Francesco Branca is the Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety in the World Health Organization, Geneva, since February 2020.

In 2008-2020 he has been the Director of the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development. During his tenure, WHO has developed developed a WHO Nutrition strategy, established a new nutrition guideline development process and has developed a Comprehensive Implementation Plan on Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition with six global targets. He has been leading the preparation of the 2nd International Conference on Nutrition and the Secretariat of the Decade of Action on Nutrition. In 2005-2008 he has been the Regional Advsor for Nutrition at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

In 1988-2005 he has been a Scientist at the Italian Food and Nutrition Research Institute where he was leading studies on the effects of food and nutrients on human health at the different stages of the life cycle and on the impact of public health nutrition programmes. He has been President of the Federation of the European Nutrition Societies in 2003-2007.

Dr. Branca graduated in Medicine and Surgery and specialized in Diabetology and Metabolic Diseases at the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Roma and obtained a PhD in Nutrition at Aberdeen University.