese history. He is based in China and has previously worked for China’s National Center for STD/AIDS Control and Prevention (NCAIDS). Edmund later established and managed the China HIV/AIDS Information Network (CHAIN) an NGO specialising in AIDS information management.

Edmund is currently serving as the HIV/AIDS Programme Specialist at UNDP in Beijing, China and supports the UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Center Colombo HIV/AIDS Team. He is responsible for developing and managing a multi sector HIV and AIDS programme in line with UNDP’s global mandate. Edmund leads the UN Technical Working Group on MSM and HIV/AIDS which aims to increase participation of MSM civil society organizations in national policy development; programme design, implementation and evaluation; and substantive involvement in regional initiatives.

Geoff is from Australia and was a nurse prior to establishing an AIDS NGO in Australia in 1988. Prior to joining the United Nations in 1991, Geoff worked for the Queensland AIDS Council and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations.

Geoff has worked in the AIDS programs of the United Nations for more than 17 years, starting with the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS prior to joining UNAIDS in January 1996. He has worked for the UN in five different countries including the Philippines, Cambodia, Switzerland (Geneva HQ), USA (New York, UN HQ) and Thailand. He is currently serving as a Programme Advisor in the Regional Support Team (RST) for Asia and the Pacific based in Bangkok, Thailand. He is responsible for management and UN coordination and is the designated MSM focal point in the RST.

Jan is from the Netherlands but has lived in Cambodia, Thailand and East Timor for a total of 15 years. He has worked on issues related to MSM and HIV/AIDS in the Mekong Region since 1994. Jan has a background in social science and public health. He is particularly interested in the relationship between public health (the 'medical') and society / cultures (the 'social'). He is intersted in facilitating the development of jointly agreed quality standards for MSM and HIV interventions.  He was the initial author of the MSM Peer Outreach Reference Manual which has been adapted and translated into 8 languages, and is widely used by peer workers supported by different organizations.

Jan is currently the regional advisor for HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region for UNESCO, the moderator of the MSM-Asia Newsgroup and a member of the Technical Advisory Board of the Purple Sky Network.

Shiv is from India and is founder and Chief Executive of Naz Foundation International, a technical support and advocacy agency working with MSM groups, networks and organisations in South Asia and elsewhere. NFI assists organisations in providing their own HIV prevention, care and support services through the provision of training, capacity building, and technical assistance, along with national and international advocacy on increasing investment and scaling up coverage of HIV services for MSM. NFI has assisted in the development of over 90 MSM community-based HIV interventions in the region.

In June 2005, Shiv was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his long standing work with marginalised communities in South Asia.

Paul is from the United States where he was involved for over 14 years in community and HIV activism in San Francisco. This involved serving on the Boards of the AIDS Emergency Fund, Deaf Communities Together and the Rainbow Deaf Society, in addition to helping to establish, and host, the long-running live-broadcast SF Cable TV program, "AIDS Update". Paul was also previously the Executive Director of the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center/Tenderloin Health and AIDS Benefits Counselors/Positive Resource Center.

Paul has been working in Bangkok as a HIV Program Consultant since 2001 and began his involvement with the local community by joining the Board of Bangkok Pride shortly afterwards. Paul was actively involved in the Risks and Responsibilities International Consultation (Delhi 2006), and in the coordination of the US government partners-led initiatives to develop strategies and coordination of scale-up of HIV interventions for MSM and PLHIV in the Greater Mekong Sub-region of Southeast Asia.

Roy is originally from India and has worked in international news for 12 years at Cable News Network (CNN), helping launch and produce much of the network's Asia-Pacific programming and serving as its first-ever Director of Integration (multimedia convergence).

Roy has also worked at the World Health Organization (WHO) in China, as Communications and Advocacy Officer and Spokesman, supporting WHO's efforts to strengthen public health in China and working with counterparts within the Chinese Government, UN agencies, NGOs, the media and other partners. 
 
Roy is currently the Director of Communications at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) in Canada.  In this role, he oversees BCCDC's range of communications and advocacy programs, including those in the area of HIV/STI prevention, communicable disease, emergency and pandemic preparedness and environmental health. He also currently sits on the boards of AIDS Care China and AIDS Vancouver, and is a Steering Committee member of the International Rectal Microbicides Advocates (IRMA).