Bio- Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao
Minister For Employment And Social Welfare-Ghana

Mr. Stephen Amoanor Kwao is the Minister for Employment and Social Welfare. His experience spans across both the private and public sector. He has worked with different institutions firstly as a headteacher for a couple of Junior and Senior Highs Schools in Ghana. He also served as Deputy Director of Ghana Education Service and currently serves as a Member of Parliament for Upper Manya.

Mr. Amoanor Kwao received a B. ED. Degree and a 3-Year Diploma from University College of Education-Winneba. Before Winneba, Mr Amoanor Kwao acquired the Middle School Leaving Certificate, GCE O’ Level, CERT “A” 2-Year (Post Sec.) from Mount Mary Training College in Ghana.

He worked to become the Chairman of Asesewa Area Headteachers’ Association, Constituency Secretary for National Democratic Congress and Chairman of Krobo Girls Teachers Welfare Association. He spent most of his life in Ghana and he is married with four (4) children.

Susan Cane
President
Susan Cane Inc, Massachusetts, USA

Susan Cane is the president of Susan Cane, Inc., an independent consulting firm that serves diverse forms of organizations, ranging from global corporations to nonprofits and international NGOs to public sector governmental systems at the city, state, and federal levels. An especial focus of her work is the development of solutions for managing growth and facilitating change, including the creation of a well-designed and implemented vision.   

In the private sector she has designed organizational development programs and performance management systems for Group W Westinghouse, Conde Nast, and the Prudential Insurance Company, among other clients. Her work in the nonprofit sector has centered on enhancing the capabilities of administration, staff, and board members and promoting successful interfacing among stakeholders. Clients have included the American Heart Association, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services. Internationally, she has served as a consultant to private and public organizations in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Israel, as well as the United Nations Development Program's Office of Human Resources.    

Susan received her baccalaureate degree from Columbia University and her master's degree in organizational development from The New School for Social Research. She has been a faculty member at New York University and The New School University, where she has been chair of the Organizational Change Management Program and the Human Resources Management Program and was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award. Most recently at The New School University, she was the creator of "Leading After the Founder," a leadership initiative targeting the challenges faced by executive directors who are the first CEOs to succeed the founder of their organization.    

Susan has been a commentator on BBC Radio and has presented papers at the conferences of the American Management Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology. Her publications have appeared in The Human Resources Professional and Executive Development.

William Kojo Amoabeng, CHRP
Senior Human Resource Practitioner
Central African Gold Ghana Ltd

William Kojo Amoabeng, CHRP, graduated from the Royal Roads University, Victoria - Canada with Masters in Human Resource Management. He is also certified as a Human Resource Professional by the Human Resource Institute of Alberta, Canada and is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management, USA.

William has acquired several years of professional and managerial experience in various Ghanaian, Canadian and American organizations especially in the area of Human Resource Management and Operations Management. Previous organizations he worked with include the Internal Revenue Service, Superior Propane Inc., Nortel Networks, Grande & Toy Ltd. and Proctor & Gamble Ltd.

Mr. Amoabeng is currently employed as a Senior Human Resource Professional by Central African Gold Ghana Ltd., a multi-national gold mining company with a workforce of about 1000 employees at the Ghanaian facility alone.

William is also the founder and CEO of Strategic Services International Ltd., a consulting firm, based in North Carolina, USA and Accra, Ghana and Restoration Foundation International, a Non-Profit Organization with focus on youth and children.

He has a strong passion for effective leadership and believes that every business unit has a susceptibility of good success if there is good leadership, business focus, commitment and special attention to the human capital.

He is married with two boys and delights in sightseeing and things of nature.

Ade Kamal
Area Talent Development Manager
British American Tobacco, Nigeria

Kamal has wide-ranging Human Resource Management experience , which spans Recruitment, Strategy, Organisational Design and Development, Human Performance Improvement and Learning
He is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria, Member of the Society of Human Resource Management and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Training and Development.
He began his career with the management consulting firm of KPMG Professional Services where he worked on sourcing, selection, learning and organisation development. He later moved on to Accenture where he led client engagements on job evaluation, performance management, organisational design and executive compensation. He left Accenture and joined British American Tobacco Nigeria Limited.

In his current role he is responsible for driving the talent management portfolios of sourcing, learning, performance, career management and succession planning.

His responsibilities also include driving the strategic leadership agenda for over 800 employees across 4 countries.

Ada C. Usifo
Principal Consultant, NEBULA Global Scope Ltd
 
Ada began her career as a Tax Consultant with Deloitte (Deloitte, West & Central Africa) before moving on to begin a career in Human Capital Consulting, also in Deloitte. While as a tax consultants, she has worked on engagements for several clients in various sectors of the economy spanning Financial, Manufacturing, Public and the Private sector.

As part of her Human Resource experience, Ada worked in the Deloitte South Africa practice, where she gained further expertise working for clients in the Mining Sector. 
 
Ada later left Deloitte and joined the BUA Group as its Group Human Resources Manager. The BUA Group is an indigenous Nigerian conglomerate with interest in cement, sugar refining, oil & gas and flour milling to mention a few.
 
In less than 2 years she made significant contributions towards implementing best practices in the organisation’s work ethics, culture, processes, employees’ productivity & welfare. As well as bringing to management’s attention the values of setting up proper people and organisational structures.
 
Ada currently manages NEBULA Global Scope Ltd, an advisory firm focused on Financial Advisory, Outsourcing Services and Human Capital & People Development.
 
As a result of her passion for human resources and people development, she partners with FATE Foundation Nigeria (a non- governmental Organisation) as a volunteer consultant, to assist Nigerian entrepreneurs by helping them embed human resource solutions that help their businesses achieve their objectives.  She also has interests in youth empowerment and development which she does through coaching and mentoring as a volunteer instructors & mentor. 

Ada has several human resources certifications and is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM).

Aruosa Osemwegie
Deputy Head, Recruiting & Contracts
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc

Aruosa Osemwegie is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and a Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR), with experience as a Practitioner, Consultant and Theorist in People Management.
He is an alumnus of both the Harvard Business School and the Lagos Business School’s executive development programs in Human Capital Management. Aruosa also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science & Technology from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He has had rich experience working and consulting in some of Nigeria’s leading-light organisations. He is currently a member of the Human Resources group of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria with spread into London and some other African countries.

He is a Life & Career Coach and a Job Search strategist; with particular passion for getting people to ‘extend themselves beyond themselves’. He is a member of the US-based Career Planning & Adult Development Network, a member and facilitator for Daystar CareerPLUS, a not-for-profit career coaching organisation in Nigeria and also a
member of the leading global human resources body, Society for Human Resources Management, United States. He is the author of Getting a Job is a Job: A No-Nonsense Practical Guide to Getting your Desired Job, published by Booksurge, USA. Aruosa is married to Comfort, an Equity Investment & Research strategist & they and their about-to-impact-the-world daughter Marvel currently live in Lagos, Nigeria.

Joel Omeike

Joel Omeikeis a Professional Business Advisor and HR Practitioner. He has a versed background in Human Resources Management, organizational strategy development and Business development & audit.

He proactively delivers Innovative Visible Organisational Performance and bottom-line Improvement at all perspectives through the application of Business Management & Performance Improvement best practices. Joel has over 14 years working experience. His 9 years experience in Human Resources & Organizational Development has led him to work with several CEOs and executive management of over 4 medium to large financial institutions.

He has made numerous presentations on research work on HR leadership, Talent Management, Performance & Career management. His key strengths include execution excellence, performance & project management, corporate alignment, organizational development and business research, change management, general & strategic HR practice, management & automation, strategic planning & management, mergers & acquisitions, operations management, equity investments & deal structuring.

Mr Omeike holds and MBA from Business School Netherlands and a BSc. from University of Lagos. He is a member of SHRM and PMI US. He is also an associate of Nigerian Institute of Management, HR Network Africa and Institute of Strategic Management.

Margaret Omovbude
Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nigeria

Margaret Omovbude has a B.Sc. in Sociology. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN), a member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Society for Human Resources Management USA (SHRM) and a Certified Practitioner of the Thomas International Psychometric Assessment System.

Margaret is presently a Consultant in the Advisory – Performance Improvement group of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Nigeria. Her competencies include delivering strategic Human Resource Services and business process re-engineering. She has functioned as the project manager on several HR transformation programmes with clients in different industries providing business advisory services such as developing HR strategy, Compensation Benchmarking, Organization Design, Job Analysis and Evaluation, Executive Recruitment, Staff skills Audit, Due diligences, performance management systems design and Business Process Improvement to clients in the financial, manufacturing, telecommunications, Insurance, oil and gas, hospitality and airline services sector.

Victor Madubuko, PHR
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
CareerNation New York USA

Mr. Madubuko is the President and CEO of CareerNation, a 6 years old New York based human resource consulting firm with offices across Africa. Mr. Madubuko has over a decade of experience in both the public and private sectors. He has worked for a variety of companies including Consolidated Edison New York, The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, and as Director of Talent Acquisition at Equinox Fitness Clubs in New York City.

Mr. Madubuko received a Law Degree from the People's Friendship University, Moscow and Masters of Science Degree in Human Resources Management from the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, The New School University in New York City. Before continuing his education in Moscow and New York, Mr. Madubuko studied Economics at Abia State University, Nigeria.  Mr. Madubuko was awarded the Moscow Entrepreneur of The Year award and the Isabor Lubin award for outstanding academic achievement in the New School University graduate program.

While in Moscow, Mr. Madubuko founded his own company and became one of the first minority entrepreneurs to establish and manage a foreign-owned business. His experience has encompassed international business creation, human resource management, and organization development.  Mr. Madubuko is affiliated with several professional associations and has served on the Alumni Council Committee at the Milano Graduate School and on the Nigerian Task Force at the Corporate Council on Africa. He has lived and worked in Africa, Europe, and United States and is fluent in Russian, English, Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo.

Miss Enyonam Canice Kudonoo
ADR Practitioner  and Lecturer at Central University College, Ghana

Miss Enyonam Canice Kudonoo is a Lecturer at Central University College, Ghana, a Management and Organisation Development Consultant, and an ADR Practitioner. She holds an MBA Degree in Human Resources Management Option, a Post Graduate Diploma in Organisation Development, a Degree in Home Economics Education, Advance Diploma in Mediation and Arbitration Studies, Certified as a Professional Mediator; she has also attended several training programmes in the areas of General Management, Human Resources Management, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. 

She worked as a professional teacher for several years, a Human Resources Expert at the Accra Metropolitan Education Office for three (3) years before joining Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) Ghana, as a Senior Management Consultant in the General Management Department for 4 years. She was an Adjunct Lecturer in General Management at Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), from 2002 to 2007, Ashesi University in 2007 to 2008, Zenith College , a Certified Mediator, and an Organisation Development expert. She is a Bible School Graduate who is into Youth Ministry in Ghana.

Enyonam has proven ability in various human resources and organization development interventions, conflict management, baseline studies, facilitation skills and an extensive research experience in organizational effectiveness. Her job in MDPI involved developing tailor-made courses and providing training and consultancy services for all levels of management in business and industry in Ghana and West Africa. She has coordinated and facilitated several courses including: Introduction to Management, Senior Executive Development, Administrative Management Skills, Managerial Leadership Development, Organisation Development, and Conflict Resolution/Management, and Human Resources Management just to mention a few.

Henry Atta Paidoo
HR Practitioner and Director, HR 
Ghana Forestry Commission. Accra, Ghana

Mr. Atta Paidoo is a seasoned Human Resource Management Practitioner with HR Generalist experience spanning twenty-five years. His working experience has been acquired mainly from the Public Sector environment, with ten years stint with an International Institution, West African Examination Council, headquarters in Accra, Ghana.

Mr. Atta Paidoo holds a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Geography and an Executive Diploma in Management from Henley Management College, UK. He is a member of the Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners Ghana and International Labour Relations Association based in Geneva, Switzerland. He is an accredited Arbitrator/Mediator, Ghana National Labour Commission. In pursuit of his professional development, he had participated in numerous HR Management Training, General Management and Strategic Planning, both locally and overseas.

Mr. Atta Paidoo had worked in several HR capacities and on institutional reforms in the Forestry Commission where he played a lead role in developing cutting edge HR Policies and Processes including recruitment, Reward Management, Performance Management and Career and Succession Planning with the roll out and internationalization of the Policies and Processes. He also led HR Team to execute cultural change programmes to align the organization culture to the new strategic direction of the Commission. He continued with the roll out and internationalization of these HR Systems.

