Professor Samuel Kwaku Bonsu
The Governing Council of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has settled on Professor Samuel Kwaku Bonsu as its new Rector.
Until his appointment, he was the Director of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance of the school having held various positions including the Director of PhD Marketing programme when he joined GIMPA and later served as Dean of the GIMPA School of Governance and Leadership and subsequently Dean of the GIMPA Business School.
He takes over from Professor Philip Ebow Bondzie-Simpson.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who graced the investiture held at the famous Greenhill campus of GIMPA, was full of praise for Prof. Bonsu, a man he had known from their days as colleagues at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada where they first met.
He, therefore, charged the new GIMPA Rector who he considers a brother and friend, to live up to expectation.
Dr. Bawumia said he will continue to open his doors to the academia to discuss the development of education in the country.
In his inaugural lecture, Prof. Bonsu proposed the establishment of a new Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) that will support quality teaching, and build educational leadership capacity in direct support of student learning.
“My vision as Rector is based on the pursuit of both academic and professional excellence. I imagine GIMPA as the university which is a lamp on a hill — indeed Greenhill – a beacon of hope for our nation, showing the way for other universities in our land and beyond. It is my vision to entrench GIMPA’s quality reputation across Africa and extend the global impact of the brand,” he noted.
He promised to lead GIMPA to contribute in a unique way to national development through enhanced quality of service delivery.
He said “we will seek to appoint Research Fellows who will focus on funded research,” adding “working with the Council, we will build our new Library as soon as possible — a modem Library equipped with the comforts of contemporary digital libraries.”
Profile
Prof. Bonsu started school at St. Anne’s Anglican (ECM) School, Ash-Town, Kumasi before moving to Cambridge International School.
He attended Prempeh College and later enrolled at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, but left for Canada to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of Prince Edward Island and an MBA at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
He went to the University of Rhode Island, USA for his PhD and between degrees, he worked at Statistics Canada, and Canadian Airlines, among others.
Prof. Bonsu returned to SFU as a Lecturer in the 1999/2000 school year and was named on the Teaching Honour Roll (Best Teacher) at SFU that year, and later joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro in 2000.
Canada beckoned once again two years later when he moved to Schulich School of Business, York University, one of the world’s finest.
Prof. Bonsu was twice nominated for the Schulich Teaching Excellence Award (Best Teacher Award).
He was a tenured professor and the Director of the PhD Marketing programme at the school when he joined GIMPA.
He has been a Visiting Professor/Researcher at several universities, including University of Southern Denmark, L’Université Lille 2, France; Hanken School of Eco-nomics, Finland; International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT), Bangladesh and the KNUST.
He commands the respect of his peers around the globe, having published ground-breaking works in prestigious journals and books.
His work has been funded by the Social Science & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark, among others. He serves on the editorial review boards of several high impact journals.
Prof. Bonsu is past President of the International Society for Markets and Development (ISMD), a society that brings together scholars and practitioners of development and has been a member of the Association for Consumer Research, International Association for African Business & Development and American Marketing Association.
He is the current Chairperson of UN PRME Africa – a United Nations initiative that supports responsible business education. He serves on the governing boards of several entities including Cornerstone Advisors, Federated Commodities, Golden Link Savings and Loans, Emerging Public Leaders and Association of African Business Schools.
He is Patron of TEN GHANA, a youth-oriented organisation that seeks to change Africa through entrepreneurship, the body that organises the McDan Entrepreneurship Challenge.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu