But he and his successor, John Reed, seemed content with 1% or 2% market share in many countries, achieved by focusing mostly on the wealthy elite.
Beyond high marks for drinking water, sanitation and nourishment, which many countries achieved, Iceland and Sweden had some of the lowest levels of air pollution, infant mortality and rates of tuberculosis prevalence.
"We have very little representing the huge changes sweeping the continent in the 1960s when so many countries achieved independence.
Despite pessimistic predictions that levels of adherence to anti-retroviral therapy (ART) by HIV-infected Africans would be low, this has not been the case, with HIV positive people in many African countries achieving higher levels of treatment adherence than in North America.
And lost with it, any possible vision of reform, or recognition of the proven benefits in so many other countries achieved through the regulated legalization of recreational drugs.
On the one hand, many countries were achieving rapid poverty reduction, and globally extreme poverty was declining to below the one billion mark.
"The significant progress outlined in this report in scaling up access to treatment is a positive step forward for many countries in achieving their ambitious goals of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support," said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
In Turkey, where levels of childhood mortality and morbidity remain above those in many of its neighbouring countries, achieving higher vaccination coverage remains an unmet goal.
There are many examples of low income countries achieving strong returns from budgets that concentrate on human development.
But many countries have achieved similar life expectancy with a mere fraction of this income.
