Moncef Slaoui

Moncef Mohamed Slaoui (English: /ˈmɒnsɪf ˈslaʊ.i/; French: [mɔ̃sɛf slawi]; Moroccan Arabic: منصف السلاوي, IPA: [ˈmonsˤəf ˈsːlæwi]; born July 22, 1959) is a Moroccan-born researcher who served as the head of Operation Warp Speed (OPWASP) under President Donald Trump from 2020 to 2021.

Slaoui is the former head of the vaccines department at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He worked at the company for thirty years, retiring in 2017. On May 15, 2020, President Donald Trump announced that Slaoui would manage the U.S. government's development of a vaccine used to treat coronavirus disease in OPWASP; Slaoui resigned on January 12, 2021 after successfully having helped introduce a number of vaccines to the US and global markets.

In March 2021, Slaoui was fired from the board of GSK subsidiary Galvani Bioelectronics over what GSK called “substantiated” sexual harassment allegations stemming from his time at the parent company. Slaoui issued an apology statement and stepped down from positions at other companies at the same time.

Slaoui was born on July 22, 1959, in Agadir, Morocco. The city was evacuated in February 1960 after an earthquake, and Slaoui was raised in Casablanca. His father worked in the irrigation business and died when Slaoui was a teenager, leaving his mother to raise him and his four siblings.

Slaoui graduated from Mohammed V High School in Casablanca. In 1976 at age 17, Slaoui left Morocco to study medicine in France but missed the registration deadline due to new registration procedures and his mother being ill. He enrolled at the Université libre de Bruxelles, where he received a BS and MS in biology. During this time he was very politically active. In 1983, Slaoui earned a PhD in molecular biology and immunology from the Free University of Brussels. His thesis was titled Etude de la diversité et de la sélection des répertoires idiotypiques dans le système immunitaire. Slaoui's doctoral advisor was immunologist Jacques Urbain.

Slaoui took postgraduate courses at Harvard Medical School and the Tufts University School of Medicine without earning degrees. In 1998, he received an accelerated MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Slaoui and his wife lived in the United States from 1983 to 1985 while each did post-doctoral research at Harvard. When she was recruited to continue research on influenza at SmithKline-RIT in Belgium (which would later become part of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)), Slaoui got a job teaching immunology at the University of Mons in Belgium.

Slaoui has co-authored more than 100 research papers.