Harm Reduction International is governed by a Board of Directors, elected for three-year terms of office.
At our Annual General Meeting in 2015, the membership approved a change in HRI's governance from an Association model to a Foundation model.
Board of Directors
Olga Belyaeva
Olga Belyaeva is a drug policy reform activist from Ukraine, based in Lithuania. She has pioneered in organizing a community volunteers based needle exchange center in Dnepropetrovsk in 2001. She… Read more
Alison Crocket (UK)
Alison is a civil servant and diplomat. She worked for eight years in Vienna at the UK mission to UNODC from 2003 - 2011, after which she was a senior policy adviser to UNAIDS in Geneva, responsible… Read more
Patricia Haddad (Lebanon)- Treasurer
Patricia Haddad is Programs Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA) Read more
Susie McLean (UK) - Vice Chair
Susie McLean is an international HIV prevention and harm reduction specialist, with 30 years of experience in the community based response to HIV as a programmer, researcher and policy specialist in… Read more
Pat O'Hare (UK)
Professor Pat O'Hare was the Executive Director of Harm Reduction International from its founding in 1996 until he stepped down in 2004. Read more
John Ryan (Australia) - Chair
John Ryan is CEO of Penington Institute, an organisation that connects substance use research to practical action including by facilitating International Overdose Awareness Day - a campaign to… Read more
Ivan Varentsov (Russia) - Secretary
Ivan Varentsov is Information and Advocacy Coordinator at Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice Read more