// VIEW TOPICS

Enrolled Delegates

// Achievement Award

The Economic Opportunity Achievement Award is an international award presented to an individual or institution that has consistently demonstrated a commitment to collaboration, knowledge and resource sharing, and active cooperation in the service of ending poverty. The Collaboration honors exceptional champions who freely share a big idea, an innovation or a groundbreaking model with others in order to further economic opportunity. Award recipients are individuals who, through a lifetime of accomplishment, leverage their roles, responsibilities and resources to create coalitions, nurture creative competition and craft new solutions for poverty alleviation.

The Award is presented during the Opportunity Collaboration. For ceremony details, see Agenda.

The 2013 Economic Achievement Award Winner

Patrick Awuah, Founder & President of Ashesi University

 alt

Dr. Patrick Awuah is the founder and president of Ashesi University, a private, nonprofit institution in Ghana that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education. Ashesi is the first liberal arts university in Ghana, offering majors in Computer Science, Management Information Systems and Business Administration. “By raising the bar for higher education in Ghana, we aim to make a significant contribution toward a renaissance in Africa.”

Before founding Ashesi University in 2002, Patrick worked as a Program Manager for Microsoft. 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.

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. 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 November 2009, he won two prestigious awards: the 2009 Microsoft Alumni Foundation "Integral Fellow" award honoring Microsoft Alumni who have made a meaningful difference in the daily lives of others by using their talents, time and resources to contribute to the community, and the John P. McNulty Prize from the Aspen Institute which also recognizes an extraordinary young leader making creative, effective, and lasting contributions to his or her community. In May, 2010 he was nominated as the 8th Most Respected CEO in Ghana, voted out the top ten in Ghana, a ranking based on a survey of 208 CEOs.

He is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative (a branch of the Aspen Global Leadership Network), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the United States Tau Beta Pi honor society for excellence in engineering.

 

Prior Achievement Award Recipients

2012 - Sakena Yacoobi, Executive Director, Afghan Institute of Learning
2011 - Martin Burt, Chief Executive Office & Founder, Fundación Paraguay
2010 - Shari Berenbach, Chief Executive Officer, Calvert Foundation
2009 - Mary Houghton, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Shorebank Corporation


 
// Subscribe to E-Communiqués
cordes&pattillo
Ron Cordes, President, Cordes Foundation & Robert Pattillo, President, Gray Ghost Foundation-First Light Ventures.
Aibe
Sono Aibe, Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiatives, Pathfinder International.
Ashe&Kanyoro
Jeffrey Ashe, Director, Community Finance, Oxfam America & Musimbi Kanyoro, Director, President and CEO, Global Fund for Women.