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INAUGURAL CLASS

Executive Director, Mohinani Group

Ashok Mohinani
Managing Director, PHI Century Ltd. Founder, Legacy Girls College

Essie Anno Sackey
Chairman, The Roman Ridge School

Frank Adu
Urban Infrastructure Planner

Frank Tackie

Executive Director, Mohinani Group

Ashok Mohinani

The Mohinani Group (Ghana) is a third-generation family business with over 50 years of experience in multi-sector operations in various industries across the African continent. The company started with the manufacturing of packaging as its core business, before expanding into trade and distribution in chemicals, polymers and consumer durables and more recently into restaurants & hospitality.

Ashok was born in Accra and had his primary education at the Ghana International School
before proceeding to the United Kingdom for his secondary and tertiary education at St. Lawrence College and later at London school of Accountancy. He holds a qualification of ACCA Accountancy.

Upon his return to Ghana, Ashok took up key roles in the manufacturing sector of the business,
from 1984 to 1987 after which he became the Deputy Managing Director of the Group. In 1991 he moved to Nigeria as Managing Director of Somotex Nigeria.
As current Executive Director and Country Head for the Group in Ghana, he has led the
expansion of the Group’s manufacturing and trading operations in the country which include
Poly Products, Poly Sacks, Poly Tanks, Poly Kraft, Somotex Ghana Ltd, Electromart, Masco Foods Ltd. (KFC), Arabella Estates Ltd and Somoco Ghana Ltd.

Previously, he served as the president and committee member of the Indian Association of
Ghana. He also served as Vice Chairman of the Business Council for Africa.

Ashok’s other activities outside his work are as follows:
Serves as a Non-Executive Board Member of Stanbic Bank, Ghana. Founder and member of Ghana Chapter of Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO), Member of the Board of Trustees of Postgraduate Endowment Fund of the College of Health Sciences, Regional Adviser to Acumen Fund and A member of the Economic Advisor Committee of AGI (Association of Ghana Industries). Honorary Consul of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay to Ghana

AWARDS
2015- Industrialist of the Year
Ashok is married with three children and enjoys tennis, his beloved Liverpool FC, travelling and
Philanthropy.

 

 

 

Managing Director, PHI Century Ltd. Founder, Legacy Girls College

Essie Anno Sackey

Essie is the Managing Director of PHI Century Ltd, a joint venture between PHI Aviation. and Century Aviation Company Ltd to provide helicopter support services to the Oil and Gas as well as Mining industry in West Africa. She is a Director and shareholder in Century Aviation. As well as managing PHI Century, she also manages RS Travel & Logistics set up in 2009. Essie is proud to be a co-founder of Legacy Girls College, the first private girls senior secondary boarding school in Ghana. The school opened its doors to the first girls in September 2015 and currently has over 400 students.

Essie formerly worked as Managing Director of Ghana Airports Company from 2007 to 2009. Before then, she worked with British Airways as a Sales Specialist, rose to become Sales and Distribution Manager, and was the first Ghanaian to be appointed as Country Manager; a position she held until 2007.

She obtained a BA in Economics and Statistics from the University of Ghana and an MBA from the Graduate School of Management, Brigham Young University, Utah, USA.

Leadership Venture
ISSUE AREA: Education
LOCATION: Accra, Ghana
STATUS: Active

 

Chairman, The Roman Ridge School

Frank Adu

Mr. Frank Adu Jnr. is the Chairman of The Roman Ridge School. 

He is a retired banker having worked in the Banking sector for 30 years. He served as the Managing Director of CAL Bank Limited for 20 years, and also serves on many boards including the Foundation for Orthopaedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS), Quality Insurance Company Limited, Legacy Bond Limited, the University of Ghana Enterprises Limited (UGEL), and the GAB Health Insurance Company Limited. He recently retired from the Board of Metropolitan Life Company Limited and is a Trustee of the Achimota Golf Club.

He has also served on several other Boards and was the first Chairman of the National Health Insurance Council, a past Chairman of the Ghana Stock Exchange and a member of Ghana’s First Bond Committee and the Advisory Committees which set up the EDIF Fund and GET Fund. 