He has also been engaged in collaboration with External Consultants to facilitate the crafting of strategic plans for the Commission where his interest in HR Strategic Management was developed.
Mr. Atta Paidoo is also an independent HR Consultant and has worked for International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

He is currently the Director, HR and his role is to provide strategic leadership and direction to the Corporate HR function to deliver value in its activities.   

Margaret S. Inge
Founder & CEO
Avalon Training Services, Inc. New York

Margaret S. Inge established, Avalon Training Services, Inc. in 1991.  Under her leadership, the company has established a reputation for delivering high quality training in a professional and flexible manner.  The organization brings together a unique blend of communication, leadership, management and diversity training expertise, offering its clients an array of training and coaching capabilities.

Maggie began working as a trainer in 1985 and immediately recognized the need to develop courses that enhance personal and corporate performance.  Drawing upon her early training as a world-class athlete and performer and her experience as an executive, she began to apply the rigors of personal development to corporate environments.  She has created courses for organizations large and small, developing the curriculum and often training other trainers and the client company’s in-house support staff.  Additionally, she serves as a personal effectiveness coach to individuals and executives.

She has been integral to the successful launch of several client start-up venture companies; serving as a management consultant since 1986.  Her team building and various management seminars have been utilized by organizations in the public and private sector, including Fortune 500 companies. Her articles on business planning, management and systems have been published nationally.  She writes “At Your Service”, a weekly business column for the “Catskill Mountain News” that has been recognized by the New York Press Association.

Obiamaka P. Madubuko
Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP. New York

Obiamaka P. Madubuko is a Partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in the Firm’s New York office.  She is a member of the Trial Department.  Obiamaka is an expert on anti-corruption matters and focuses her practice on advising U.S. based companies doing business in Africa.  Obiamaka advises companies on a host of compliance and due diligence issues arising under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), and other trade compliance regulations.  In addition, Obiamaka performs internal investigations and assists corporate clients to draft, evaluate and revise their corporate policies to ensure compliance with anti-corruption laws and to develop best practices to create more efficient workplaces.

Obiamaka is also an experienced trial lawyer who defends individuals and corporations in complex civil litigation and white collar criminal cases in state and federal courts. She represents clients in investigations conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office, the United States Congress, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, and other federal and state authorities.  Obiamaka is admitted to practice in New York, Washington, D.C., and before the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York.
 
Obiamaka is a graduate of Harvard Law School and received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Political Science from Boston University.  Before joining McDermott, Obiamaka was in private practice in New York and Washington D.C.  Obiamaka is a frequent lecturer on career related topics and is active in various pro bono activities including handling immigration and asylum cases as well as mentoring lawyers, law students, and high school students on pursuing careers in law.
 

Josephine Dokua Ami-Narh, PHR
Head, Performance Management Unit
Bank of Ghana

Mrs. Josephine Ami-Narh is currently the head of the Performance Management Unit at the Bank of Ghana. She is a certified HR practitioner with a passion to maximize organizational efficiency through effective performance management practices and strategic change management.

A 2007-2008 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow, Michigan State University, Mrs. Ami-Narh is a:

1. Professional in Human Resource Management (PHR), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
2. Certified Human Resource Specialist (CHRS), Michigan State University

She has an MBA with concentration in Human Resources from the University of East London Business School, London and a B.Sc. (Hons.) Computer Science from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi.

Dr. Esi E. Ansah
Assistant Professor at the Ashesi University College, Ghana

Dr. Esi E. Ansah is a founder and CEO of Axis Human Capital Ltd. Axis is a socially conscious HR firm that does recruitment and selection for clients in various industries. Axis also works with organizations in the areas of organizational development, talent management, and business advisory services among a few others.

Esi is also an Assistant Professor at the Ashesi University College. Her teaching experience includes teaching Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior and Negotiation. Prior to lecturing at Ashesi, Esi taught African Politics and Comparative Politics at Rutgers University for three years, and has extensive experience in career coaching of university students. Her other professional interests include human resource development in the public sector, and social and public entrepreneurship.

