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22.12.2007 Politics

Profile: Jake Obetsebi Lamptey

22.12.2007 LISTEN
By Our Reporter - newtimesonline.com

BORN in Accra on February 4, 1946, he was educated in Ghana (then Gold Coast) and the U.K. He returned to Ghana in January 1966.

In June 1966 he joined the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Television Service. Whilst in GBC, in addition to his television duties he also hosted programmes on radio and freelanced with the Ghana Film Industries Corporation writing and anchoring documentaries and Ghana Newsreel respectively. In 1969 he joined Lintas W.A. Ltd, Accra, a Unilever Company as a client service executive and radio and television producer.

He was subsequently appointed joint general manager in 1972, becoming at age 26 the youngest head of any Unilever Company worldwide. In 1974 he became managing director of Lintas Ghana Ltd., a wholly Ghanaian owned company that took over Lintas W.A. Limited Ghana operations.

He was the Chief Executive of the Advantage Group of Companies, which included Lintas Ghana, Afromedia Ghana Ltd., Research International Ltd., Pro Design Ghana Ltd, Advantage Production, Advantage Public Relations, Afromedia Liberia Inc. and Afromedia Sierra Leone Ltd.

He is a leading authority on Social Marketing and has worked on programmes on Population/Contraceptives, HIV/AIDS and Malaria in a number of countries for, among others, the Futures Group, Population Services International and the World Health Organisation.

He was a plenary speaker at the first world AIDS Summit and was a member of the team that prepared the world response to AIDS for the World Health Organisation.

He has several publications to his credit and has written and produced a number of films including “AIDS NEEDS FOR ACTION NOW” in 1986, which was successfully used by the WHO to bring the developing menace to the attention on opinion leaders in Africa and elsewhere.

As a politician he was the chairman of the Publicity Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) from inception of the party and served as the Greater Accra Regional chairman of the NPP from 1997 – 2005. He served on the 1992 and 1986 campaign teams. He was the National campaign manager of the electoral battle that brought President John Agyekum Kufuor and the NPP to power in 2001.

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He was appointed Chief of Staff to the President in February 2001 and subsequently Minister for Presidential Affairs and Chief of Staff. He was made Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs in October 2001.

He also served as the Minister of Tourism & Modernisation of the Capital City and later Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations from May 2003 to June 2007.

He was again the campaign manager for the NPP for the 2004 election.

He captained the National Squash Rackets team and also played cricket for Ghana.

He now plays golf. He reads widely and enjoys music.

He is married with children.

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