Prof. Victor Kwame Agyeman, ESQ FGA FGIF BSc MPhil PhD LLB QC(BL) – Chairman
Prof. Victor Kwame Agyeman, Esq. was appointed as the Chairman of the Public Services Commission by H. E. the President of the Republic on 16th March, 2023 and sworn into office on 17th May, 2023. He took over from Dr. (Mrs.) Janet Ampadu-Fofie Esq., who successfully retired on 16th March, 2023.
Prof. Agyeman comes to the job with a track record of transformation and change management of research organisations within the Ghana Public Service. He has a demonstrable ability to initiate and see-through institutional reform programmes, including the development of innovative performance appraisal systems. He has expertise in networking and strategizing with staff to achieve a cohesive and vibrant organisation. He also has the ability to strongly advocate his institution’s goals among governments and decision makers.
Prof. Agyeman is a policy analyst, resource management expert, research scientist, ecologist and a lawyer. In addition, Prof. Agyeman has expertise in strategic planning, public administration and management, research administration and management, and strategic transformational change implementation.
Prof. Agyeman has served in the public sector for over 36 years, 20 of those in senior managerial roles. Over the past ten years, Prof. Agyeman has also served on the boards of directors or trustees of over 15 international organisations in addition to multiple national agencies. Additionally, he has represented Ghana at high-level international gatherings, including the Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA) Board of Trustees in the Netherlands, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) in New York, the FAO Committee on Forests (COFO) in Rome, the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) in Yokohama, the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) in Islamabad, the International Technical Panel for Forest Quarantine (TPFQ) in Rome, and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) in Dakar.
Prof. Agyeman is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS). He is also a Founding Member and Fellow of the Ghana Institute of Foresters (GIF). He is a Solicitor and Barrister of the Supreme Court of Ghana. Prof. Agyeman has been a member of the Ghana Science Association (GSA), British Ecological Society (BES), U.K., and the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF), USA. Additionally, he served as a founding trustee of the African Forest Forum, the chair of the Forestry Research Network of Sub-Saharan Africa (FORNESSA), and member of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development’s (CORAF/WECARD’s) Governing Board. Prof. Agyeman has also served as a member of the General assembly of the Forum for Agricultural Development in Africa (FARA), and of AfricaRice, a pan-African intergovernmental association.
Prof. Agyeman has received numerous accolades and awards, including the 2022 CORAF Honorary Award, given to eight outstanding scientists in Africa for their contributions to agricultural research; the 2019 Korean Global Agricultural Technology Co-operation Award, a prestigious award by the Republic of Korea; and the 1987 Sigma Award, a prestigious award from the United States of America (USA) for young scientists.
Prof. Agyeman served as the Director General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for a period of seven (7) years. Prior to that he held the position of Director of the CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (CSIR-FORIG) for seven (7) years. At CSIR, he also held the position of Chief Research Scientist.
Prof. Agyeman graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Natural Resources Management in 1985 and subsequently obtained an MPhil in Silviculture and Forest Management in 1990 from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. He obtained a PhD in 1995 from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K., under a grant from the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom. In 2010, Prof. Agyeman obtained an LLB (Law degree) from KNUST. He was subsequently awarded a Qualifying Certificate/Barrister of Law (QC(BL)) in 2012 by the Ghana School of Law and called to the Ghana Bar as a Solicitor and Barrister of the Supreme Court of Ghana the same year.
Prof. Agyeman has over 130 publications, including peer reviewed journal papers, books, chapters in books, handbooks, published conference papers, research and technical publications.