in 1997, chitra subramaniam was invited by dr. gro harlem brundtland, the former prime minister of norway to be part of her campaign team for the post of director general of the world health organization (who). dr. brundtland was elected as head of the who and she announced that global tobacco control was one of her priorities setting up a special project called which oversaw multilateral negotiations between 198 countries to conclude the framework convention on tobacco control (fctc), the world's first treaty entirely devoted to public health. chitra subramaniam led the work initially on media and later in policy analysis and communications. "she reframed the debate on tobacco away from being one focused on individual frailties to one that needed to address tobacco corporate abuses and in so doing built a reinvigorated tobacco control movement. many of her approaches used in tobacco control continue to be adapted to address other threats to health," said dr. derek yacht, senior vice-president pepsi (health), usa, who worked with subramaniam at the who.