Biography of Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong – The CEO of Zoomlion

Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, popularly known as Jospong by his close associates is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zoomlion Limited

Joseph was born on March 20, 1971, in Assin-Amoabeng in the Central Region,Ghana. Joseph is the 5th of 17 children and was named as Felix by his mother. However, years later his father changed his name to Joseph. Joseph Siaw had his primary and middle school education at the Teshie Nungua Preparatory School. After his basic education, Joseph continued at the Royal Technical Institute at Nungua, a suburb of Accra where he studied for the City and Guilds of London Certificate, which he successfully completed in 1990, graduating with an Electrical Engineering Technician (Part II) certificate.

Like many children, while Joseph was growing up, he wanted to go into one of two professions; piloting or marine engineering. As such after his graduation at Royal Technical Institute, Joseph intention was to pursue a Diploma programme at the Accra Polytechnic to enable him to achieve his ambition of becoming either a pilot or a marine engineer. Even at a point he picked up an application form from the Ghana Nautical College and Accra Polytechnic but he later changed his mind as his plans changed as time went by.

While thinking of what to do next, Joseph’s mother, who used to sell exercise books in a small shop in Accra, was taken seriously ill. Given the circumstances, Joseph was compelled to take over the running of his mother’s shop and exercise books business. Within a short span of time the business grew exponentially beating everyone’s expectation.

Consequently, Joseph was advised by his father to focus on the business and put his engineering ambition on hold even as he did not have enough money to sponsor his education. With that kind of encouragement from his dad in 1995 Joseph reinvested back his profit from the exercise books business and, with additional support from his mother, whose health has improved by then, established a printing press called Jospong Printing Press in a small room at Jamestown, a suburb of Accra in.

This printing press has served as the bedrock for Joseph’s success story.

See Also:Biography of Patrick G. Awuah

Few years later, Joseph chanced upon an opportunity in construction. A client was in need of a contractor and Joseph who was no contractor but a resourceful entrepreneur met the client’s need by outsourcing the various building projects to local tradesmen and in the process established his construction firm, Extended Builders.

In 1998, during Ghana’s general elections, Joseph Siaw saw yet another opportunity to print t-shirts for the election campaign and that was how Appointed Time Screen Printing was born. Since then, Joseph has established subsidiary companies in oil and gas, logistics, quarry and mining, manufacturing as well as agro-business. With all his companies as of today summing up to 60, nationally and international.

In 2006, there were difficulties in managing solid waste in Ghana and Joseph with his engineering background, was able to introduce the tricycle concept in waste management an idea he borrowed from China.

With this innovation, Joseph’s waste company called Zoomlion has controlled waste management in Ghana and offered jobs to as many as 3,000 Zoomlion staff and over 65,000 people working on various projects for sister companies in the Jospong group.

The Jospong Group of Companies is one of the most diversified holdings companies in Ghana with operations in other African countries and Asia. The company has interest in about 14 sectors of the economy with its biggest operations in waste management, ICT, banking, including automobile and equipment. Some of the subsidiary companies within the Jospong Group include; Great Consolidated Diamond, C A Nzema Oil, J. A. Quarry, J A Plant Pool Limited, J A Vehicle Assembly Plant, Jubilee Tractors, J A Spare parts, J S A Logistics, Royal Heritage, Contrago Trans, J W Transport Company Limited, Accra Compost Limited, Zoil Services, Zoomlion Domestic Services Limited, Zoom Angola, Zoom Liberia, Zoom Togo, Zoom Equatorial Guinea, Zoom Zambia, Sierra Leone Press, Zoom Sierra Leone, Appointed Time Screen Printing, Jospong Printing Press, Pro-writing Publishing, Subah Information Solutions, Sino Africa Development, Creator Digital, Millennium Insurance and Union Savings & Loans. J

Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyemang said in an interview with the Junior Graphic that “ It will interest you to know that the fear of the Lord, hard work, dedication, zeal and faithfulness to God and men are some of the values which have propelled me to greater heights.”

See Also: Biography of Patrick G. Awuah

Personal Life

Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyemang is married to Adelaide Siaw Agyemang and together they have three children.

Awards and Honours

Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong was adjudged the Overall Best Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 during the Ghana Entrepreneur Awards and was also voted Fifth Most Respected CEO in Ghana in the same year.

Kwame NKrumah University of Science and Technology conferred an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Literature on Joseph Siaw Agyepong in 2011 for his contribution to waste management and higher education in Ghana. He was also named Ghana’s Most Influential Industrialist for 2011.

Dr Agyepong was awarded the Order of the Volta in 2008, the Millennium Excellence Award for Leadership in Industry, the Most Marketing Oriented Company by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG)

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