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Herman Chinery-Hesse

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This article is about the Ghanaian technology entrepreneur. For the German writer, see Hermann Hesse.
Herman Chinery-Hesse
Born1963 (age 60–61)
Dublin, Ireland
CitizenshipGhana
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Founder and Chairman of theSOFTtribe
Children2
Parents
Relatives

Herman Kojo Chinery-Hesse (born 1963) is a Ghanaian technology entrepreneur and the founder of theSOFTtribe, the oldest and largest software company in Ghana.[1][2][3] He is popularly known as "the Bill Gates of Africa".[4] Chinery-Hesse also made the list of 15 Black STEM Innovators.[5] In March 2019, he was introduced as the Commonwealth Chair for Business and Technology Initiatives for Africa.[6]

Biography

Early life and education

Further information: Hesse family

Herman Chinery-Hesse was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1963 to Lebrecht James Nii Tettey Chinery-Hesse and Mary Chinery-Hesse, née Blay.[7] His maternal grandfather was Robert Samuel Blay, a barrister and Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana in the First Republic. Blay was the first Vice President of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), of which he was a founding member and a Speaker of the 1969 Constituent Assembly.

Chinery-Hesse was educated at the Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast, Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, and the Texas State University, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Technology.[8]

Career

In 1991, Chinery-Hesse co-founded theSOFTtribe, one of the leading software houses in Africa. Over the years, the company has pioneered a number of groundbreaking products in the following areas:

  • Hei Julor!!! a low-cost, mobile-based, mass market community security alert system for Africa
  • Government payroll systems
  • ERP systems
  • Nationwide utility billing systems
  • Point of sale systems
  • Electronic payment systems

His project "African Echoes" is aimed at creating African audiobooks for global consumption, such that for the first time ever Africans are in a position to tell their own stories to a worldwide audience.[9] He is an assessor for the Commercial Courts of Ghana.[10]

Honours and recognition

Chinery-Hesse and his company have won numerous awards and accolades, including the GUBA award in the UK for Exceptional Achievement, the Ghana Millennium Excellence Award for IT, the Ghana Club 100 Award for the Most Innovative Company, the "SMS" App of the Year Award, the Mobile World Lifetime Achievement Award and the Best Entrepreneur in Information and Communication Technology. He also won the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Texas State University, the first and currently only African recipient of the award.[1]

Chinery-Hesse has been a speaker at many prestigious institutions including the University of Oxford, Harvard Business School, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Chatham House and Tech4Africa. He has also played a supporting role in the realm of technology and innovation to many Ghanaian presidents in their international engagements. He is a TED Fellow and has featured heavily in the international media's reportage on technology in Africa, including CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera, and in publications such as the Ghana Business & Finance Times, The Guardian, Forbes Africa, New African, IEEE Magazine, The Financial Times, among many others.[1][4][11]

He was named one of "20 Notable Black Innovators in Technology", one of Africa's "Top 20 Tech Influencers", among the 2Top 100 Most Influential Africans of our Time", and one of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" by Foreign Policy Magazine.[12][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c "BBC Newsmaker". BBC. Archived from the original on 2 May 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  2. ^ Forbes Africa (1 February 2012). "Life In The Fast Lane With The Bill Gates Of Ghana". Forbes Africa. Archived from the original on 29 July 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  3. ^ "The African Hacker". IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News. August 2005. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  4. ^ a b Smith, David (25 August 2012). "New Africa: how an entrepreneur became 'the Bill Gates of Ghana'". The Guardian. theguardian. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  5. ^ "Ghana's Chinery-Hesse makes list of 15 Black STEM Innovators". Citifmonline.com. Citi FM. 13 February 2016. Archived from the original on 18 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  6. ^ "Chinery-Hesse outdoored as C'wealth Business and Tech African Chair". www.myjoyonline.com. 22 March 2019. Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  7. ^ "A "Very Nice Man" Goes Home". DailyGuide Network. 13 October 2018. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  8. ^ "Herman Chinery-Hesse, Africa's 'father of technology'". Daily Maverick. 15 September 2011. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  9. ^ "New African audio books to be launched worldwide - CNN Video". Archived from the original on 24 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  10. ^ blackentrepreneurprofile.com. "Herman Kojo Chinery-Hesse". Black Entrepreneurs & Executives Profiles. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  11. ^ "Chinery-Hesse's Moment Of Truth". New African Magazine. 3 October 2012. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Herman Kojo Chinery-Hesse". LSE Africa Summit. 30 March 2014. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  13. ^ Pavgi, Kedar (28 November 2011). "The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
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