Current Position and Past Experience
Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande is the ninth President of Champlain College.

Dr. Akande, a Nigerian-American citizen, is a respected economist, scholar educator, and global consultant. He previously served as Assistant Vice Chancellor of International Programs-Africa, Director of the Africa Initiative, and Associate Director of the Global Health Center at Washington University in St. Louis. His prior roles included President of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri and tenured Professor of Economics and Dean of the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University in St. Louis.

Dr. Akande served as a director of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., a $5 billion publicly traded manufacturer of high-quality private food labels, including Post, and has consulted for Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Voith, SeaWorld, and many other corporations. He currently serves on the boards of Argent Capital Management and the Saint Louis Art Museum and is a past board member of Enterprise Bank & Trust, Forest Park Forever, and the MUNY. He is on the advisory board of FDC Fundação Dom Cabral, the top-ranked business school in Brazil.

Education, Honors and Achievements
Dr. Akande holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oklahoma and completed postdoctoral studies at JFK School of Government at Harvard University and Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

Personal Details and Community Involvement
Dr. Akande and his wife, Bola, a pharmacist and entrepreneur, have three adult daughters.

Connect
You can connect with Benjamin on LinkedIn