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Ashesi University is led by Founder and President, Patrick G. Awuah, Jr, who serves as the Chief Executive Officer and is accountable to the Board of Directors. The University's Board of Directors are listed below.
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Yaw Asare-Aboagye (Board Chair) Open or Close
Yaw Asare-Aboagye is the Head of Global Clinical Operations at Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), based in Geneva, Switzerland. In this position, Yaw is responsible for ensuring implementation of Clinical Operations processes across all DNDi projects and regions. DNDi develops lifesaving drugs for people with neglected diseases around the world, mostly in poor countries and has Offices in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Switzerland, and USA. Yaw has over 30 years’ experience in the biotechnology industry and has worked for some of the major biotechnology companies in the US including Amgen, where he was Director for Planning and Technical services and at BioMarin, a biotechnology company specializing in rare diseases, where he was an Executive Director of Biometrics.
Yaw joined the Ashesi Foundation Board in 2001 and actively worked with Patrick and the team during the initial stages of accreditation with the University of Ghana, Legon. In 1999, Yaw moved back to Ghana from the US and later joined the University Board.
Yaw holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM) from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a Masters degree from Louisiana State University School of Public Health, new Orleans.
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Mabel Wilson Open or Close
Mabel Wilson is a seasoned business leader with a proven and dynamic career guiding sizable, cross-functional global teams in the design, implementation, and integration of high-performance risk and compliance solutions. She has deep regulatory compliance experience and is recognised for translating policy requirements into actionable business activities.
Mabel has almost three decades of payments industry expertise. She served as the Chief Compliance and Risk Officer for Blackhawk Network, Inc. for almost nine years where she established and led the company’s global compliance function, setting strategy for policy management with focus on risk/benefit justification. She was appointed to the Board of the company’s UK subsidiary. Prior to joining Blackhawk Network, Inc., Mabel spent almost twenty years at Visa Inc. where she held leadership roles in program management, systems development of back-office financial solutions, and centralised design and assessment of internal controls. At the time of leaving Visa Inc, she held a key position in Global Compliance as Vice President, North America Compliance.
After leaving Blackhawk Network Inc in November 2019, Mabel’s passion and hope for developing well-rounded young leaders in Ghana led her to pursue a professional coaching certificate that models developmental plans collaboratively with the client within the context of mutual respect, mutual trust, and freedom of self-expression.
Her background and experience uniquely position her to work with educational institutions that have a mission to educate ethical and entrepreneurial leaders, and that embrace the kind of transformational thought leadership that Africa needs.
Mabel earned her MBA from Baylor University in Texas and is a Certified Ethics and Compliance Professional (CCEP) from the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE). She is also a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). Most recently, she earned her Professional Coaching Certificate from New Ventures West in California and is a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She’s an alumnus of Achimota School and the University of Ghana, Legon. -
Sangu Delle Open or Close
Dr. Sangu Delle is an Entrepreneur, Investor and Author. Sangu is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of CarePoint, a tech forward healthcare network serving over 1 million patients across 65+ facilities in Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, with a vision to "build Africa's healthcare future." He is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of Golden Palm Investments Corporation, whose portolio companies, including Andela, Fluterwave and mPharma, have raised over $1.5 billion in venture financing. Sangu co-founded CleanAcwa, a water and sanitation non-profit that has worked in 160 communities in Ghana impacting over 200,000 people.
Sangu serves on several boards of directors and advisory boards including Harvard University's Board of Overseers, the Peddie School, Ashesi University, Ghana International School, Harvard University's Center for African Studies, Harvard Medical School, and Oxford University.
Sangu graduated with highest honors in African Studies and Economics from Harvard College, a Doctor of Law from Harvard Law School, an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master’s in International Human Rights Law from Oxford University and a PhD in Economic Anthropology and African Studies from the University of Birmingham (U.K.). He is the author of "Making Futures: Young Entrepreneurs in a Dynamic Africa." He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a TED Fellow, a Tutu Fellow, a Soros Fellow and an Eisenhower Fellow. -
Patrick Awuah Open or Close
Patrick Awuah is the Founder and President of Ashesi University. He has received global recognition for his work at Ashesi, including being named among the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine and receiving a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015. He has also received the Qatar Foundation’s WISE Prize for Education and is a Member of the Order of the Volta, one of Ghana's highest awards for individuals who have provided outstanding service to the country.
Before founding Ashesi University, Patrick worked as a Program Manager for Microsoft, where, among other things, he spearheaded the development of dial-up internet working technologies and gained a reputation for bringing complex projects to completion. He holds bachelor's degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College, an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and honourary doctorates from Swarthmore College, Babson College, University of Waterloo, and Connecticut College. -
Abdul-Latif Issahaku '05 Open or Close
Abdul-Latif Issahaku is an experienced and dedicated Strategy, Operations, and Business Development leader with 15+ years of delivering results and increasing levels of responsibility in emerging markets.
Abdul-Latif completed Ashesi in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science following which he earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Nyenrode Business University, the Netherlands. He has completed two Executive Education programs in Marketing from Kellog School of Management and ‘Doing Business in India’ from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore- India.
He started off his career with Huawei Technologies as a Product Manager where he actively led negotiations and contract discussions while working with cross functional teams to promote Huawei’s Value Added Services(VAS) products. He moved on to MTN in 2009 as a Messaging Engineer rising through the ranks of Roaming Systems and Data Network Manager, Head of Innovations and New Products, and currently working as Head of Mobile Broadband. He has launched over 50 products including 4G and M-KOPA which has a goal of selling 1 million smartphones in 12 months.
While at MTN, he has delivered incremental revenue on mobile broadband consistently with a portfolio of products in excess of USD 200 million from 2017 to date. He launched Ghana’s first mobile apps competition (MTN Apps Challenge) for local application developers with over 100 developers participating.
