File:Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen.jpg

1955-10-03 Place of Birth: Patase, Ashanti-Ghana

Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen (popularly called Alan Cash) is a Ghanaian politician, a corporate executive, a diplomat, and an international public servant. Kyerematen made an attempt at the leadership of the New Patriotic Party in 2007, capturing 32.3% of votes cast.

He was first runner-up to Nana Akufo-Addo who gained 47.96% of votes cast. Mr. Kyerematen made a second attempt at the Party's leadership in 2010 and he placed second to Nana Akufo-Addo who won the Primaries.

Kyerematen was the Ghanaian Ambassador to the U.S.A and later Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development, and the Presidential Special Initiatives, under President Kufuor-led NPP government. Mr. Kyerematen currently serves as a trade advisor at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He heads the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC). Ghana, on 17 December 2012, nominated Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen for the post of WTO Director-General to succeed the current Director-General, Pascal Lamy, whose term of office expires on 31 August 2013. His candidature has received the backing of the African Union (AU). Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen was born on October 3, 1955, to the late Dr. Alexander Atta Yaw Kyerematen from Patasse, Kumasi and Victoria Kyerematen (née Welsing) from Elmina and Ejisu. He was named after an Anglican Archbishop from England, The Most Reverend Alan John Knight CMG DD who was the Headmaster of Adisadel College and a mentor to his father, A.A.Y. Kyerematen when the elder Kyerematen was a student at the school in the 1930s. As a result of his mixed ancestry, he speaks Twi fluently. In addition, he is fluent in Ga, Fante, and some French. He is married to Patricia Christabel Kyerematen (née Nyinah) who is the daughter of Justice Kingsley Nyinah, Ghana's Electoral Commissioner during the 1979 presidential election.

They have two children namely Alexander and Victor. Alan John Kyerematen attended the all-boys Anglican boarding school, Adisadel College in Cape Coast for his secondary education. He entered Adisadel College at the record age of nine years, and thereafter attended the prestigious Achimota School for his sixth form education. He proceeded to the University of Ghana, Legon for a Bachelor's degree in Economics. Kyerematen also holds a Law degree, LLB from the Ghana Law School at the same university where he qualified as a Barrister-at-Law. He was called to the bar in Ghana and is a practicing attorney-at-law in Ghana. In addition, he is a Hubert Humphrey Fellow of the School of Management at the University of Minnesota, U.S.A, having completed one-year management studies under the Fulbright Fellowship program at that institution.

Corporate Executive Mr. Alan John Kyerematen has had an extensive and successful professional career in both the private and public sectors spanning a period of over twenty-four years. He was a senior corporate executive with a subsidiary of Unilever International in Ghana. He also worked for a number of years as a Principal Consultant and Head of Public Systems Management with one of the leading management development institutions in Ghana, the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI). In 1998, Alan Kyerematen was appointed by the UNDP as the first Regional Director of Enterprise Africa, which was an Africa-wide, flagship initiative for the development and promotion of small and medium enterprises.

Under that framework, he established enterprise support institutions and programs in 13 Sub-Saharan Africa countries - Botswana, Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda.

Over 4,000 African entrepreneurs and small businesses have benefited from these programs. In 1990, Alan Kyerematen was responsible for establishing and managing the EMPRETEC Programme in Ghana, a leading business development program sponsored by the United Nations and Barclays Bank Limited.

He led the transformation of EMPRETEC from a UN project into an independent Foundation, and as its founding Chief Executive, developed the Foundation into a world-class institution that is recognized as a successful model and best practice institution for enterprise development in Africa.

Between 1984 and 1990, he participated in and managed a number of major private and public sector consulting assignments in Ghana, as a Principal Consultant and Head of Public Systems Management with the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), a leading management development institution in Ghana. Prior to this, he was a senior corporate executive with UAC Ghana Ltd, a subsidiary of Unilever International, where he worked in various managerial positions with distinction until 1984. Throughout his career, Alan Kyerematen has demonstrated a capacity for efficient and effective leadership in managing and coordinating organizational activities at high levels of executive responsibility. Within that context, he has managed a diverse team of professional staff and technical experts and provided intellectual leadership in supervising the planning and organization of major international events, including the preparation of technical reports and other documentation. In addition, he has acquired over the years, in-depth knowledge and understanding, as well as practical experience in dealing with critical development issues and challenges in Africa, particularly in LDCs, in the areas of trade, investment, and economic policy management. He has also at different stages of his professional career, successfully mobilized and managed significant resources from development partners to support the development efforts in Africa.

Mr. Kyerematen is a member of the Council of Governors of the British Executive Service Overseas (BESO) in the UK and also a Board member of other organizations in Ghana.

In 1994, Mr. Kyerematen was listed by the TIME Magazine as one of the Hundred (100) Global Leaders for the New Millennium, alongside Bill Gates (Microsoft Corporation), John F. Kennedy Jr., and others.

Mr. Kyerematen currently serves as a trade advisor at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He heads the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC); a centre created by the ECA with the main objective of strengthening the human and institutional capacities of African governments to formulate and implement sound trade policies and participate more effectively in trade negotiations at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels.

He is leading efforts to enhance advocacy for trade in Africa, building the capacity of trade negotiators, as well as developing capability at the country level in trade policy formulation. In addition, he is coordinating the implementation of technical assistance programs to enhance the productive capacity and competitiveness of African countries and also providing support for analytical as well as evidence-based research on trade-related issues.

Mr Kyerematen is one of the leading members of the technical team providing strategic guidance and support to the African Union Commission in developing and elaborating an Action Plan for Boosting Intra-African Trade and preparing a framework for the establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area.

As part of this effort, he was designated as a Special Envoy of the African Union to hold consultations with selected African Heads of State before the 18th African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in January 2012. Ghana, on 17 December 2012, nominated Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen for the post of WTO Director-General to succeed the current Director-General, Mr. Pascal Lamy, whose term of office expires on 31 August 2013. His candidature has received the