Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, the Recipient of ASEAN Prize 2019, is an ardent humanitarian leader. She is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologists and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists United Kingdom. She was well known as the driving wheel behind the establishment of MERCY Malaysia, a humanitarian organisation that works for providing humanitarian based assistance within and beyond the region. Her longstanding contribution in nurturing humanitarian assistance and helping the affected population as well as marginalised community is widely recognised.

In March 2020, Dr. Jemilah Mahmood was appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health. Formerly, she served as Under Secretary General for Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 2016. Before joining IFRC board, Dr. Jemilah Mahmood was the Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit Secretariat at the United Nations in New York.

In the region, Dr. Jemilah was instrumental to the establishment of a coordinated approach to humanitarian assistance in ASEAN. She is a co-founder of the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN) and has contributed to the formation of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response Partnership Group, an initiative to strategise effective partnerships between governments and civil societies on disaster management and emergency responses.

Throughout her extensive journey in the humanitarian field, Dr. Jemilah also held several appointments, including Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Humanitarian Futures Programme at Kings College in London, and Senior Fellow at Khazanah Nasional Berhad in Malaysia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Khazanah Research and Investment Strategy Division. In 2006, she was also appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the Advisory Group of the Central Emergency Response Fund.

Dr. Jemilah Mahmood is the recipient of numerous national and international awards following her commendable contribution to civil society and the community in needs.