Ashesi further strengthened its board of trustees by bringing in two new members in March.

Yaw Asare-Aboagye, an expatriate Ghanaian, is manager of clinical development at Immunex Corporation in Seattle, Washington. He recently served a term as president of the Ghanaian Association of Greater Seattle, where Ashesi’s founder Patrick Awuah first met him. Yaw is highly enthusiastic about Ashesi’s vision, and is “delighted to be able to help in any way I can.”

Bill Bliss is currently general manager of Search and Navigation Services at Microsoft Corporation. He was a founding member and leader of the design team that created Microsoft Outlook and holds eight US patents relating to his work on Microsoft Outlook. In 1998 he moved to MSN where he led the team that launched MSN Search, now one of the top search services on the Internet. Bill has known Patrick since 1991 and has watched with interest as the vision for Ashesi progressed since Patrick left Microsoft to pursue his dream. Bill notes, “It’s one thing to say that you are interested in African post-secondary education as an abstract concept. It’s quite another to have a chance to play a personal role in building a university that will shape the lives of others for generations to come. I’m looking forward to helping realize the Ashesi vision.”