Moncef Slaoui is a Moroccan expert in immunology and vaccinology, specializing in the research and development of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. He is formerly Pharma R&D head and chairman vaccines at Glaxosmithkline.

Moncef Slaoui comes from a small city on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean called Agadir. He was born in 1959. His father worked in the irrigation business and died when Slaoui was still a young, leaving Slaoui's mother to single-handedly raise him and his four siblings. ^[24]

Slaoui went through the Moroccan public school system until he obtained a baccalaureate (high school) from Mohamed V Secondary School in Casablanca. ^[24]

He was 17 when he travelled to France to study medicine, but he missed the registration dates. So he moved to Belgium where he enrolled at the Free University of Brussels and later completed his BS and Masters degrees in biology.^[24]

In 1976-1983, Moisef graduated with Ph.D in Microbiology and Immunology from the same university. Later, he completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.

In 2017, Moncef was appointed to the Board of directors of SutroVax Company and Moderna Therapeutics.

From 2006 to 2017, Moncef was a Chairman of Global R&D and Vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline. He sat on the company's corporate Executive team and Board of directors. He also had overall responsibility for GSK's vaccines and Oncology businesses and new product launches. In his early work as a Scientist, he helped build the vaccines pipeline and played an important role in the discovery of a vaccine for childhood Malaria. As chairman of R&D, he has spearheaded a profound overhaul of GSK's pharmaceutical R&D resulting in a substantial improvement in productivity.

Moncef is also a Chairman of the board at Galvani Bioelectronics.

Prior to that, he was a Professor of Immunology at the University of Mons, Belgium and is a member of the Advisory board of the Qatar Foundation and on the board of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

In March 2020, Slaoui denied being part of a US government task force to find a vaccine for COVID-19. The doctor said he had no working arrangements with the US government in a statement to Moroccan French-language newspaper L’Economiste.^[21]

Slaoui is currently a member of the board of directors of American biotechnology company Moderna.

Slaoui explained that he is part of the company’s research and development committee.

The committee has received support from federal organizations to help fund the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. The doctor was also a member of a Moderna committee, including global experts, created to advise the institution on the vaccine’s development.^[21]

In May 2020, President Donald Trump named Slaoui to lead his administration’s all-out effort to produce and distribute a coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020. Slaoui will lead "Operation Warp Speed," Trump’s push to accelerate the vaccine development process for Coronavirus (COVID-19), according to an administration official. Slaoui is to serve in a volunteer capacity, and will be assisted by Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna, the commander of United States Army Materiel Command.^[22]

Following Slaoui’s appointment as a co-leader of the Warp Speed program, he was set to sell about 155,000 shares in Moderna, according to press reports.

They were worth an estimated $10 million, but after the stock run-up on positive early data, they were valued at about $12.4 million.

Slaoui is set to donate to cancer research the excess proceeds from the sale, or about $2.4 million, according to CNBC. Slaoui also resigned as a Moderna board member with the appointment.^[23]

Moncef and his wife, Kristen, married in 2011 in Philadelphia, PA.