MacLean Sarbah, MA, MPhil, MDes, is a

Ghanaian The Ghanaian people are a nation originating in the Gold Coast (region), Ghanaian Gold Coast. Ghanaians predominantly inhabit the Republic of Ghana and are the predominant cultural group and residents of Ghana, numbering 34 million people as of ...

philanthropist, Social entrepreneur, and Innovator. He is currently the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leader within the Global Health Office of the President at the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

Early life and education

Sarbah was raised in Yeji, a rural town in Ghana’s

Brong Ahafo Region The Brong-Ahafo region was a region in central Ghana. Brong-Ahafo was bordered to the north by the Black Volta river and to the east by the Lake Volta, and to the south by the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions. The capital of Brong-Ahafo is ...

, as one of eight children. His parents were immigrants from Mepe in the Volta Region. He attended Adidome Senior Secondary School in the Volta Region before enrolling at the University of Ghana, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences in 2006. After passing his final Secondary exams, he was admitted to study at the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

in 2002 and graduated with first-class honors with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences. In 2010, he started his Master of Arts in Social-Organizational Psychology at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He graduated in 2012, also earning an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Cooperation and Conflict Resolution. The same year, he was accepted into the University of Cambridge's Master of

Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

in Innovation, Strategy, and Organization program, graduating in 2013. In 2017, Mac pursued another master's degree in Risk and Resilience at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and completed it in 20

Career

He is currently the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health Office of the President. Before his current position, Sarbah founded and led EdAcme, an initiative dedicated to equal access to higher education and career opportunities for marginalized groups. He has been featured in numerous media outlets and has spoken at global events where he shared great concerns about youth unemployment and entrepreneurship.

Social Initiatives

Mac Sarbah Founded EdAcme, an initiative that helped young people achieve their entrepreneurship and educational talents. He is also the president of Sarbah Foundation, a newly formed initiative to help contribute to education,

entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneu ...

, and social impact in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

and the

African continent Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Personal life and family

Mac has seven siblings born to their father, John Kwame Mensah Sarbah. He was raised in

Yeji Yeji is a town in the centre of Ghana and the capital of the Pru East District of the Bono East Region in Ghana. Yeji is adjacent to Lake Volta. Yeji is connected by highway to Ejura and Kwadjokrom. It had a population of 29,515 at the censu ...

, a rural town in

’s

Brong-Ahafo The Brong-Ahafo region was a region in central Ghana. Brong-Ahafo was bordered to the north by the Black Volta river and to the east by the Lake Volta, and to the south by the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions. The capital of Brong-Ahafo ...

region. His mother left home when he was less than two years old, but his father, who had no formal education and who was a disciplinarian, guided and shaped him academically in the early years

Awards and recognition

Early in his academic career, Sarbah was awarded the Best Student Award in the North Tongu District,

. During his time at the

, he received an academic excellence award in his second year of study In 2019, ICEF honored him as a groundbreaker for his contributions to global education. In 2019, Mac was recognized as a Stellar Harvardian by the

Harvard Gazette Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learn ...

. He also received the Social Impact Leadership Award from the University of North Texas at Dallas in 2019. In 2019, Bonsu Royal Educational Complex in

honored Maclean Sarbah by naming a school block after him, the MACLEAN (MAC) SARBAH BLOCK, for his contributions to the primary and junior high school he once attended.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarbah, Mac Living people Ghanaian business executives Columbia University alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge People from Brong-Ahafo Region Year of birth missing (living people) Ghanaian businesspeople 21st-century businesspeople