Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite

Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite is a Portuguese-Canadian medical doctor trained in infectious diseases with extensive experience in global health, health systems and science-based policymaking. Before his current role as CEO of 'HealthAI - The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health' in Geneva, Ricardo served four terms as a Member of Parliament in Portugal, serving on both the health and foreign affairs committees. Ricardo is a city councilor in Sintra and previously served as Deputy Mayor of Cascais.

He is the founder and President of the 'UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health,' a network of current and former policymakers from 110 countries. With more than 15 years of academic experience, he is Chair of the Board of the Harvard-Charité Global Health Policy Lab, based in Berlin, and Chair of the Centre for Global Health at NOVA University Information Management and Data Science School in Lisbon. He completed postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard Medical School. Previously, Dr. Baptista Leite worked as a practicing physician in the Portuguese National Health Service for several years, including an internship at the World Health Organization.

More recently, he served as a medical volunteer for over a year during the COVID pa ndemic at his hometown hospital in Portugal, and as part of a humanitarian mission at the Lviv Regional Hospital in Ukraine during the first summer after the start of the war. In 2024, he was the first leader from Portugal to be selected for the Obama Foundation Leaders program. In 2025, Ricardo joined the UK’s National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare as a founding member.