A Ghanaian MBA student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Evans Adanya, has been named one of four winners of the 2026 Stanford Impact Leader Prize, a major social impact award in global business education that comes with a $20,000 grant.
The award recognises graduating students who are committed to working in high-impact organisations and tackling major social and economic challenges.
Evans Adanya, who is expected to complete his MBA at Stanford GSB in 2026, was selected alongside Anshul Dhingra, Alexis Cook and Sithara Rasheed, all from the MBA Class of 2026.
The prize is administered by Stanford’s Centre for Social Innovation and is awarded each year to a small number of graduating students through a competitive process involving written applications, reference checks and final interviews.
Selection is based on a candidate’s understanding of the problem they want to solve, their long-term commitment to impact, and their leadership potential.
Adanya’s professional journey has focused strongly on African infrastructure.
After graduating from the University of Ghana with a Bachelor of Science in Administration, majoring in Accounting, and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana, he spent five years at Genser Energy Ghana.
During his time there, he helped structure financing for power plants, gas processing facilities and Ghana’s longest privately owned natural gas pipeline.
He later joined Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform owned by 34 African governments and the African Development Bank, as an Investment Associate.
At Africa50, he led Africa’s first asset recycling transaction in The Gambia and worked on a terrestrial fibre project aimed at connecting more than 200 million Africans.
At Stanford, Adanya served as Portfolio Operations Lead at the Stanford GSB Impact Fund and as Chief Financial Officer of the GSB Private Equity Club.
He also completed a summer role at Bechtel, the global infrastructure and engineering firm, and earned a Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation.
A former supervisor at Genser Energy, Haruna Abdulai, described him as someone who has consistently chosen purpose over personal gain.
After graduation, Adanya plans to return to Africa to continue working in infrastructure financing across energy, transport and digital connectivity.
He is also said to have a long-term ambition of establishing an Africa-focused fund to invest in and grow impact businesses across the continent.
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