William Bradford Herbert

Brad Herbert, a global leader in the field of public health and education, passed away from cancer peacefully at his home on the water on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on November 1, 2025. A visionary strategic thinker with a brilliant mind and a loving heart, Brad dedicated his life’s work to ensuring organizations around the world achieved their greatest impact in delivering results to people in need. Cherished by family, friends, and colleagues who looked to Brad for his wisdom, kindness, and ability to see the best in everyone, Brad leaves us with a legacy of how to lead a beautiful life.

William Bradford Herbert was born in Newport News, Virginia on February 26, 1948 to Lauranne and John Herbert. As a child, Brad grew up traveling the country with his treasured siblings, Ann, John, and Pat, making memories from Alaska to Alabama. During the Cold War, Brad’s family moved to Germany. It was there, while attending high school in Munich, that Brad met his beloved soulmate, Mo, whom he knew immediately was the person for him and whom he loved every day of his life. Brad and Mo were married in Arlington, Virginia and together returned to Europe, where they matriculated from the University of Maryland in Heidelberg, Germany.

After receiving an MBA in finance and international business at George Washington University, Brad joined the World Bank and began his career in international development. Over the next thirty years, while living in Bangladesh, Turkey, Hungary, and Sri Lanka, Brad worked extensively with local stakeholders to streamline the Bank’s operations to improve access to healthcare and education. Among his many contributions, in 1998, Brad led the Bank’s work on launching the first sector wide approach to health care in Bangladesh, where he later oversaw the Bank’s first HIV prevention project. Brad also managed the Bank’s Female Secondary School Stipend program, the success of which prompted the Bank to select Brad in early 2002 to lead the Bank’s first mission to Afghanistan to launch a new education project.

As a testament to Brad’s remarkable ability to build consensus and make change happen, when members of the global community set out to create a new institution in 2004 that could tackle the growing crisis of infectious diseases, they looked to Brad for leadership. As the Chief of Operations of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria with the level of Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Brad was responsible for launching a $4.5 billion global grant program to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in 127 countries. Under Brad’s leadership, the concept of performance-based funding became a reality, a concept estimated by one colleague to have helped save over 70 million lives. As one colleague recalled, “Guided by [Brad’s] vision, the Global Fund found its solid and successful place in the world of development.”

Following his retirement from the Global Fund, Brad continued to play a pivotal role in international development. As the managing director of Brad Herbert Associates, for example, Brad provided strategic advice to organizations including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the Gates Foundation, as well as government health ministries in Africa and South Asia. In 2008, Brad was selected to serve as the lead advisor in establishing the Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria. During this time, Brad also served as the Chair of the Board of Mothers2Mothers, an organization based in South Africa aimed at reducing HIV transmission. In 2017, the United Nations Deputy Secretary selected Brad to serve as the Board Co-Chair of the Water and Sanitation Collaborative Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Most recently, Brad was appointed as the interim CEO of the Healthy Brains Global Initiative.

Throughout his travels, Brad’s greatest joy came from the time he spent with his family, exploring the world and its wonders with Mo at the helm and his two daughters, Hadley and Maeve. A self-taught sailor and an avid hiker who could be found reading about the history of celestial navigation, readying his walking sticks, or setting up his tent in the backyard, Brad relished the peace that came from being in nature—from listening for the first bird song at dawn to cozying up under a sleeping bag with the night skies above. Brad loved sharing his passions with and learning from his four grandchildren, William, Nolan, Henry, and Elise—whether it be setting out for a boat ride, skiing down the slopes, building a wooden pirate ship, or giggling over a bedtime book. On any given evening, when all the guests had left, Brad and Mo could still be found sixty years after their first date gazing at one another across the dinner table, laughing, trading stories, and dreaming up their next adventure. As Brad once wrote to Mo, “All of our achievements, our quality of life, and our family are the result of you.”

A celebration of Brad’s life will be held on the weekend of June 6, 2026. In lieu of flowers, donations to Mothers2Mothers are welcome. In addition to Mo, Hadley, and Maeve, Brad is survived by his sons-in-law, Russell Wesson and Noah Glass, as well as his grandchildren, William, Nolan, Henry, and Elise. Brad is also survived by his siblings, Ann Morris, John Herbert, and Patricia Kuecker, and his cousins, David Wilson and Nicki Wilson.