Action Against Hunger Canada’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Onome Ako as Chief Executive Officer effective August 23, 2021.

In addition to providing leadership and direction, her mandate is to develop a new five-year strategy to accelerate and diversify Action Against Hunger Canada’s revenue streams and continue to build a strong team to support the organization’s work fighting hunger and malnutrition around the world.

“We conducted a robust search for our new leader, led by our Search Committee, which considered many exceptional leaders both inside and outside the Humanitarian sector. Onome’s passion for nutrition and gender issues, depth of experience, and demonstrated strategic leadership made her the perfect choice as Action Against Hunger Canada’s new leader,” said Victoria Davies, Board Chair.

Onome Ako will be joining Action Against Hunger Canada from Amref Health Africa in Canada, where she is currently Executive Director. In this role, she set the organization’s strategic direction, successfully growing revenue, strengthening operations and innovating programming in areas including maternal newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition. With over 15 years of experience in international development, Ako has led initiatives in more than 15 countries with organizations including World Vision Canada, AfricaRecruit – a program of the Commonwealth and UNESCO – Regional Bureau for Education in Africa. She holds a B.A in English from the Obafemi Awolowo University Nigeria, an M.A in International Affairs and Diplomacy from Ahmadu Bello University Nigeria and an M.Sc. in Management of NGOs and Social Policy from the London School of Economics. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) and member of the advisory committee for the Centennial College International Development program. She was named to the 2020 Canadian Women in Global Health list.

“I am extremely excited and humbled to be taking on this role at a globally recognized and respected organization that is focused on one of the most fundamental and basic human rights – the right to food – through fighting hunger and malnutrition globally, especially at a time such as now, when global hunger is on the rise. As I embark on this new journey, I am looking forward to working closely with the Board of Directors, colleagues and other stakeholders in forming a new strategy that will guide the important work of fighting hunger and its root causes,” said Ako.

Please join the Board of Directors in welcoming Onome Ako to Action Against Hunger Canada.