Patrick Awuah Jr. | |
---|---|
Born | 1965 |
Nationality | Ghanaian |
Citizenship | Ghana |
Alma mater |
Achimota School UC Berkeley, Swarthmore College |
Known for | Ashesi University |
Spouse | Rebecca Awuah |
Awards | MacArthur fellowship |
Patrick Awuah Jr. (born 1965) is a Ghanaian engineer, educator, and entrepreneur. Awuah established Ashesi University in 2002. [1] Awuah has won many awards as an individual and as the founder of Ashesi University. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Awuah grew up in Accra, Ghana. He attended the Achimota School [7] [8] where he was a house prefect.[ citation needed] He moved to the U.S. in 1985 to attend Swarthmore College with a full scholarship. He earned bachelor's degrees in Engineering and Economics, graduating in 1989. Following graduation, Awuah worked as a software engineer and program manager for Microsoft from 1989 to 1997. At Microsoft, he met his future wife, software testing engineer Rebecca Awuah. [9]
In 1997, Awuah left Microsoft with the goal of returning to Ghana to educate the next generation of African leaders. [10] [11] He enrolled at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, focusing his work on preparing a business plan for Ashesi. Awuah, Nina Marini, and other graduate students from Berkeley went to Ghana to do a feasibility study for opening a private university there. Awuah graduated with his MBA in 1999. That same year, he moved back to Ghana with his family to found Ashesi University. [1] [12] [13] [14] Awuah continues to serve as the president of Ashesi University. [15]
John Kufuor presented Awuah the Order of the Volta Award to recognise his contribution to tertiary education in Ghana in 2007. [2] In 2009, Awuah won the John P. McNulty Prize. [16] In 2010, Awuah was awarded 87th most creative business person by Fast Company. [17] In 2014, he received The Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award, which honours UC Berkeley alumni with distinguished records of service to their native country. [18] In the same year he was named best social entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. [19] In 2015, Awuah was listed by Fortune as number 40 in world's 50 greatest leaders [4] and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. [5] In 2017, Awuah was awarded the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) prize, a major global education award. [6]
External videos | |
---|---|
Education Entrepreneur Patrick Awuah, 2015 MacArthur Fellow, 3:35, MacArthur Foundation [20] | |
Patrick Awuah: How to educate leaders? Liberal arts, 17:26, TED Talks [14] |