He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Geography and an MBA in Finance. In 2013, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the University of Ghana for his contribution to tertiary education. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and also an alumni of the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme, SAID Business School, Oxford. 

In 2018, the Africa Leadership Magazine named him the Africa Banker of the year. He has been recognized by the Ghana CEO Summit and inducted into its Hall of Fame (2018). In 2021, the Ghana Institute of Architects conferred on him an Honorary Membership of the Institute in recognition of his selfless contribution and support to the field of Architecture in Ghana.

Mr. Adu is also an entrepreneur and an avid sportsman who has distinguished himself in all sporting activity including cricket, polo and golf. He previously captained the Achimota Golf Club and the Accra Polo Club. 

He plays a major role in youth development in Ghana.

Urban Infrastructure Planner

Frank Tackie

Frank Tackie (FGIP) is an Urban Infrastructure Planner with 35 years of experience in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. He holds MPhil Housing from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. He is currently President of the Ghana Institute of Planners.

 

Ashok Ramchand Mohinani
Essie Anno Sackey
FRANK ADU
Frank Tackie
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice

Gloria Akuffo
Director, The PURE Company

John Addaquay
Principal Promoter & CEO, Insurance Solutions Limited (ISL)

Josephine Amoah
CEO, Enterprise Group Limited

Keli Gadzekpo

Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice

Gloria Akuffo

Madam Akuffo qualified as lawyer from the Ghana School of Law and was enrolled in 1982 as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ghana.

Miss Akuffo, started her legal practice at Ameyi Chambers in 1984 and worked there until she was appointed as Deputy Attorney-General and Deputy Minister for Justice from 2001 to 2005. She later served as Deputy Minister, Greater Accra Region from 2005 to 2006 and subsequently became the first Minister of Aviation from 2006 to 2008.

She became an Assistant National Secretary of the Ghana Bar Association and was a member of the Ghana Bar Association Law Reform Committee and Legal Committee from 1991 to 2001.

She served as the Chairperson of the Ministry of Justice HIV/AIDS Committee from 2001 to 2005. At the Ministry of Aviation, she served as the Chairperson of the HIV/AIDS Committee from 2006 to 2008. She was a member of the Divestiture Implementation Committee, Ghana Police Council and Ghana Airways Co. Ltd between 2001 and 2005.

She was also the Chairperson of the Greater Accra National Health Insurance Support Committee from 2005 to 2006.
She was a member of the Board of Directors of Enterprise Life Assurance Company Ltd. She was a member at the Ghana Arbitration Centre as well as an Arbitrator at the Ghana Labor Commission.

In 2001, she joined a firm of lawyers and continued with private practice at Blay & Associates where she worked until her appointment as Attorney General and Minister of Justice in January 2017. She is a member of the Ghana Bar Association and also a Notary Public.

Location: Accra GHANA
Area of Interest:
Status: Not Active

Director, The PURE Company

John Addaquay

John Addaquay is director of The PURE Company in Accra. Currently, the PURE Company is all set to produce natural plant products for export, especially Shea butter. Between 1993 and 2002, John worked as an export development consultant and a director of international business for TechnoServe.

John has a BA in economics and business management from Eckerd College, Florida, and post-graduate certificates in project management from the Economic Development Institute, Washington, DC and Bradford University, UK.

He has established an award program for needy pupils in a primary and junior secondary school in Kumasi. The scheme is now being developed into an NGO to cover the rural area of the Ashanti Region.

He is a founding member of the Ghana Jazz Society. An avid musician, John plays the blues guitar and jazz piano.

Location: Accra GHANA
Interest Area – Education
Status: – Not active

 

Principal Promoter & CEO, Insurance Solutions Limited (ISL)

Josephine Amoah

Ms. Josephine Amoah is a Chartered Insurer. She is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK), and holds a BSc. Degree in Administration from the University of Ghana, Legon. She is a Fellow of the Ghana Insurance Institute. She has over 38 years experience in Insurance Practice and Supervision.

She was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the Regional Coordinator for Sub-Saharan African Insurance Supervisors. She has worked as Chief Executive Officer first with Vanguard Assurance Co. Ltd and later with National Insurance Commission.

