Patrick Awuah is founder and President of Ashesi University, a private, nonprofit institution begun in 2002 that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education. In 2012, Ashesi was ranked as one of the top ten Most Respected Companies in Ghana, the first educational institution to win the award. Before founding Ashesi, Awuah worked as Program Manager at Microsoft where he spearheaded development of dial-up internet working technologies and became known bringing difficult projects to completion. He holds bachelor degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College; an M.B.A from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business; and honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College, Babson College, and the University of Waterloo.

Awuah has won many awards, including the MacArthur Fellowship, McNulty Prize, Membership in the Order of the Volta (one of Ghana’s highest awards), and the World Innovation Summit for Education Prize. In 2015, he was named one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune, and received the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award, given to UC Berkeley alumni with distinguished records of service to their countries. Awuah has also served on the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) of U.S. AID and is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative of the Aspen Global Leadership Network; on the Council on Foreign Relations; and a member of Tau Beta Pi honor society for excellence in engineering.