Jeff Jacobs has two decades of experience in the areas of regional leadership, marketing, health policy and corporate responsibility, with a keen interest in expanding access to quality treatment. As the Director of Product Innovation and Market Access, he is responsible for the end-to-end management and market introduction of products and technologies that seek to reduce maternal mortality in partnership with public and private partners. This work includes the coordination of internal and external stakeholders across work streams that include product development, supply chain, affordability, market shaping and market introduction.

Prior to Merck for Mothers, Jeff held regional responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean for virology (HIV and Hepatitis) at Merck. Earlier in his career, he managed the Company's longest running corporate responsibility project, the Mectizan Donation Program focused on river blindness (onchocerciasis), and held positions based in Latin America and Central Asia/Caucuses, as well as other roles in Asia and Africa. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Jeff worked for World Learning, a non-profit supporting nascent, local organizations in the former Soviet Union and for CARE International, where he managed humanitarian assistance programs in the same region. He initially joined CARE in Togo, West Africa, supporting the implementation of various development projects, with a primary focus on micro-enterprise. Jeff’s initial entry into the development field was in Côte d‘Ivoire, working on micro-enterprise development.

Jeff earned a master’s in International Management from Arizona State University Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelors in International Studies from the School for International Training (World Learning).