Delese Mimi Darko


Delese Mimi Darko is a Ghanaian pharmacist. In 2017, she became the first woman to be appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority by Nana Akuffo-Addo.

Education

In 1991, Darko graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where she was trained as a pharmacist. She later obtained a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Northampton.

Career

Darko joined the Food and Drugs Board in the early 1990s. The organisation was subsequently renamed the Food and Drugs Authority, and Darko has served there in various capacities. She has worked in every department of the institution, starting from the laboratory. She also helped in the setting up of two technical advisory committees to assist the Board in their work. She was the designer of the current logo of the FDA. Darko was the lead for a collaboration between the FDA and the UK-MHRA in the area of medicine safety, which is now multi-divisional at the FDA with anti-counterfeiting as one of the key areas of support. Prior to her appointment as the Chief Executive Officer, she was the head of Safety, Monitoring and Clinical Trial Division.
In 2020, under Darko's leadership, the FDA was recognised as a World Health Organisation Level Three listed institution.

Committees and advisory roles

Some of the international and local advisory committees she serves on include, the CIOMS Vaccine Safety Working Group, the African Regulators’ Network, and the Technical Coordinating Committee of the African Vaccines Regulatory Forum of which she is the current chairperson.

Awards

In 2018 she was nominated for the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force award on the Prevention and Control of Non communicable Diseases Awards.
In 2019, she was awarded the GliTZ Africa award for Ghana Women of the Year Honours for excellence in health. She was also given a special recognition award at the 13th Gong-gong Awards.