Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu leads the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence. In this role, he brings together a global collaboration of partners from multiple sectors that supports countries and stakeholders to address future pandemic and epidemic risks with better access to data, better analytical capacities, and better tools and insights for decision-making.

Prior to this, Dr Ihekweazu was the first Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and led the agency between 2016 and 2021. Prior to that, in 2017, he served as Interim Director of the West Africa Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control. He has also held positions in the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases, the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute.

Dr Ihekweazu trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist and is a graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria. He has a Master of Public Health from theHeinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany. In 2003, he was awarded a Fellowship for the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training and subsequently completed his public health specialization at the United Kingdom's Faculty for Public Health.