Location: Accra GHANA
Area of Interest:
Status: Not Active

CEO, Enterprise Group Limited

Keli Gadzekpo

Enterprise group Ltd. is the largest privately owned Insurance company in Ghana. He is also the Chairman of the Databank Foundation, which is the corporate social responsibility arm of Databank Financial Services. Keli serves as a member of the Index Advisory Council of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, an African good governance initiative. He is on the boards of Home Finance Company of The Gambia and the Nature Conservation Research Center, which develops rural ecotourism and community protected areas.

Keli previously worked at KPMG Peat Marwick in Washington, DC, and at Steuart Petroleum. He is married to Faake and they have two children, Mawuena and Mifatu.

Gloria AkuffO
John Addaquay
Josephine Amoah
Keli Gadzekpo
Broadcaster & Strategic Communication Specialist

Kwaku Sakyi-Addo
Founder & CEO, Multimedia Group

Kwasi Twum
Founder & President, Ashesi University College, Ghana

Patrick G. Awuah Jr.
Deputy Managing Director, Joissam Ghana Ltd. & Joissam Construction Ltd.

Samuel Appenteng

Broadcaster & Strategic Communication Specialist

Kwaku Sakyi-Addo

Kwaku Sakyi-Addo is an award-winning broadcaster, strategic communication specialist and telecommunications policy advocate. With top-of-the shelf skills honed over 30 years in blue-chip local and international media covering print, wire service, radio & television, his communications pedigree is unquestionably world class.

He is currently non-executive board chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA) and Partner at Activate Africa, a newly-established strategic communication company based in Accra.

He is also Executive Producer and Presenter of The Lounge, a unique talk programme broadcast from a live bar on radio and TV. Sakyi-Addo was the founding CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications from 2011 until April 2017.

Prior to that, Sakyi-Addo was General Manager (Communications) of Aqua Vitens Rand, a Dutch-South African company awarded a management contract for the state-owned Ghana Water Company from 2007 until 2011. The Government of Ghana awarded him the Order of the Volta, one of the country’s highest honours in 2007. He was twice Journalist of the Year (1986 & 1996).

Sakyi-Addo was a correspondent for the BBC for from 1994 – 2007, and alongside for Reuters, the world’s largest wire service from 1998-2007. He also hosted The Front Page, a must-listen weekly current affairs talk programme on Joy FM for 16 years (1995-2011), and was presenter and Executive Producer of ‘Kwaku One-on-One’, a personality interview show on television for nearly 10 years until 2010.

He had previously been editor-in-chief of the Ghanaian Chronicle (1993-94). Sakyi-Addo began his media career as a reporter at Ghana News Agency in 1984 through 1993. He won best news agency reporter the year after he was hired, and Journalist of the Year the following year.

Sakyi-Addo is a Chevening Scholar, Fellow of the Aspen Institute Global Leadership Network, and of the prestigious Salzburg Seminar in Austria. He’s also a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and of the Institute of Public Relations (Ghana), and a member of the Ghana Journalists’ Association.

Sakyi-Addo holds an Executive Masters of Governance and Leadership from GIMPA, Graduate Diploma in Communications from the University of Ghana, and Advanced Diplomas in Communications from the International Institute for Journalism in Berlin, University of Wales in Cardiff, and another in American Studies from Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota.

He is chair of the board of Money Market Fund of InvestCorps, and the Advisory Council of the International Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Ghana.

He also serves on the Advisory Council of Project Management Institute (PMI) Ghana, and the boards of Databank Foundation, Ghana Cleft Foundation and Georgette Barnes Ltd., a geological supplies company.

Founder & CEO, Multimedia Group

Kwasi Twum

Kwasi is the visionary, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Multimedia. He was previously the Executive Chairman of Ridgecrest Services Limited. Kwasi an Executive Council Member of the Ghana Employers’ Association, and immediate past President of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters’ Association (GIBA). He is also a member of the Board of the SOS Children’s Villages, Ghana.

