Ghana’s timber industry has lost one of its most dynamic and energetic leaders. Mr. Maxwell Owusu Jnr, a leading businessman in Kumasi, and President of the Ghana Timber Millers Organisation (GTMO), died at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, aged 52, on 16th March 2007, after a short illness. He was laid to rest at the weekend. Maxwell left behind a wife, Sophia, and three children.

At the time of his death, Maxwell was the Managing Director of Hanmax Veneer and Plywood limited in Kumasi, a company with a workforce of about 500. He was also the proprietor of the Cresta Royale Hotel at Dzowulu in Accra. I first met the late Mr. Owusu in June 2006 in Merida, Mexico, when he attended the Council meeting of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) as the industry representative on Ghana’s official delegation. He impressed me instantly with his intelligence and strategic business mind, and we became friends immediately. At a personal level, Maxwell was very affable. As a businessman, he was astute, a skilful and effective negotiator and a great strategic thinker. His business acumen was simply unparalleled.

Maxwell was a trained accountant, with Bachelor of Science and Masters in Business Administration degrees from universities in Ghana and the United States. Together with his other brothers, he took over his father’s timber business when the old man died. Under Maxwell’s leadership, they diversified the timber business to include hospitality and financial services, and further turned his father’s business into a major success story in Ghana. At the time of his death, Maxwell was on the throes of building another hotel in Accra. He was also in the process of making the Cresta Royale part of an international chain of boutique hotels.

The late Maxwell Owusu dedicated himself to the services of the Ghana Timber industry, and his untimely death is a major blow to the industry. Indeed, Maxwell’s death is not only a blow to the timber industry but the nation as a whole, as Ghana has lost a great and effective businessman. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Damirifa due, due.