About our guest speaker:

Erika Amoako-Agyei is an international sales, marketing and communications professional with a track record of securing key clients globally, driving multimillion-dollar revenue growth, and increasing product distribution to grow market share in highly competitive international markets. For nearly a decade, Amoako-Agyei worked internationally for IBM Corp., starting in the U.S., and followed by several years in Ghana. As IBM country general manager, Amoako-Agyei managed IBM Ghana operations and provided leadership for the company’s re-entry and market expansion into the West African region. In Ghana, she implemented a systematic and culturally-based approach to sales and business development, appointed locally-owned companies as IBM resellers, and managed joint projects with business partners. Additionally, she supported multiple projects in other West African nations, including Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and Cameroon. She also made regular visits to the IBM regional head office in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Upon returning to the United States, Amoako-Agyei became the director of corporate relations for the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona She later went into business for herself, founding a computer hardware and software consultancy that provided independent consulting to Africa-based corporate, educational, and government clients. In 2011, Amoako-Agyei founded Africa Intercultural Consulting, a management and cross-cultural training firm in the U.S. that services global companies and organizations expanding into Africa.

Amoako-Agyei is now an active consultant and trainer with top U.S. energy companies, global technology firms, and other industry corporate and nonprofit clients. From her experience, she delivers cross-cultural training programs for executives, multicultural teams, expatriate families and international students. As a visiting professor, she teaches a summer course called Conducting Business in Africa to graduate and undergraduate students at the Sam Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. She is the author of “Cross-Cultural Management and Organizational Behavior in Africa,” published by John Wiley & Sons (2009), for the Thunderbird International Business Review, as well as a businessperson’s guide to the social and professional cultures in sub-Saharan Africa.

Born in Canada to immigrant parents from Ghana, Amoako-Agyei lives in Phoenix, Arizona and enjoys public speaking, professional writing, traveling, and mentoring future leaders.