Patrick G. Awuah, Jr.

Founder & President / Chief Executive Officer, Ashesi University

Entrepreneur, Educator, University Administrator

Patrick G. Awuah, Jr. is the founder and president of Ashesi University and the institution's Chief Executive Officer. He began his professional career in the technology sector and worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft, where he was involved in developing dial-up internetworking technologies before leaving the company in 1997 to pursue his vision for a new model of African higher education. Awuah holds bachelor's degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He subsequently founded Ashesi, opening the university in 2002 with 30 students and leading its development from a small institution in Accra into a multidisciplinary university with a permanent campus in Berekuso and an increasingly research-oriented academic model.