Prof. Edward S. Ayensu is an international development advisor on science, technology and economic development. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Ghana and the President of the Energy Globe Foundation. He was formerly Chairman of the World Bank Inspection Panel; Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Ghana; Senior Advisor to the President and Director of Central Projects Department, African Development Bank and President of the Pan-African Union for Science and Technology. He was a Director and Senior Scientist during his 20 years at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. He obtained his doctorate from the University of London, and was appointed a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University. In addition to being a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is a Foreign Fellow of the India National Sciences Academy, Fellow of TWAS Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Founding Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. As a prolific writer and photographer, Prof. Ayensu has authored many books and published numerous scientific and technical papers. A very recently launched books - Lake of Life - is a commemorative volume depicting Volta River Authority's 50th Anniversary and a Field Guide to the Volta Basin.
Nana Oforiatta Ayim is a writer, filmmaker and art historian. She studied Russian and Politics and worked for the Eastern European section of the Department of Political Affairs of United Nations in New York. She then went on to do a Masters in African Art History. She is a founder of the ANO Institute of Arts and Knowledge through which she has pioneered such projects as The Mobile Museum and The Pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia; curating ground-breaking exhibitions such as Ghana's first pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2019; and speaking globally on cultural narratives and institution-building in countries like Ghana, Senegal, the UK, US, Germany, Holland, Denmark, France and Brazil. She has made several films, a cross of fiction, travel essay, and documentary, that have been shown at museums like The New Museum, Tate Modern, and LACMA. She has written for publications like frieze, ArtNews, African Metropolitan Architecture; and her first novel, The God Child, was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2019. She is the recipient of various awards and honours, having been named one of the Apollo ’40 under 40’; one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report; one of 12 African women making history by Okayafrica; and a Quartz Africa Innovator. She received the 2015 the Art & Technology Award from LACMA; the 2016 AIR Award, which “seeks to honour and celebrate extraordinary African artists who are committed to producing provocative, innovative and socially-engaging work”; the inaugural 2018 Soros Arts Fellowship, and was a 2018 Global South Visiting Fellow at Oxford University. She has been appointed to the Advisory Council of Oxford University’s Cultural Programme and as a Principal Investigator for the Action for African Cultural Restitution from April 2020.
Kwasi Adi-Dako is a Learning Experience Designer from Accra, Ghana whose passions span education design, mentoring and coaching, and engagement with African cultural and social development. He most recently served as the Director of Learning at Moringa School, a coding bootcamp serving over 1,000 students in Nairobi, Kenya where he was responsible for curriculum design, teacher training and student experience management. Before joining Moringa, Kwasi served as a faculty team lead, curriculum designer, and class facilitator at the African Leadership University in Mauritius and Johannesburg, South Africa. As an inaugural faculty member, he was involved in all aspects of the University’s development over a 4 year period including system design for admissions, faculty recruiting, learning model design and facilitation. Kwasi also worked as a financial analyst with Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. He also taught debate, public speaking and mathematics as part of Youth For Debate, a 501-3c organization focused on building speaking skills in middle and high schools all over New York City. Kwasi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in Psychology and Business Management and is expecting a Master of Arts from Stanford University’s Learning Design Technology Program.
Dr. Dickson Adom is a researcher in the pluridisciplinary fields of History of African Art and Culture, Anthropology, Art, Education, Biodiversity Conservation and Environmental Sustainability. He is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Innovations in Science and Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He also holds an extraordinary researcher position in the School of Economic Sciences, Northwest University, South Africa. Dr. Dickson Adom holds a first class BA, Master of philosophy and PhD degrees from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. He is a senior researcher in the Department of Educational Innovations in Science and Technology and has written extensively on local people’s participation in agricultural and cultural issues.He is an expert in the use of Traditional Knowledge Systems and cultural anthropology issues in enhancing the conservation of the environment and its rich biological diversities. Also, he undertakes studies in Rural Community Participation in Environmental Development Schemes, International Conventions related to Biodiversity Conservation, Protected Areas and Ecosystem Management through Community Involvement Approaches and Strategies, Agricultural Anthropology, NFTPs in Biodiversity Management in Forest-Fringe Communities, Development of Biodiversity Conservation Strategies, Ecotourism Development, Cultural Practices in Biodiversity Management and other areas in this field
Agnes K. Allotey is a Strategy, Innovation, Product and Organizational Development expert and a Management Consultant with over 16 years of corporate experience at McKinsey and Company, CGAP, Milvik (BIMA), Bloomberg L.P., and Dow Jones and Company. She has exposure to multiple industries and functions including the development of Public-Private sector partnerships, Insurance, Mining, Banking, Sustainable Enterprises and Media. She also has extensive international work experience with stints in South Africa, the U.K., U.S.A., Singapore and Ghana. She is currently the Founder and Executive Director of Stratosphere, a management consulting firm focused on developing emerging executives and serving companies with interests in Africa. In addition, she currently leads CGAP engagements as a Project Manager to advance digital financial inclusion by supporting an enabling regulatory environment, facilitating government-industry dialogue and partnering with industry to develop compelling digital financial services use cases. Agnes also works with the Ministry of Finance’s Investment Advisory Committee as a consultant on a DFID-funded project to support the development of advice and information on the Ghana Petroleum Funds for the Minister and promoting public dialogue and communication. She has a Masters in Business Administration from NYU Stern School of Business where she specialized in Finance and Strategy and a Bachelor of Arts from Bryn Mawr College in English Literature with a minor in Physics.
