Board of Directors



AfIHQSA is supported by a competent board made up of three Executive Members and 3 non-executive members. These are:

Dr. Gilbert Benjamin Buckle: Gilbert is the Executive Director of AfIHQSA. He is a Public Health Physician and Consultant in Health Systems Strengthening. He has over 22 years of experience in the health sector (in both the public and private sectors). He is an accomplished and resourceful executive, with experience in designing healthcare programs and leading healthcare systems and organisations to enhance performance and quality care outcomes. He has been successful in identifying and solving complex health related concerns of communities and health systems throughout the county. Aside his profession in the Medical field, in pursuit of his fundamental passion for unearthing and developing the potential of people and organizations to make them better, Gilbert is a certified executive coach with the International Coach Federation as well as an Organizational Development Certified Consultant. Gilbert serves as lead in Leadership & Health Systems Strengthening.

Elom Hillary Otchi: Elom is the Technical Director of AfIHQSA. He is a Fellow and an Expert of the International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and a Certified Health Surveyor (CHS). He also has Masters degrees in Public Health and Organizational Development from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, and the University of Cape Coast respectively. He also has a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from GIMPA and a Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology from the University of Ghana. He has worked extensively across all the levels of care in the health sector of Ghana and currently leads the Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Program of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. He is currently in the final year of his PhD program at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana. Elom serves as lead in Quality & Patient Safety.

Annabel Akorfa Anku: Annabel is the Director-Management and Administrative of AfIHQSA. She is a Human Resource Expert and a Corporate strategist. She enjoys a successful career in corporate Ghana and seeks to bring this expertise to bear in supporting AfIHQSA lead the transformation of the healthcare quality and space. She has her Executive MBA from the University of Ghana Business School.

Jacqui Stewart: Jacqui is the Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA). COHSASA is the only internationally accredited quality improvement and accreditation body for healthcare facilities in Africa accrediting more than 600 facilities throughout the continent over the past 22 years. Jacqui has worked in the public and private health care sectors in South Africa and England. Having qualified as a registered nurse in Cape Town she went on to specialise in Cardio-Thoracic nursing in England. She ran the Transplant Unit at Harefield Hospital for five years. From there she moved into a variety of managerial roles in the National Health Service at district and regional level, including quality improvement, planning and organisational development. She was the Director of Career Development and Succession Planning at the NHS Modernisation Agency, Leadership Centre. Jacqui returned to South Africa in 2005 to join COHSASA as Chief Operations Manager. She was appointed CEO in April 2016. She has just completed a Masters in Professional Studies (Health) with Middlesex University, London. Her passions are healthcare quality and leadership. Jacqui plays lead in the area of accreditation.

Pakwo Shum: Pakwo is an entrepreneur behind the start-up and development of more than half a dozen companies, bringing each to commercial success since 1988. In 2006, he founded Aviation Alliance which represents Delta Air Lines as a General Sales Agent in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Pakwo also founded Shum & Co, a company that promotes the start-up of small and medium scale businesses, which launched Ghana's first ondemand dry-cleaning company, Laundry Chief in 2015. His diverse business background includes mineral exploration, oil trading, cocoa export, real estate, and retail operations.

Noble Kumawu: Noble is a Psychologist with a post-graduate specialization as an Organization Development [OD] Consultant. He divides his time between Africa and Europe, undertaking relevant Facilitation, Organizational Development (OD) & Management Development Consultancy, Training and Research assignments or strengthening the capacity of local consultants to do so. The latter of Noble’s OD career trajectory has culminated into the establishment of the only institutionalised accredited organisation development consultancy skills training institution in the West-African sub-region, called the Organisation Development (OD) Institute (www.ODInstitute.edu.gh) which he heads as the President.