A U.K – born Ghanaian has been appointed by Prime Minister Theresa May as Universities and Science Minister of England in a cabinet reshuffle.
Sam Gyimah, 41, a Member of Parliament for East Surrey had previously held the portfolio of Minister of Prisons and Probation. He replaces Jo Johnson who has been appointed Transport Minister.
The BBC reports that Gyimah’s new role straddles the Department for Education and the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He is expected to work along with England’s Education Secretary, Damian Hinds.
In a Facebook post about his new job, he said: “In my new role I’ll be overseeing higher education including student finance, the student experience and wider participation as well as research and innovation coming from our institutions.
“Our universities are among the best in the world and are essential to our future, so I look forward to doing all I can to continue to promote, support and champion higher education in the UK.”
Born in Buckinghamshire, Gyimah is said to have spent some of his childhood in his mother’s native Ghana. He studied political science, politics and economics at Oxford and worked for five years with Goldman Sachs before entering politics.
He has been an MP since 2010 and also served in the government of then PM David Cameron. He was a government whip and parliamentary private secretary to Mr. Cameron between 2012 and 2013.
The pro-Brexit proponent is a fan of English Premier League side Arsenal and is married with two children.
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