# Herman Chinery-Hesse

Herman Owula Kojo Chinery-Hesse (18 November 1963 – 17 September 2024) was a Ghanaian technology businessman and the founder of theSOFTtribe, the oldest and largest software company in Ghana. He was popularly known as "the Bill Gates of Africa". Chinery-Hesse also made the list of 15 Black STEM Innovators. In March 2019, he was introduced as the Commonwealth Chair for Business and Technology Initiatives for Africa.

## Early life and education

Herman Chinery-Hesse was born in Dublin, Ireland on 18 November 1963 to Lebrecht James Nii Tettey Chinery-Hesse and Mary Chinery-Hesse, née Blay. 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 Ridge Church School in Accra and Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast, Westlake High School in Austin, Texas and Texas State University, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Technology.

## 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 e-billing systems
* Point of Sale Systems
* Electronic payment systems
* In addition to theSOFTtribe's proprietary payroll system, Akatua, other software products his firm introduced to the local market were Gbefalor (a travel package), Battor (forex management), Nzama (stock management), Eziban (restaurant management), Efuom (farm management), Bimbilla (a general ledger), and e-Susu (software for microfinance/peer-to-peer savings and credit)
His project "Afrikan Echoes" is aimed at creating African audiobooks app for global consumption, such that for the first time ever Africans are in a position to tell their own stories to a worldwide audience. He was an assessor for the Commercial Courts of Ghana. He was also a real estate investor, with business interests in property development joint ventures in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

## Personal life and death

Chinery-Hesse was married to Sierra Leonean lawyer, Sadia Atami Chinery-Hesse (née Clarke) and they had two children, Nii Tettey and Naa Densua. He died on 17 September 2024, at the age of 60. Chinery-Hesse was buried at the Graceland Memorial Garden, in Berekuso, located at the foothills of the Aburi ridge, near Accra.

## Honours and recognition

Chinery-Hesse and his company have won numerous awards and accolades, including World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2008), 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. The City of San Marcos, Texas also gave him the honorary key to the city.
He was also honoured at the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Executive Awards (GECEA) and the African Innovation Award for ICT Leadership and the Ghana Legacy Honours.
Chinery-Hesse was also bestowed with a honorary chieftaincy title by Ghanaian traditional leaders in recognition of his contributions to national development and technology. He was also adjudged the Microsoft African Partner of the Year.
Chinery-Hesse was 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 also played a supporting role in the realm of technology and innovation to many Ghanaian presidents in their international engagements. He was a TED Fellow and 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.
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.
A conference room at Google's Nairobi, Kenya's office is named after him.