Esi earned her Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology, International Affairs and French from the Florida State University in 1999, and holds Master’s degrees in Social Sciences and in Public Service Management from the University of Chicago (2004) and DePaul University in Chicago(2002), respectively. She holds a PhD in Public Administration (2008) from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Esi is passionate about issues affecting young people, and works actively in various ways to help prepare young people for the world of work - interactive workshops on CV writing, job interview skills, etc...

Edem Yankson
Group Head, HR And Administration
UT Holdings Limited. Accra, Nigeria

Edem Yankson is currently the Group Head, HR and Administration of UT Holdings Limited. Prior to joining UT in July 2005, Edem worked with Supra Telecom as the Human Resource Manager.

As UT’s Group Head of HR & Administration, Edem is responsible for providing strategic direction for the HR function within the UT Group of companies. She is responsible for ensuring that the Human Resources of the company are managed effectively to derive competitive advantage for the company. 

Edem has extensive experience in Learning and Development, Performance Management as well as other functional areas within the HR field. She has also worked in various capacities within the HR field since 1995.

Abba Abubakar Aliyu
Head. Human Resources
Aso Savings and Loans PLC.
Abuja. Nigeria.

Abba A. Aliyu holds Bachelor degree of science in Economics, MBA in Management and is presently pursuing an M.Sc program in Global Human Resources Management from University of Liverpool, United Kingdom. He is also a member of Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Virginia, USA.

His professional career started in a fund management consulting firm called IAA Associates, as Human Resources assistant and later joined a public sector organization; Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc as Pension officer and progressed to become Head manpower planning and development, before disengaging in 2006. He then joined an International Development Agency (WaterAid) a United Kingdom development agency that operates in over 20 countries all over the world as Human Resources and Organizational Development Advisors and thereafter worked in United Kingdom as International Human Resources Manager. At WaterAid, he was opportune to work on various projects and programs in Nigeria and the United Kingdom; besides he Chaired the West African Technical Team (WATT) of knowledge management, organizational development and capacity assessment, and developed recruitment and performance management system for Tanzania, Madagascar and Uganda WaterAid country programmes.

In 2008 he joined the biggest United State Agency for International Development (USAID) programme in the world (Family Health International) as Senior Human Resources Officer covering Family Health International, Axios Foundation, Howard Foundation and SNR Initiative. Aliyu was called upon to set up a world class performance management system in Aso Savings and Loans Plc and was recruited as Head Performance Management Unit, were 2 months after he was re-assigned as Head Human Capital Management Department, the position he is occupying till date. Amongst his key achievements are the development of an Enterprise Performance Management System for ASO savings and Loans Plc, which is presently undergoing a global case study assessment by Microsoft Corporation.

Mr. Aliyu is also a Director and Senior Partner in IdeaEdge Consulting Ltd a Human Resources and Organizational Development firm operating in Nigeria. Currently the firm is consulting for Nigeria Extractive Transparency Initiative (NEITI) which is the Nigerian version of global initiative funded by Federal Government, World Bank and DFID, ChamSwitch an electronic payment solution Company; ActionAid, an international development agency and NN24 (Network News 24) Nigeria’s first ever 24 hour 7 days a week news broadcast channel with a wide reach across the country and sub-Saharan Africa.

His professional career spans across both the public, private and development sectors of the economy in addition to consulting both locally and internationally.

Vida Botwe
Head Human Resources
ACS-BPS GH. LTD

Human resource professional with 13 years working experience, 8 of which have been in a managerial position. 6 years with Ernst & Young as an HR Consultant and 7 years with ACS as HR Director

Currently the Head of Human Resources at ACS-BPS GH. LTD., a global business process outsourcing company with current a headcount of over 1000. Holds MBA, BA and SPHR (Professional HR Certification) from Human Resource Certification Institute.Member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)

Millicent Orhin
Deputy Head of Human Resources
ACS-BPS GH. LTD.

Human resource professional with 14 years working experience. 2 years with Manna Missions as Administrative Officer, 6 years with ACS, 4 years of which have been in a management position

Currently the Deputy Head of Human Resources at ACS-BPS GH. LTD., a global business process outsourcing company with current a headcount of over 1000. Holds MBA, BSc and is a Member of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)