In 2010, he was honored by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for his contribution to the growth of the media. Kwasi has been voted by Price Waterhouse Coopers’ as one of the top 10 CEO’s in Ghana consistently since 2008 and in 2012 recognized as the Sixth Most Respected CEO in the country. Kwasi holds a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Ghana and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.

Founder & President, Ashesi University College, Ghana

Patrick G. Awuah Jr.

Patrick Awuah is the founder and president of Ashesi University, a private, not-for-profit institution that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education in Ghana.

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 difficult projects to completion.

He holds bachelor degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College, and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. In 2004, Swarthmore awarded Patrick an honorary doctorate in recognition of his leadership in African higher education. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Laws awarded by Babson College.

Patrick was nominated as a Global Leader 2007 by the World Economic Forum; and in recognition of his service to Ghana, was awarded Membership of the Order of the Volta by His Excellency, President J.A. Kufuor in July 2007.

Awards:
2009 – Microsoft Alumni Foundation “Integral Fellow” award, John P. McNulty Prize, AGLN
2010 – 8th Ghana’s Most Respected CEO voted out the top ten in Ghana
2010 – Millenium Excellence Award for Educational Development
2012 – 4th most Respected CEO in Ghana.

Patrick is a member of the United States Council on Foreign Relations, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the United States Tau Beta Pi honor society for excellence in engineering.
ISSUE AREA: Education
LOCATION: Accra
STATUS: Active

Deputy Managing Director, Joissam Ghana Ltd. & Joissam Construction Ltd.

Samuel Appenteng

Samuel Appenteng is managing director of Joissam Ghana, a water services and civil works company he founded with his brother Joseph in 1996. The company is named after all three brothers in the Appenteng family (Joseph, Issac and Samuel).

Samuel graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, School of Engineering, with a bachelor’s degree in science (chemical engineering) and from the University of Leicester, UK, where he earned an MBA in finance.

Prior to founding Joissam Ghana, he worked as a director and general manager at Intravenous Infusions Limited.

ISSUE AREA:
LOCATION: Accra
STATUS: Active

Kwaku Sakyi-Addo
Kwasi Twum
Patrick G. Awuah Jr.
Samuel Appenteng
Technical Advisor, Ministry of Finance

Ernestina Eshun

Technical Advisor, Ministry of Finance

Ernestina Eshun

Mrs. Tina Swatson Eshun graduated with a BSc Civil Engineering in 1985 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and obtained an MSc (Transportation Engineering) from Imperial College, University of London, in 1987.

Tina started her career as a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Civil Engineering, KNUST and later as a Lecturer. She travelled widely to Angola, Algeria, Gabon and Republic of Congo from 1991 to 1996, when she returned to Ghana to take up a position as Marketing Manager of Gabrho Ltd, a family owned pineapple farming and exporting venture. She became the Vice President of the Horticulturists’ Association of Ghana and served on several committees including the Technical Committee of the Ghana Standards Board for development of standards in production and handling of various horticultural produce, Steering Committees of the Horticulture Export Industry Initiative (HEII) and its follow up, the Export Marketing and Quality Assurance Program (EMQAP). She also headed a Task force set up to define a road map for EurepGAP Certification for exporters of Ghanaian Horticultural Produce into the EU Market. She was a member of the GhanaGAP Steering Committee.

As a consultant Civil Engineer, Tina was involved in various studies and projects including Design of Urban Roads in the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis; Design and Construction Supervision of Cocoa Feeder Roads funded by the EU in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions; and Emergency protection of the Weija Dam catchment area. She was the Site Engineer responsible for construction supervision of 30 Presidential Villas built at Ridge, Accra, for the AU Summit in July 2007. She has since 2002 been a consultant to Schlumberger in their program for sponsoring non-Anglophone African students to study Engineering in Ghana.

She served in 2015 and 2016, as a Senior Executive in the Fund Raising Office of the NPP 2016 Presidential Campaign, where she was directly responsible for a number of innovative fund raising activities.

She is Christian, has been active at the St. Anthony of Padua Anglican Church serving on the Parochial Church Council and as Parish Council Secretary since 2006.

She is married with two children.

ISSUE AREA:
LOCATION: Accra
STATUS: Not Active

 

Tina Swatson- Eshunn