The Forum of Young Global Leaders, an affiliate of the World Economic Forum, named Saïd Business School alumnus Ernest Darkoh a “Young Global Leader 2006”. Established in 2004, the Forum of Young Global Leaders is a community of the world’s most extraordinary young leaders who are ready to dedicate a part of their time and energy to jointly work toward a better future. 

Darkoh was born in the United States to Ghanian parents, and his family moved to East Africa when he was a child. Life there was often a challenge. Crime was rife, poverty endemic, and health care was unreliable. When he was 19, one of Darkoh’s friends died at a local hospital; doctors had refused to treat him because they thought he might have AIDS.

Darkoh returned to the US to study, initially majoring in chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He followed this with a medical degree and masters in public health from Harvard. Still feeling that he lacked the training to put into action what he had learned, he completed his education with an MBA at Oxford.

After his MBA, Darkoh went to work in McKinsey’s New York office. In 2001, the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships hired McKinsey to work on the strategy for Africa’s first major public distribution of antiretroviral AIDS drugs. Working on this project, Darkoh says, changed his life completely. He found his calling, and a way to put to use all his diverse knowledge and training.

ACHAP– a partnership between the Merck and Gates Foundations and the Government of Botswana - then hired Darkoh to implement the team’s plan, and within three years, a third of the country’s HIV-positive people were receiving treatment. In 2005, Darkoh handed over the reins of the program to a local counterpart. Since then, the programme has continued to thrive and is currently treating 60,000 people, representing more than half of all the treatment eligible people in the country.

Darkoh has gone on to form his own company, BroadReach Healthcare, which is identifying better ways to deliver healthcare to vulnerable populations and to develop the infrastructure, capacity, and supporting systems needed to allow for the rapid implementation of healthcare interventions. He has consulted as far away as China, but is currently focusing on increasing the access of antiretroviral medications in Ethiopia, the Caribbean and South Africa, which currently has the highest number of HIV-positive citizens in the world.