Dr. Edith Dankwa is President of the Institute for Development and Policy. She has served as a market entry strategist for businesses that seek to extend their operations to Africa. She manages the Business Times Africa Magazine (BT), Energy Today Magazine (ET) and the Business & Financial Times (B&FT) newspaper under her company umbrella, the Business & Financial Times Limited. She is also on the board of Unilever (Ghana) Ltd. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Management Studies from the University of Cape Coast, and further pursued an Executive MBA from the GIMPA Business School. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana and a Post Graduate Certificate in Newspaper Management from Inwent International Institute of Journalism, Germany. Edith is also a fellow of the Institute of Certified Economist of Ghana and has a doctoral degree in Business Administration (International Business) from the Walden University in the USA. Dr. Dankwa has served on the boards of TV3, the International Chamber of Commerce (Ghana), Ghana News Agency and Unilever Ghana. She is also a founding member of the Executive Women Network, a chairperson of the African Business Leaders Foundation and the president of the Institute for Development and Policy.
Kodzo Gavua is an Associate Professor of Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. He holds a PhD and a Master of Arts degree in archaeology and African archaeology respectively from the University of Calgary, Canada. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Archaeology and Philosophy from the University of Ghana. Among his areas of specialization beyond archaeology include ethnography, museum studies, anthropology of tourism, economic anthropology, art history, and material culture studies. His research focus is on relationships that may be found between cross-cultural interactions and Africa’s cultural heritage and economic development. He engages in public archaeology and cultural advocacy and is currently investigating the legacies of trade and cross-cultural exchanges in Ghana.
Maame holds a BA in Theatre Arts and Spanish; and an LLB, both with First Class Honours, from the University of Ghana. She completed the Bachelor of Civil Law with distinction at The University of Oxford, UK in 2014. Until 2017, when she began her DPhil, also at the University of Oxford, Maame was the Programme Coordinator for the Law Department and lecturer in Constitutional and Criminal Law at Lancaster University’s Ghana campus in Accra. She also worked as a technical advisor to an arbitration tribunal at the Ghana Arbitration Centre. Maame is a member of the Ghana Bar Association. Her research interests centre on applying the contemporary constitutional theory discourse to the Ghanaian experience. Her current research focuses on the constitutional tensions between postcolonial nation-states and historical legal orders within their borders. She explores how legal pluralism can be used to resolve or circumvent these tensions and effectively coordinate community action. She has written on judicial review, discretionary powers, executive authority, natural justice and separation of powers.
William Narteh Gblerkpor is a lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, and Master of Philosophy degree in Archaeology from the University of Ghana. His research and writing explore the dynamic role of material culture in the historical and contemporary construction and maintenance of social identities in West Africa. He is interested in the archaeology of identities; archaeology and community development; cultural resource management; digital archaeology; environmental archaeology; biodiversity heritage conservation. Gblerkpor is also the Principal Investigator of two archaeological projects in Ghana: “Shai Hills Archaeological Research Project (SHARP)” and the “Krobo Mountain Archaeological Project (KMAP).” He is currently coordinating a partnership between Ghana Forestry Commission (Wildlife Division) and the University of Ghana to establish a Centre for Heritage and Biodiversity Conservation. He recently established and set up a museum complex at the Shai Hills Resource Reserve in the Greater-Accra Region.
William Nsuiban Gmayi is a Museum Administration and Heritage Management practitioner with a little over ten years relevant experience in Museum Administration, Museum Management, Curating, and exhibition development. Mr. Gmayi is currently Head of Communication at the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Coordinating the preparation of the Conservation and Management Plan for the forts and castles of Ghana, a serially listed UNESCO World Heritage facility with twenty-eight components.
Afua Nkansah-Asamoah is empowered by social action and has engaged in initiatives to advocate the end of extreme poverty, youth violence and violence against women. She is an activist and Childnet Youth Advisory Board member contributing toward a more peaceful community. She is also a curatorial researcher on Ashanti Gold at the Wallace Collection and is a Young Producer at the William Morris Gallery. She aims to become a barrister specialising in art law and African art, focusing on cultural items from the colonial era. Her vision is to teach the young African diaspora their history and its impact on their identity.
DK Osseo-Asare is a designer who makes buildings, landscapes, cities, objects and digital tools. He is co-founding principal of transatlantic architecture and integrated design studio Low Design Office (LOWDO); co-founder of the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP), an open-source maker tech project geared for Africa; and assistant professor of architecture and engineering design at Penn State University, where he runs the Humanitarian Materials Lab and serves as Associate Director of the Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design with Africa. He is a Fulbright Scholar, TED Global Fellow, Africa 4 Tech Digital Champion and led strategic and urban design for Koumbi City and Anam City new town projects in Ghana and Nigeria. He received A.B. in Engineering Design and M.Arch. degrees from Harvard University for his work in kinetic architecture and network power. His current research explores material assemblies optimized for massively scalable radical resilience.
Magida Peregrino-Brimah is a Chartered Accountant with years of proven experience leading complex cross divisional programmes focused on strategy design and implementation, operational efficiency, financial analysis, business planning and management. She has significant exposure to the banking and finance industry having completed projects with Deloitte Consulting for Global Financial Services Institutions such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and UBS. She holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from London Business School and Columbia Business School and a BA in Management from Imperial College University .
