Herman Eamon Owula Kojo Chinery-Hesse was born on 18 November 1963 in Dublin, Ireland, to a prominent Ghanaian family, his mother Mary Chinery-Hesse a distinguished diplomat who later became the first female Chancellor of the University of Ghana, and his father a lawyer who served as Ghana's acting Attorney General.
Chinery-Hesse was educated in the United States and worked in Britain for several years before making the then-unconventional decision in 1990 to move to Ghana with little more than a computer, determined to build a technology business in his native country rather than remain what he felt was a 'second class citizen' abroad.
After fixing a broken computer for a desperate travel agent in downtown Accra, Chinery-Hesse founded SOFTtribe in 1991, which grew from his parents' bedroom and garage into the oldest and largest software company in Ghana, providing business development software to major clients including Unilever, Guinness Breweries Ghana and the Ghana National Petroleum Company.
SOFTtribe's influence expanded beyond Ghana into Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Togo and Burkina Faso, and Chinery-Hesse became known internationally as 'the Bill Gates of Ghana' and 'Africa's father of technology', speaking at Harvard Business School, Oxford, Wharton and Chatham House about technology's potential to transform the continent.
Chinery-Hesse continued championing African-led technology entrepreneurship throughout his career, serving as an Assessor at Ghana's Commercial Court, until his death on 17 September 2024 at age 60; he is remembered as a pioneering godfather of Africa's software industry whose decision to build in Ghana rather than abroad proved transformative for the continent's tech ecosystem.
- Founded SOFTtribe, the oldest and largest software company in Ghana
- Provided software systems to major multinational clients across West Africa
- Named one of Africa's Top 20 Tech Influencers
- Spoke at Harvard Business School, Oxford and Chatham House
- Known internationally as 'the Bill Gates of Ghana' and 'Africa's father of technology'
- Choosing to build at home can transform an entire industry. Chinery-Hesse's decision to return to Ghana rather than remain abroad directly created West Africa's leading software company.
- Starting small does not preclude building something lasting. SOFTtribe grew from his parents' bedroom and garage into a company serving multinational clients across six countries.