Ghanaian wins $20,000 Stanford Impact Prize
A Ghanaian MBA student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Evans Adanya, has been named among one of four winners of the 2026 Stanford Impact Leader (SIL) Prize.
It is one of the most prestigious social impact awards in global business education, carrying a $20,000 grant.
The announcement, made to Stanford's Classes of 2026 and 2027 by senior faculty, including Anne Beyer, Margaret Hayes, Neil Malhotra and Matt Nash, recognises graduating students who are committed to joining high-impact organisations and addressing the most pressing challenges of the times.
Evans Adanya, who completes his MBA at Stanford GSB in 2026, was selected alongside three classmates, Anshul Dhingra, Alexis Cook and Sithara Rasheed, all of the MBA Class of 2026.
The prize is administered by Stanford's Centre for Social Innovation and is awarded to between one and five graduating students each year through a rigorous process involving a written application, reference checks and a final interview with a panel of impact funders and practitioners.
Selection criteria centre on a candidate's understanding of the problem they aim to address, sustained commitment to impact over time and the leadership potential to drive meaningful change after graduation. Mr Adanya's career has been anchored in African infrastructure.
Evans Adanya
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, one of West Africa's leading independent power producers, where he helped structure financing for power plants, gas processing facilities and Ghana's longest privately owned natural gas pipeline.
He subsequently joined Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform owned by 34 African governments and the African Development Bank, as an Investment Associate.
There, he led Africa's first asset recycling transaction, in The Gambia, and a terrestrial fibre project to connect over 200 million Africans that won Digital Infrastructure Deal of the Year at the 2024 Global Connectivity Awards.
At Stanford, Mr 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 associate role at Bechtel, the global infrastructure and engineering firm and earned the Certificate in Public Management and Social Innovation, awarded to graduates who dedicate a significant portion of their academic experience to cross-sector impact work.
Making a difference
Haruna Abdulai, who supervised Mr Adanya for five years at Genser Energy, described him as someone who "does not talk about making a difference someday" but had been "doing it consistently for years", adding that Mr Adanya "is the rare professional who could have easily chosen a more lucrative path but has consistently prioritised purpose over personal gain”.
Stanford GSB, which reclaimed the number one ranking in the 2026 US News and World Report Best Business Schools list and carries an acceptance rate of 6.8 per cent, the lowest of any school on that list, is widely regarded as the most selective full-time MBA programme in the United States.
After graduation, Mr Adanya plans to return to Africa to continue financing infrastructure across energy, transport and digital connectivity, with a longer-term ambition to establish his own Africa-focused fund to invest in, acquire and operate impact businesses and enable inclusive economic growth across the continent.
