João Breda is a Visiting Associate Professor at NOVA NSPH, specialising in Health Promotion. He is currently the Head of the new WHO Athens Quality of Care Office and Special Adviser to the WHO Regional Director for the establishment of Subregional Offices. Prior to relocating to Greece, he held senior leadership roles at WHO for seven years in Copenhagen (Denmark) and four years in Moscow (Russian Federation).
Until 2021, he led the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Office), an integral part of the WHO Regional Office for Europe. For eleven years, he served as Programme Manager for Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, where he was responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of the European Food and Nutrition Action Plan 2015–2020 and the Physical Activity Strategy for the WHO European Region 2016–2025.
In 2018, he was awarded the Gold Medal for outstanding services to health by the Portuguese Ministry of Health. He has also received more than 20 scientific and academic awards and honours, notably an Honorary Professorship from the Kazakhstan Medical Academy (2018), the Gerlev Award (Denmark, 2016), and gold medals for his work on obesity, particularly childhood obesity, by the Polish Institute of Mother and Child (2021) and the Portuguese Order of Nutritionists (2021).
Before joining WHO, João Breda served for over a decade as Portugal’s national focal point for WHO/Europe in the areas of alcohol, nutrition and physical activity, as well as for the EU High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical Activity and the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. He was the first coordinator of the national platform to combat obesity under the Portuguese Ministry of Health.
He holds a PhD in Food Consumption and Nutritional Sciences from the University of Porto, an Master’s in Business Administration from EU Business School in Barcelona, a Master’s in Public Health, and a degree in Nutritional Sciences.
