Ole F. Norheim honored by Gates Foundation

We are very proud to share that BCEPS Co-Founder Ole F. Norheim was honored as a Goalkeepers Nordic Champion at the inaugural Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Nordics Event in Stockholm yesterday, January 22, 2026.

Ole F. Norheim is now Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Ethics and Population Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, and an Affiliated Researcher at the University of Bergen.

The Gates Foundation Goalkeepers initiative is designed to inspire progress towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Goalkeepers initiative honors exceptional global leaders taking a stand on the issues they care about and innovating in their communities to advance the SDGs as “Goalkeepers Champions.” More information can be found at www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers (external link). 

The Gates Foundation states that Ole F. Norheim’s selection as one of six Goalkeepers Nordic Champions was made in recognition of his “influential contributions to advancing global health equity and leadership in shaping evidence-based approaches to priority setting in health systems” and that his work “plays a significant role in advancing equality, innovation, and sustainable development across the region.“

The Goalkeepers event in Stockholm was the first in the Nordic region, gathering leaders and changemakers under the theme “We Can’t Stop at Almost” to highlight how Nordic leadership continues to drive progress on global health and sustainable development. 

Bill Gates attended the event, alongside fellow speakers Ole Rosling (Swedish statistician and Chairman of the Gapminder Foundation) and Gunhild Stordalen (Norwegian physician and Chair of the EAT Foundation and the Stordalen Foundation). The evening was hosted by Swedish journalist and television host Jenny Strömstedt.

Ole F. Norheim gave a very memorable presentation on childhood mortality, the leading causes of death for children around the world, and how children’s lives can be saved in the future. Rather than presenting the data as graphs and figures, he shared the stage with a children’s choir, in which each child represented 1 million children, stepping backwards when Norheim spoke about children’s lives lost and stepping forward when he spoke about children’s lives saved. “Children are dying, and we know why—and we know how to stop it. We have a reason to be hopeful. If we reinvest in health and scale up key innovations in maternal, newborn, and child care, by 2045, we will have saved 13 million more children’s lives,” he concluded. 

The other five Goalkeepers Nordic Champions are Gunhild Stordalen (Norwegian physician and Chair of the EAT Foundation and the Stordalen Foundation), Jesper Theil Thomsen (Co-founder of SOUNDBOX and founder of Sagaorg; Denmark), Nagin Ravand (Danish-Afghan UEFA-licensed football coach and founder of GLOBALL), Asabea Britton (Swedish midwife & influencer), and Martin Blomberg (founder & CEO of Agteria Biotech; Sweden).

According to the Gates Foundation, the aim of the inaugural Goalkeepers event in Stockholm is to “host inspiring conversations, showcase innovative approaches and feature artist performances, reflecting the Nordic legacy of equity and collaboration that inspire solutions to global challenges.”

More information on the BCEPS webpage

The six Goalkeepers Nordic Champions were nominated and selected by the Gates Foundation’s Nordic Advisory Council, consisting of Anna Frellsen (CEO of Maternity Foundation), Tommy Ahlers (Chair of CONCITO), Sofia Lindelöw (Managing Director of Norrsken Foundation),  Carolina Klüft (Director of Generation Pep), Gustav Magnar Witzøe (Founder and chairman of W Initiative), Ingrid Lærdal (Executive chair of Laerdal Global Health), Eirik Mofoss (Co-founder of Langsikt), and Mads Krogsgaard (CEO of Novo Nordisk Foundation).