Mr. Alan John Kyerematen (Alan Cash)

Mr. Alan Kyeremanteng

Mr. Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen was born on 3 October 1955 to the late Dr. Alexander Atta Yaw Kyerematen, a social anthropologist from Patasse, Kumasi and Victoria Kyerematen from Elmina and Ejisu. He was named after an Archbishop of the Church of England, The Most Reverend Alan John Knight CMG DD who was the Headmaster of the all boys Anglican boarding school, Adisadel College in Cape Coast in the 1930s, and a mentor to his father (A.A.Y. Kyerematen).

Mr. Alan Kyerematen attended Adisadel College for his secondary education, entering the institution at the record age of nine (9) years. He attended Achimota School afterwards for his sixth form education. He proceeded to the University of Ghana, Legon for a Bachelor's degree in Economics. Mr. Alan 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 Ghana Bar and now 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.

Mr Alan Kyerematen has been a leading stalwart and key strategist of the NPP since its inception in 1992. He is a founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and has also served on the highest decision-making bodies of the NPP that shaped the Party’s strategic direction both in opposition and in Government.. He made an attempt at the flagbearership of the New Patriotic Party in 2007, capturing 32.30% of votes cast. He was first runner-up to Nana Akufo-Addo who gained 47.96% of votes cast. He made another attempt in 2010 where he placed second again with 20.40% of total valid votes cast to Nana Akufo-Addo's 77.92%. In 2014, He once again came second to Akufo-Addo with 4.75% against Nana Addo's 94.35% of the votes.

Mr. Alan John Kyerematen has been a successful professional in both the private and public sector for over twenty-four years. He was a senior corporate executive with a subsidiary of Unilever (Ghana) where he became a junior manager at the age of twenty-two years. 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, Mr. 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 programmes in 13 Sub-Saharan Africa countries (Botswana, Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa  and Uganda).

In 1990, Alan Kyerematen was responsible for establishing and managing the EMPRETEC Programme in Ghana, a leading business development programme sponsored by the United Nations and Barclays Bank. 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 which 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.

He was appointed Ghana’s Ambassador to the U.S.A. when the N.P.P came into office in 2001. As Head of Ghana’s Diplomatic Mission to the United States of America, he was considered the NPP Government’s top foreign envoy and performed with distinction over the 18-month duty tour, and achieved a lot. In 2003, Alan Kyerematen was appointed as the Cabinet Minister with responsibility for Trade, Industry and the President’s Special Initiatives (PSI) with additional responsibility for Private Sector Development (PSD). Once asked by a journalist how he became known in the Ghanaian media as “Alan Cash,” He said it happened because in political campaigns he stressed the importance of creating jobs and "real cash" for the people. Mr. Alan 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,  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.