Africa: CDC Official to Head CCA’s HIV/AIDS Initiative Team

11 December 2003
Corporate Council on Africa (Washington, DC)
press release

Washington, DC — The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) announced this week the hiring of Victor Barnes as Director of CCA’s HIV/AIDS Initiative programs. CCA recently received an $875,000 grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to strengthen U.S. corporate involvement in the battle against HIV/AIDS in Africa. Through the grant’s funds, CCA will work with corporations, helping them to institutionalize the most effective HIV/AIDS business plans and policies.

Mr. Barnes has a long career in HIV/AIDS and related healthcare issues. Since 1997, he has worked for The National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, a part of the Center for Disease Control, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was named the Deputy Director of The Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention in 1999. This year Barnes became the Associate Director for External Relations in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. Among his responsibilities has been the leadership of the Business Responds to AIDS Partnership, a public-private partnership initiated in 1992 to engage the U.S. private sector in HIV/AIDS prevention in the U.S. and abroad.

Mr. Barnes began his federal government experience at the Department of State in Washington, D.C. as a development officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). After twelve years, serving primarily in sub-Saharan Africa as a human resource officer, Mr. Barnes joined the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at USAID. He began his HIV/AIDS prevention work overseeing the USAID HIV prevention program, which provided funding and technical assistance to 35 countries to develop and implement HIV prevention programs. He remained with that program for seven years, eventually becoming the Acting Chief of the Division.

CCA President Stephen Hayes expressed his enthusiasm about Mr. Barnes as an addition to the CCA team, "Victor was hired after a long and competitive search. His selection gives us qualified senior leadership and experience that will make a difference for the corporate sector as it begins to focus on how best to develop trade and investment in Africa while fighting this disease."

Mr. Barnes holds degrees in African area studies and French language and literature and a PhD in International development education. He speaks both French and Swahili.

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