Kenneth Andam

Personal

A native of Takoradi, Ghana, Andam was born 8 January 1976. His parents are Kenneth and Janet Andam, and his religious affiliation has been reported to be Mormonism.

Junior athlete

In 1995, Andam won the triple jump at the African Junior Athletics Championships in the Bouaké, Ivory Coast (15.63 metres) and the West African championships in the Long Jump in Banjul, Gambia. He also set an inter-regional triple jump record of 16.02 meters in WA, a township in the northern part of Ghana during the 1995 inter-regional championships and was awarded the best male athlete of the competition that year.

Collegiate career

Andam attended Brigham Young University where he competed on the Cougars' track and field team in the 100 metres, 200 metres, 4 × 100 metres relay, and the long jump. As of 2012, he holds top ten marks for BYU in each event, including a school record in the 4 × 100 relay set in 1999 with Ghanaian teammate Leonard Myles-Mills (38.88 seconds). Andam is ranked third on BYU's all-time best list behind Frank Fredericks and Myles-Mills, and third behind Fredericks and Oluyemi Kayode.

Accredited to Andam are Western Athletic Conference (WAC) awards, including freshman of the year both indoor and outdoor, Mountain West Conference (MWC) Awards and records for track & field and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) All American Honors. As of 2011, he holds Mountain West Conference all-time records in the indoor 60 metres and the outdoor 100 metres.

In 1999, Andam was ranked 11th in the nation in the 100 metres and 7th in the 200 metres and was the WAC champion in the long jump as well as thee 4 X 100 relay. In the long jump, he was injured upon landing and was unable to compete in the 60 and 20 metres events. At the 1999 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Boise, Idaho, he advance with Myles-Mills to the semi-finals of the 200 metres and his 4 X 100 relay team, ranked No. 1 in the nation, qualified for the finals with the fastest semi-final time. Andam was injured before the finals, and BYU's relay team eventually finished third in the nation.

Andam was injured with a stress fracture in January 2000, but recovered to post performances that twice earned him the title of the Mountain West Conference Men's Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Week. That season, he was the MWC champion in the 100 and 200 metres, and qualified in the 100 metres and 4 X 100 for the 2000 NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Durham, North Carolina.

At the 2001 Mountain West Conference championships, Andam earned the Men's High Point Award. Prior to the 2001 NCAA Track and Field Championships in Eugene Oregon, Andam was ranked No. 8 in the nation for the 100 metres. In the finals, he posted a time of 10.39 to finish in 7th.

International competition

In 1999, Andam represented Ghana in the 200 metres at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain. He finished sixth in his preliminary heat (21.31 seconds) and failed to advance to the quarter-finals. The following year at the 2000 African Championships in Algiers, Andam earned a bronze medal in the 100 metres (10.33 seconds) as well as a gold medal on Ghana's 4 × 100 relay team (39.90 seconds). At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, he represented Ghana in the 4 X 100; however, his team failed to finish in their qualifying heat. Andam also competed in the 100 metres at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada. In his preliminary heat, he finished third in 10.40 to qualify for the quarter-finals. In the quarter finals, Andam narrowly missed qualifying for the semi-finals with a fourth-place finish in 10.26.

Education

In 2000, Andam graduated with two BS degrees from BYU; one in information systems and one in economics.

Inventor

Andam is an inventor and a technology innovator in software and specializes in research and development with a focus in communications and interactive video processing. He has innovated patent pending technology for medical claims data transfer for personal health record systems in the healthcare sector, and for video email system with security modes that allows for secure user control of their data over the internet. Andam also created an interactive visual search engine that uses image tagging to display search results., and also invented a patent pending video algorithm for compressing large video files into bit frames easy to view over the internet.

Entrepreneur

Andam has worked within the technology, education, and natural resources sector and has been a founding member of some innovative startup and mid tier companies in the US and Africa. Kenneth founded WorldVuer Inc., a media communications company that has developed proprietary technologies for communicating bandwidth intensive data across any network. Andam also co-founded Globa, Inc. with Johan Meyer to provide mobile banking and mobile remittance to Africans across the continent and their relatives living abroad. He is also founder of OS Petro, Inc., which is an oil and gas company with concessions and reserves in Ghana and Namibia. Andam is also founder and chairman of SIDE EQUITY, a company that funds projects in the technology, natural resources, and consumables sector.

BYU's Marriott Magazine featured Andam as a success both as an athlete and as businessman in the its 2001 summer edition. The deal published Andam as a business leader for entrepreneurs in Africa for his contribution to the business sector of the continent. Andam serves as chairman of Kenny Andam Company Limited, an investment company in the US and Africa.

Before founding WorldVuer and Zareb, Andam served as Chairman and CTO of Squanet International Inc., a company he founded in 1999 and sold to CelluVision Technologies in November 2002. Squanet developed the first Linux-based PCA with a Korean joint venture partner. Before managing the Communications and technology development for Squanet, he served as a telecommunications consultant and lead developer for NTT DoCoMo of Japan during the deployment of i-mode and the introduction of FOMA, and also for Virgin Mobile of the UK on their M-Clinical project. Andam has also managed the information Systems departments for Lenderlab Inc. and Morinda in their information systems department. He started his career in the Windows division of Microsoft Inc.

Philanthropist

Andam is a supporter of the Education is Freedom, which provides Educating children and communities worldwide Build education and medical infrastructure in deprived regions of the world. Andam has also reverberated the Radio and Television Personality Awards in Ghana for peaceful media support to millions of the media and broadcast enthusiast in Ghana. Andam also works with the IT Girls of Las Vegas and is currently working to provide a platform for Opportunity Village to expand its service outreach to other states in the US.