John Lichten joined the China Medical Board in November 2014. John provides advice to the President on financial and management issues for CMB’s global program operations, including field office location, structure, and integration with the overall CMB organization. He has also serves as Assistant Treasurer, and liaison to the Investment and Audit Committees of the Board.

Before joining China Medical Board, John filled senior roles at the Harvard School of Public Health where he was CFO and Dean for Administration and Finance for more than twenty years.  He was then appointed as Co-Principal Investigator of the Harvard PEPFAR Program, a $350 million U.S. government funded effort to rapidly scale-up and operate HIV/AIDS treatment programs in Nigeria, Botswana, and Tanzania. Prior to his almost 30 years at Harvard, John was the Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Adult Mental Health Services in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was responsible for developing treatment policies, the operation of services state-wide, monitoring—data collection/evaluation—and quality control, and negotiating and managing an annual appropriation of more than $250 million.

John grew up in Texas, leaving there to earn an undergraduate degree in Economics at Oberlin College. He then earned a master’s degree at Boston College Graduate School of Social Work with a concentration in Human Services Administration.