President, Ashesi UniversityAshesi University
Patrick Awuah is the Founder and President of Ashesi University, a private, not-for-profit, liberal arts institution that has quickly gained a reputation as one of Ghana’s finest universities. Under Patrick’s leadership, Ashesi has created a curriculum and model grounded in the liberal arts that fosters critical thinking, entrepreneurship, ethics and leadership.
Before founding Ashesi University, Patrick worked as a Program Manager for Microsoft, where he spearheaded the development of dial-up internet working technologies and gained a reputation for bringing difficult 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 honorary doctorates from Swarthmore College, Babson College, and the University of Waterloo.
Patrick’s awards and recognitions include the MacArthur Fellowship; the McNulty Prize; and the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award. In recognition of his service to Ghana, Patrick was awarded membership to the Order of the Volta by His Excellency, President J.A. Kufuor, in July 2007. The Order of the Volta is one of Ghana’s highest awards, given to individuals who exemplify the ideal of service to the country. In 2015, Patrick was named one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine. In 2017, he was awarded the Qatar Foundation’s WISE Prize for Education in recognition of his outstanding, world-class contribution to education.
Patrick served on the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2010 to 2016. He is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative of the Aspen Global Leadership Network; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and a member of the Tau Beta Pi honor society for excellence in engineering.
