Sylviane Ratte is the Director of Vital Strategies Paris-based Europe office working on strategic partnerships and fundraising, and the Director of Vital Strategies Global Road Safety Program, where she works with Vital Strategies staff, consultants, partners and cities to implement proven, comprehensive policies to reduce deaths and injuries on the roads of low- and middle-income countries.
Ratte has 25 years of international public health experience in noncommunicable diseases, with particular expertise in tobacco control. From 1996 to 2007, she managed prevention and tobacco control programs at the Health Education Authority in London, the National Public Health Institute in Finland, the French Cancer League and the French National Cancer Institute (INCa). Her achievements include extensive contributions both inside and outside of government to the development and implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in France. Her leadership at INCa contributed to a significant increase in tobacco taxes and the adoption and implementation of comprehensive smoke-free regulations in France. From 2008 to 2017, Ratte consulted for various organizations, including The Union and Bloomberg Philanthropies, on tobacco control programs in Indonesia, Turkey, Africa and Poland. She also consulted with IDRC as an external evaluator of NCD program, with WHO on a taxation manual, with Bath University on taxation and lobbying, and others. In 2012, she received a WHO European office World No Tobacco Day award and was described as a “leading advocate of some of the greatest improvements in tobacco-control legislation and policy over the last 15 years.” Ratte also co-founded the Smoke-Free Partnership in Europe. She joined Vital Strategies in 2015 to lead our city-focused road safety program as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety.
Ratte holds a joint M.A. (Hons) in Politics and Modern History from the University of Edinburgh.