Abdul-Latif is passionate about charity work and is the Founding Curator for World Economic Forum, Global Shapers Community in Tamale which is a city-based hub that undertakes projects to uplift the livelihood of persons in Tamale. -
Victoria Bright Open or Close
Victoria is a dual qualified lawyer in Ghana and England and Wales, a strategic business consultant and a philanthropist. She has over 30 years of combined international, senior management, executive and board level experience in both the private and public sector. She is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Addison Bright Sloane, a leading corporate law firm in Ghana. Her clients include SMEs, multinationals and governments. Victoria is also a Senior Advisor at the premier Washington D.C. headquartered global commercial diplomacy and advisory firm, Albright Stonebridge Group.
Victoria is a scholar at Balliol College, Oxford University (UK) and holds an Executive MBA degree from Oxford University’s Said Business school. She also holds a BA (double hons) degree in Law and French from the University of Sussex (UK) ; a High Diploma in French Law from the University of Strasbourg (France); an LLM from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium); a Post-Call Law Certificate from the Ghana School of Law; and is a Member of The Law Society of England and Wales and The Ghana Bar Association. She is widely published in the legal world and has won a number of awards, including a recognition by Global Legal Awards as a sole expert in project and infrastructure law in Ghana. She was the first Black female partner at DLA Piper’s London office and one of the very first in an international law firm in the UK. Victoria was Legal Advisor to former President John Kufuor of Ghana. She is also the first Ghanaian recipient of Oxford University’s 30% Club’s scholarship for women.
Over the span of her career Victoria has led large scale projects in various parts of the world including Africa, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, the Caribbean, United States and Asia. She has a track record of problem-solving and successfully leading teams on complex high value transactions involving a multiplicity of issues and parties. Victoria founded the Bright Minds Foundation, a non-profit which protects the social, economic and psychological well-being of underprivileged children. Additionally, she supports various charities in Ghana and the United Kingdom. -
Harriette Amissah-Arthur Open or Close
Ing. Harriette Amissah-Arthur is a pragmatic Energy Consultant and astute troubleshooter who transforms challenges into bankable opportunities. She is the Executive Partner and Co-founder of Arthur Energy Advisors (AEA), with over 30 years of energy sector experience in public, private and development sectors. Her expertise include; project conceptualisation and development, technical and organisational troubleshooting and redress, energy enterprise and rural energy development, and power system operations.
For nearly 20 years, Harriette worked in various strategic and senior positions within the generation, transmission, and design functions of the Volta River Authority (VRA). She served as the systems maintenance engineer for both generation and transmission departments for several years. Harriette joined the Kumasi Institute of Technology, Energy and Environment (KITE) in 2001 as the Senior Projects Manager in charge of the United Nations funded African Renewable Energy Enterprise Development (AREED) program. Under her leadership, 14 energy businesses were successfully established. As the Director of KITE from 2004 – 2009, she partnered with a number of national and international organizations to design, fundraise and implement projects in Ghana and the ECOWAS Sub-region including Ghana’s first energy for poverty reduction action plan, complete with 8 fully prepared project documents. She also led Ghana’s team in the preparation of West Africa’s first white paper on energy access.
In 2009, Harriette was appointed Executive Partner of AEA and has since led various teams to work on a number of major projects for both private and public sector clients notable amongst them are Cenpower’s 351MW Kpone Thermal Power Plant (Ghana’s first project-financed Independent Power Producer (IPP)) as well as the conceptualization, development and implementation of the US$350 million Exim Bank funded rural electrification project which provided electricity to over 2000 communities in Ghana.
Harriette Amissah-Arthur holds a BSc (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Ghana, Legon and has been serving on the Ashesi board since 2014 -
Pearl Esua-Mensah Open or Close
Mrs. Pearl Esua-Mensah is an experienced world-class business leader with a demonstrated history of working experience in the financial services Industry. Prior to being appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Deposit Protection Corporation (GDPC), she was Founder and Managing Consultant of Feniks Ltd (a business consulting firm). She was the Group Chief Executive Officer of Media General Ltd, a group of media organisations in Ghana and prior to that served as the Deputy Managing Director of the erstwhile UT Bank Ghana. Other appointments include Group Financial Accountant for Parity Group PLC and Group Reporting Accountant for Kantar Group both in the United Kingdom.
She is a member of the Ashesi University's Board of Directors, having served on the Board since 2013 and headed the Board's Finance Committee till she became its chairperson in 2017 to 2022. Mrs. Esua-Mensah has over 20 years’ global experience in a number of sectors including Banking and Finance, IT and Media. She has experience in mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, total business reorganisations, strategy development and implementation, project management and development of operational systems.
Mrs. Esua-Mensah holds a BSc in Business Administration from the University of Ghana, Legon and an MBA from the Manchester Business School. She is also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). -
Mona Boyd Open or Close
Mona Boyd is an experienced CEO with a demonstrated history of working in the hospitality industry. After moving to Ghana in 1993, Mona started an independent car rental company (now Avis rent a car) where she is presently the Managing Director and after a year of its establishment, based on the demands for tourism by clients, started the travel company Landtours Ghana Limited where she is the CEO. Landtours is currently run in West Africa with a goal to provide tours and travel services across the African continent. Mona is also the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for Avis Fleet Services.
Mona was appointed to the Board of Directors for the W.E.B. Du Bois Center in 2017. The center is a memorial place, research facility and tourism attraction which opened to the public in 1985. She has been serving on the Ashesi Board since 2018.
Mona holds a Bachelor’s degree in Art, Criticism and Conservation from Boston University, and is skilled in budgeting, business and event planning, and travel logistics.