PEOPLE

Rolf Jeker is Chair of AO Alliance’s Board. In December 2018, he retired from the AO Foundation, where he had served as CEO and Vice-Chair of the AO Foundation Board.

He previously served as Senior Executive Vice-President of Société Générale de Surveillance. He had also been an Ambassador and Under-Secretary of the Swiss Government for Foreign Economic Relations. For a considerable time, he headed the Swiss Foreign Economic Development Assistance Program and served as an Executive Director in the African Development Bank and Alternate Governor to the Asian, Inter-American and African Development. He has successfully headed economic missions to over 90 countries, particularly in LMICs, and countries in transition.

Dr Jeker holds a PhD in economics and business management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and an honorary doctorate from the International University in Geneva (IUG).

Nikolaus Renner heads the Trauma Department at Kantonsspital Aarau in Switzerland and is the former President of the AO Foundation (2016-2018).

Cyril Muller joined the AO Alliance Board on July 1, 2021.

He spent 25 years at the World Bank, working in operations, finance, and corporate functions. He was a World Bank Vice President from November 2011 to October 2020. His last assignment was Regional Vice President for Europe and Central Asia where he led World Bank programs in more than 30 countries.

He also held positions with the Swiss federal office for foreign economic relations and SGS Société Générale de Surveillance. He has worked on economic development issues, with a focus on human development (health, education, social protection) and growth and jobs in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

He holds economics degrees from Neuchâtel University and New York University.

Dr Florian Gebhard, President of the AO since 2021, joined the AO Alliance Board of Directors in July 2023.

Urs Ruetschi, formerly the head of AO Publishing/Educational Products and former Director of the AO Education Institute, now serves as Head of Educational Special Projects at the AO. He joined the AO Alliance Board of Directors in July 2023.

Abdoulie Janneh is a former United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Based in Dakar, Senegal, he has served as Executive Director/Board Member at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation since 2012.

Abdoulie successfully completed a seven-year tenure at the helm of the UNECA, an institution with the dual role of being the regional arm of the United Nations in Africa, as well as a key Pan-African institution. During his leadership of the UNECA, Abdoulie took steps to strategically re-position the organization to better support Africa’s development agenda. He also serves on the Boards/Advisory Panels of several organizations involved in Africa’s development, including the Africa Forum of Former Heads of State and Government, and the African Governance Institute (AGI), among others. Abdoulie is the recipient of several awards and honors.

Stella Itungu is the Chief Executive Officer of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA) after joining in July 2020. She holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Finance and Investment from Coventry University and a First Class (Honours) Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration (Human Resources Management) from Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU).

Ms Itungu joined COSECSA with over 20 years of experience in Administration, Operations Management, Strategic Planning, Human Resources & Financial Management, and presents a strong background in planning, coordinating, and implementing donor-funded regional projects/programs among the multiple Member States. Previously, Ms Itungu has worked with the East African community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Uganda) under the World Bank funded Financial Sector Development and Regionalization Project, in charge of project administration and coordination. Ms Itungu has also been involved in planning, coordinating, and facilitating training under the USAID and World Bank capacity building programs.

Prior to the East African community, she undertook various managerial functions; as Director of Operations on a private public partnership (PPP) arrangement under the Global Fund (Malaria Component) pilot project in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Malaria Consortium in Uganda, and Human Resources and Administration Management with the Consulate of Finland-Uganda.

With a distinguished career, Ms Itungu has been instrumental in advancing the organization’s mission to improve surgical care across the region. Her leadership is marked by a commitment to enhancing surgical standards, promoting training and accreditation, and fostering collaboration among medical professionals globally. Under her stewardship, COSECSA has continued to play a crucial role in addressing surgical challenges and improving patient outcomes in East, Central, and Southern Africa.

Prof Shanmuganathan Rajasekaran is the chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics, Trauma & Spine Surgery at Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore, India which is currently one of the largest orthopedic specialty hospitals in South Asia.

He is President of the Asia Pacific Spine Society, the immediate Past Chair of AO Spine International, and Past President of the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology (SICOT), the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS) and Cervical Spine Research Society Asia Pacific Section (CSRS-AP). He is the Deputy Editor of The Bone & Joint Surgery Journal, USA; Journal of SPINE, USA; Global Spine Journal, USA and the Past Deputy Editor of European Spine Journal.

Prof Rajasekaran devised the Low Cost-High Quality Health Care Model that has been adopted by many across India and has benefitted thousands of disadvantaged patients in his region.

He is a strong activist for road safety and has brought important changes to Indian legislation promoting road safety. He also formed a charitable trust, UYIR (Life), to create a ‘People’s Movement for Road Safety’ in his region.

His interests also include research on outcomes of major trauma, disc degeneration and spinal infections. He was the recipient of the prestigious ISSLS Award for four years, the NASS Outstanding Paper Award for three consecutive years, the EuroSpine Open Paper Award, and the Asia-Pacific Spine society research award.

Prof Rajasekaran has 331 publications in international journals, 75 national publications, 503 international and 555 national presentations.

Linda Chokotho, MBBS, FCS(ECSA)ORTH, MPH, PhD is the first female Orthopaedic Surgeon in Malawi and a researcher. She was the founding president of the Women in Surgery Association of Malawi (WinSAM).  She is currently working at the Malawi University of Science and Technology. She previously worked with Beit Cure International Hospital and the Department of Surgery, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences in Malawi. As a researcher, she has been involved in violence and injury and musculoskeletal research since 2011. She has worked as a research consultant with the COSECSA Oxford Orthopaedic Link (COOL) project, The World Bank, the Ministry of Health in Malawi, and the AO Alliance in projects aiming at improving trauma data quality, trauma and fracture care delivery and pre-hospital trauma care. She has also collaborated with international institutions such as the Harvard Global Orthopaedics Collaborative and Institute of Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology (IGOT). She has had several successful grant applications as a co-applicant with the University of Stirling, Scotland, and a PhD research grant from Norhed project. She is a member of the Core Group for the World Health Organisation (WHO) Mentor-VIP, a global violence and injury prevention mentoring program. She has published widely in international and peer-reviewed journals, with 42 publications to date, and one book chapter publication.

Simon Matthew Graham, MBChB, MRCS, MSc (Res), FRCS (Tr&Orth), PhD is an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, and his research focuses on advancing higher standards of care in musculoskeletal trauma in low- and middle-income countries. He is also Major Trauma and Limb Reconstruction Surgeon at Liverpool University Hospital Foundation Trust. Simon has completed a PhD investigating fracture healing in HIV positive patients and he is actively involved with research across sub-Saharan Africa. He has also completed a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and published widely in the literature, presented his research internationally and leads a team developing global orthopedic research in low-income countries.