Former Directors
Andrea Ammon, 2017-2024
Dr Andrea Ammon, MD, MPH, was appointed as Director of ECDC on 16 June 2017. In 2022, her mandate was extended until 15 June 2024. From May 2015 to June 2017, she was ECDC’s Acting Director.
Dr Ammon joined the newly established ECDC already in May 2005, as one of its first employees and Head of the Surveillance Unit. While still setting up the unit, she was instrumental in drafting and implementing a long-term surveillance strategy for the European Union (EU).
Before joining ECDC, Dr Ammon served in several roles at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, before serving as Head of Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology. In this capacity, she maintained and further developed the German national surveillance system; coordinated the national outbreak response team for current and emerging infections; coordinated emergency planning for influenza; directed the national Field Epidemiology Training Programme; coordinated epidemiological research programmes in infectious diseases and provided scientific advice for government Ministries, Members of Parliament, and the public.
Marc Sprenger, 2010 - 2015
Marc Sprenger was appointed as Director of ECDC in April 2010, taking up the five-year post on 1 May 2010. Prior to coming to ECDC, Dr Sprenger was Director-General of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, the Netherlands (2003-2010). Before that, he worked as Director of Health at the Netherlands' Healthcare Insurance Board (CVZ) (1999-2003), and Head of the Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology at RIVM (1993-1999).
Key international posts held by Dr Sprenger include being the ECDC Management Board’s founding Chairman (2004 – 2008), and being a member of the Executive Board of the International Association of Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) (2008-2010).
Dr Sprenger is a medical microbiologist with a degree in medicine from the University of Maastricht (1988) and a PhD from Erasmus University, Rotterdam (1990). The subject of his PhD was the epidemiology of influenza.
Zsuzsanna Jakab, 2005 - 2010
Zsuzsanna Jakab was appointed Director of ECDC in March 2005. Before joining the EU, Dr Jakab was Secretary of State in Hungary's Ministry of Health. As the most senior civil servant at the ministry, she had been responsible for overseeing Hungary's implementation of EU policies and laws in her area, administering the spending of EU financial assistance, and managing Hungary's national public health programme.
Before joining the Hungarian government, Dr Jakab worked at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Denmark for 11 years.
Born in 1951 in Hungary, Dr Jakab holds a Master’s Degree from Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Budapest, a Postgraduate university degree from the University of Political Sciences, Budapest, a diploma of the two foundation courses in public health at the Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden and a postgraduate diploma from the National Institute of Public Administration and Management.