Dr. Mahmood is a medical professional with more than two decades experience managing crises in health, disasters and conflict settings. She is currently Professor and Director of the newly established Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Malaysia. She is also the Pro-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University Malaysia. She had been the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health from April 2020- September 2021. She was also a member of the Government of Malaysia’s Economic Action Council, and currently on the Malaysian Climate Action Council and Consultative Council for Foreign Policy. In 2020, she was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre.

Her previous appointments include the Under Secretary General for Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit secretariat at the United Nations, and Chief of the Humanitarian Response Branch at UNFPA. She is the founder of MERCY Malaysia, a southern based international humanitarian organisation.

Dr. Mahmood is currently on the board of the Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia, National University of Malaysia and ALAM Foundation in Malaysia and was the first independent Chair of Oxfam International until end 2021. In March 2022, she will join the board of Roche in Basel, Switzerland.

She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards for her work including the Merdeka Award, Isa Humanitarian Award, as well as the Gandhi, Ikeda, Luther King Award for her contribution to peace, community development and humanitarian work.

Dr Mahmood graduated as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) , has a Masters in Obstetrics & Gynaecology from the same university and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists United Kingdom. She also completed executive education at the International Management and Development Centre, IMD Lausanne.