Along with vast commitments to the School of Business and Technology, locally and internationally, and the community of St. Louis, Benjamin Akande, dean of the School of Business and Technology, places great focus on his family. In his free time, he helps his daughters with homework, cheers on the contestants of “American Idol” and watches Rams games— despite a losing season.

“I’m trying to stay committed to the Rams,” Akande says. “This is a low point in their life and like many organizations, I think we learn more from our failures than our successes. So, the Rams are looking at themselves critically now. I am confident they will reemerge as a powerhouse in the future.”

Akande’s dedication to the Rams directly relates to his view on life. Not always a diligent student growing up, Akande experienced firsthand how to turn failures into successes. His career and community involvement are proof of this.

“What turned me around was the nurturing and commitment of my parents and their willingness to provide real feedback,” Akande says. “Not in terms of criticism, but in ways I could improve myself. In a sense, it reunited me and enabled me to weather the storms that you face in the course of trying to lead.”

Akande accepted the position of dean for the School of Business and Technology in 2000, after heading the School of Business at Wayland Baptist University in Texas. Webster’s international distinctiveness piqued his interests. He hopes to make the school a global name in business education and the main provider of “world-class, reality-based education.”

“The global aspect of Webster (is what) I am very attracted to,” he says. “Being the global citizen that I am, I felt there were very few institutions that were that committed to global education. And with the presence in Europe and the presence in Asia, I thought well, one day soon there will be a presence in Africa, my native country.”

Born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria, the largest nation in Africa, Akande frequently travels to his homeland to visit his parents and attend to his property. His parents came to Texas in the late 1950s to study and were so intrigued by American schools that Akande and his four siblings received their higher education in the States after completing high school in Ibadan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, a master’s degree in economics, public administration from Wayland Baptist University and a doctorate in economics at the University of Oklahoma.

Over the years, Akande has worn several hats, including consultant to the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program, an aid in the nation’s first online master’s degree program in business and organizational security management, a professor of business and management and a board member for The Private Bank of St. Louis and The World Affairs Council. He won the “40 over 40” award in 2002 from the St. Louis Business Journal that celebrates individuals who show determination and leadership in the St. Louis community.