TB alliance appoints Marshall Burke as the organization's Head of External Affairs

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), a not-for-profit product development partnership accelerating the discovery and development of new drugs to fight tuberculosis (TB), today announced the appointment of Marshall Burke, Ph.D. as the organization's Head of External Affairs.

Dr. Burke will be responsible for the TB Alliance’s resource mobilization efforts and charged with increasing and diversifying the TB Alliance’s sources of funding. Additionally, Marshall will oversee the TB Alliance’s Advocacy and Policy Department, including its community engagement efforts.

Marshall Burke was most recently Senior Vice President of Resource Development for CARE International, one of the world’s leading organizations in the fight against global poverty, and was responsible for doubling its yearly income in a five-year period to more than $125M annually. He brings to the TB Alliance senior leadership, comprehensive experience in leveraging institutional, governmental, and other sources of funding, and substantial expertise in building global partnerships, advocating for policy and financial support, and implementing community outreach. Marshall honed his skills throughout his 25 year-plus career in the non-profit sector.

“As the TB Alliance advances its mission by progressing more projects into all stages of clinical phases of development, these efforts become more expensive, and the need to strengthen and expand our donor base becomes more critical,” said Mel Spigelman, President and CEO, TB Alliance. “Marshall Burke will play a pivotal role in increasing, diversifying, and sustaining our organization’s revenue stream and resources. This will be a formidable challenge given the global economic landscape, but we are confident that Marshall will successfully lead these efforts.”

After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1988, Marshall Burke spent 20 years at CARE in a number of positions of increasing responsibility in the United States, Latin America, and Africa. While working in Latin America and Africa, he was responsible for introducing CARE’s HIV and Women’s Health Program. Marshall’s knowledge of working both with the donor community and with programs in the developing world will be extremely valuable to the Alliance.

“Having witnessed, first-hand, how tuberculosis ravages communities, I’m eager to get involved in the fight against this disease and the poverty it causes and perpetuates,” said Marshall Burke. “I’m looking forward to devoting my capabilities to help increase the awareness and mobilize the resources that are urgently needed to develop new and faster-acting TB treatments, which will help save millions of lives.”

Every year, 1.8 million people worldwide die from TB. It is estimated that the bacillus that causes TB infects one-third of the world's population and the threat of drug-resistance is growing at an alarming rate. New, faster-acting, simpler drug regimens are critical to defeating this ancient disease.