New UB School of Management leadership center opens in Africa

By Kevin Manne

BUFFALO, N.Y. — On a mission to create global leaders, administrators from the University at Buffalo School of Management’s Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (CLOE) recently visited Ghana, Africa, to launch the new Global Center for Leadership and Social Innovation, in partnership with the African Rights Initiative International (ARII).

The two organizations will work together to deliver much-needed education and leadership skills development, one of the biggest challenges facing Africa.

“This new center will develop our global capabilities and draw on our faculty and leadership expertise to address significant challenges in developing this high-potential region in Africa,” says Paul Tesluk, dean of the UB School of Management. “The African Rights Initiative plays a critical role in addressing global poverty and we look forward to helping develop a strong foundation for their continued success.”

Areas of collaboration between CLOE and ARII will include learning and building leadership capacity, sharing research data, organizational development and sustainability, collaboration and communication, and global partnership initiatives.

In addition, CLOE and ARII worked together to bring their first Social Innovation conference to Ghana’s capital, Accra. The event brought together more than 300 global and rising leaders from the business, nonprofit and academic worlds for a series of workshops and meetings where UB School of Management experts shared their knowledge in leadership, entrepreneurship and developing the next generation of leaders.

The ARII is a nonprofit international relief and development organization in Ghana, incorporated in 2007, and is working to advance leadership, research and social sector productivity across Africa.

Launched in fall 2013, CLOE strives to create more effective leaders and organizations. One of the center’s key objectives is to advance research and teaching in the area of leadership and its impact on organizational effectiveness. It also supports UB 2020’s goals of accelerating academic excellence, translating scholarship and developing leadership capabilities in UB students and business leaders.