Mary Chinery-Hesse

Mary Chinery-Hesse

Mary Chinery-Hesse (born Mary Blay on 29 October 1938) is an international civil servant and diplomat serving as the first woman Chancellor of the University of Ghana, inducted on 1 August 2018. She was the first female Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization.

She was born to Robert Samuel Blay, a barrister, jurist, and a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana during the First Republic. Her mother was Dinah Blay. She had her secondary education at the Wesley Girls’ Senior High School in Cape Coast. She also holds a BA (Hons) in Sociology and Economics, and a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from the University of Ghana, and did postgraduate training in Development Economics at the University of Dublin.