HCI Management Team

The day-to-day management and overall operations of Health Connections International (HCI) are overseen by the Management Team, which consists of a small yet dedicated and highly experienced group of individuals:

• Murdo Bijl, Director
• Jorien de Kort, Controller
• Vanessa Fuller, Head of Research & Development
• Benjamin Young, Head of Medical Affairs

Murdo Bijl (Director), born 5 April 1962 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, holds an advanced degree in Community Health, is a certified socio-therapist, and received higher vocational training in psychiatry from Noordwijk and in general nursing from Leiden in the Netherlands. As Programme Developer for Médecins Sans Frontières–Holland (1996–2001), he developed and implemented a wide range of HIV programmes in the Russian Federation (RF), Ukraine and Mongolia, and also co-ordinated health-related MSF projects in Bangladesh and Cambodia. Mr Bijl is also a founding member of AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW), which was specifically designed to help reduce the impact of the HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. At AFEW, Mr Bijl was responsible for the development and co-ordination of complex programmes on HIV prevention, care and support, health promotion and drug demand reduction in the RF, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, until leaving the organisation in January 2004. In addition, he was an MSF representative at the June 2001 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS and a founding member of the UNAIDS Task Force on HIV prevention among injecting drug users in Central & Eastern Europe. He is also is on the editorial board of the International Journal on Prison Health. [Return to top]

Jorien de Kort (Controller), born 30 September 1969 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business Studies. From 1993 until 1998, she worked in the HRM Department of Médecins Sans Frontières–Holland in Amsterdam, being responsible for human accounting, and completed assignments for the International MSF Office in Brussels and the Recruitment & Fundraising Office in Sydney, Australia. From 1998 until 2001, she lived in Barcelona, Spain, and worked as a consultant for various organisations in both Spain and the Netherlands. Ms de Kort was involved in setting up HR guidelines and a personnel information system for AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) in 2000–2001 and continued her involvement with AFEW for an additional two years as Secretary of the Board. After returning to the Netherlands in 2001, she worked as Financial Controller for the Training Department of the Amsterdam Police. Between 2006 until March 2009, she worked as Financial Controller for the Faculty of Advanced Police Studies & Police Leadership of the National Police Academy in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. She joined Health Connections International in November 2008. [Return to top]

Vanessa L Fuller (Head of Research & Development), born 21 May 1970 in Brenham, Texas, USA, is an applied medical anthropologist, with nearly 15 years’ experience in international public health settings and multi-disciplinary research teams. She holds degrees from Georgia State University (BA, 1993), The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (MA, 1997), and consulted on state, regional and municipal reproductive health–related projects with the University of Connecticut (1997–2005). Ms Fuller has worked in clinical settings on issues related to migrant health in the Southeastern US, doctor–patient communication in prenatal settings in the Southeast, and on improving maternal and child heath for the State of Connecticut. For 8 years, she worked and lived in Moscow, Russian Federation, where she worked with AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW), as well as other organisations. Her research and work experience in Moscow has focused on family planning and contraception amongst contemporary Russians in urban and rural settings, and more recently on issues related to HIV in the former Soviet Union. She also has extensive experience on managing website content and teams of language experts. She currently lives in Helsinki, Finland. [Return to top]

Benjamin Young (Head of Medical Affairs), born 1 April 1961 and raised in New York and San Diego, USA, attended the University of California at San Diego (BA, 1983), and completed his medical education at the University of Colorado at Boulder (MD, 1992); he also holds a PhD (1990) in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder having worked in the laboratory of Prof Thomas Cech (Nobel Laureate, 1989). Dr Young completed post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Colorado, and is in private practice at Rose Medical Centre in Denver. As an active and dedicated educator on HIV-related topics, he has lectured to medical and community groups around the world and serves as director of HIV Primary Care training at the University of Colorado and co-director of the HIV Career Development Workshop series for young physicians in the Russian Federation. Dr Young also has an interest in primary research; he is a principal investigator for the HIV Outpatient Study (HOPS)--Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, has penned 27 peer-reviewed research publications, and has presented at many international meetings, including the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City and the International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a member of the International AIDS Society, HIV Medicine Association, the American Academy of HIV Medicine (AAHIVM), and is Co-Chief Editor of AAHIVM Fundamentals of HIV Medicine and a contributing author and medical reviewer for TheBody.com. Dr Young joined HCI in May 2009 as Head of Medical Affairs, and divides his time between Colorado and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. [Return to top]