In line with the celebration, a number of activities have been outlined from Monday 12 – Sunday 18, September, 2016.

Monday, September 12, 2016 – Float through principal streets of Accra

There will be a float through some principal streets of Accra starting from GTUC Main Campus (Tesano) – Circle- Adabraka – Accra Central – Ministries – Osu – Ring Road Central – Kokomlemle – GTUC. This will involve staff and students of GTUC

Venue: GTUC Main Campus (Start & End point)

Time: 9: 00am – 4:00pm

Wednesday, September 14, 2016 – Panel Discussion

There will be a panel discussion on the Theme: “Connecting the Dots in Entrepreneurship, Information Technology and Engineering: A Retrospective and Prospective Review”. This will be moderated by Dr. Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng who is an ICT Specialist and the Dean of Faculty of informatics of GTUC. Panel members include Ms Ethel Cofie who is the CEO and Founder of EDEL Technology Consulting and Prof Gideon Maas who is the Director of the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship at Coventry University.

Kindly read below short profile about the moderator and the distinguished panel members.

Venue: Florence Onny Auditorium, Main Campus, Tesano, Accra

Time: 9:00am

Duration: 120mins

Moderator: Dr. Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng (Dean Faculty of Informatics-GTUC)

A professional ICT Specialist and Telecoms Engineer with a strong background in cyber-security, digital forensics, business development, change management, knowledge management, strategic IT-enabled business value creation and capabilities to develop market-oriented strategies aimed at promoting growth and market share.

An Executive with 25 years of domestic and global experience conceptualizing ideas, seizing opportunities, building operations, leading highly successful new business development initiatives and ventures. A Consultant with emphasis on Cyber-security, digital forensics, telecommunications, Internet, and network integration technologies, with additional experience related to dealing with refurbished and overstock equipment, and manufacturing. Strong presentation, negotiation, and team building skills.

A professional researcher and passionate teacher with about 10 years of higher education professional practice, plus over 6 years high-school, teaching, mentorship and instruction; including over 20 peer-reviewed journal papers.

Proactive approach in successful organizational development initiatives that delivered consistent and sustainable operating, revenue, profit, and quality improvements through dedicated efforts.

Panel Member: Ms Ethel Cofie (CEO and Founder of EDEL Technology Consulting)

Ms Ethel Cofie is named one of the Top 5 Women impacting IT in Africa, Ethel Cofie is CEO and Founder of EDEL Technology Consulting, an IT Consulting and Digital Products Company in West Africa and Europe who was recently named IT Consulting Firm of the year by the Telecoms and IT Industry. She is also Founder of Women in Tech Africa, Africa’s largest women in tech group with members in over 30 Africa countries and physical chapter in Ghana, Kenya and London and growing.

She is a Mandela Fellow for President Obama’s Young African Leaders initiative (YALI) and a High caliber IT Professional with a wealth of technical and commercial skills acquired across a wide range of demanding roles and Over 12 years’ experience working in the UK ,Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone on projects for organizations like Bill and Melinda Gates Mobile Technology for Health project, , the Ford Foundation’s Election Monitoring project for Nigeria and as Head of Commercial Solutions for Vodafone conceptualizing, executing and working with teams to align Corporate strategy to IT strategy and to develop and manage creative technology solutions.

She has been featured on BBC and CNN for work in technology and women leadership.

She also sits on numerous boards of numerous companies in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa and has ambitions to grow EDEL Technology Consulting to the whole of Africa.

Panel Member: Prof Gideon Maas (Director of the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship at Coventry University).

Gideon will speak on “Transformational entrepreneurship and the importance of that for Ghana and Africa”.

Prof Gideon Maas is the Director of the International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship at Coventry University. Gideon has broad international business and academic experiences in various countries. Within the academic environment Gideon has created various entrepreneurship centres at different universities over the past years, developed and implemented undergraduate and post-graduate modules and programmes focusing specifically on enterprise and entrepreneurship. Recently Gideon has created the African Institute for Transformational Entrepreneurship to assist African countries in supporting sustainable socio-economic growth.

Gideon’s research focus and experiences are in entrepreneurship, open innovation, growth strategies, entrepreneurial universities, implementation of entrepreneurial systems and family businesses. His research activities are industry and academic related and has published various books and articles in the public domain.

Leading up to his current employment, he was the Director of Futures Entrepreneurship Centre and Professor in Entrepreneurship at Plymouth University in the UK; Director of the Institute of Applied Entrepreneurship at Coventry University, UK; owner-manager of his own consulting company (South Africa); the first International Chair in Entrepreneurship in South Africa (South Africa and Ireland); Acting Dean and HOD at PE Technikon (South Africa); Head Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Stellenbosch University Business School (South Africa); and Economist at the First National Development Corporation (Namibia).

He was also the principal researcher and author of the 2006 and 2007 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Reports for South Africa. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Anglia-Ruskin University and Vice President (Policy and Practice) of the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Format for Panel Discussion