Bosompem came to Canada without speaking much of the English language, but his will to succeed has made him the man he is today.

A refugee from Ghana, Bosompem came to Canada in August of 1991 at the age of 28, fleeing his homeland at a time when a military junta ruled the country.

“I came here with nothing,” Bosompem said of his beginnings in Canada 22 years ago.

Bosompem said many Ghanians came to Canada as refugees during the ’80s and ’90s.

“I was a refugee. During the troubled part in the early ’90s I came in here with the help of the Canadian government,” Bosompem said.

Today, to his credit, Bosompem has a two masters degrees on top of his bachelor of commerce in marketing.

He’s worked for 14 years with public and financial service organizations in positions such as director of corporate services, financial specialist, chamber of commerce director and chief operating officer.

“It’s all the perseverance and the fortitude and the will to succeed. I pushed myself as much as my feeble legs and mind can go,” Bosompem said.

Bosompem will be starting yet another new chapter in his life on Monday, when he starts his new job as Logan Lake’s chief administrative officer.

When he arrived in Canada, Bosompem initially settled in Montreal, where he took classes at McGill University such as English as a second language.

He told the Herald coming to a new country as an adult was difficult because he essentially had to rebuild his life.

“I had to start all over again,” Bosompem said, noting learning English and French as particular hurdles.

“I adopt[ed] Quebec as my home, so everything was challenging,” he said.

To afford school, Bosompem said he worked menial jobs such as washing dishes and cleaning floors in Chinese restaurants.

“Anything that would sustain me,” Bosompem said.

He then transferred his class credits to Concordia University in Montreal.

After completing his bachelor of commerce with a major in marketing at Concordia, Bosompem went to the U.S. in 1997.

There, he earned a master of science in administration, majoring in finance from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

He worked in banking after that and worked his way up to be an assistant branch manager before getting into investment and financial planning.

But Bosompem wanted to transfer from financial to public services so he decided to once again venture to the Great White North.

Returning to Canada by about 2007, Bosompem earned a masters of public administration from the University of Regina.

Since then, Bosompem has worked as a legislative co-ordinator in Chestermere, Alta. and as corporate services director for the Town of Pincher Creek, Alta.

He most recently worked as chief operating officer for Lytton First Nation and volunteered as a director of the chamber of commerce in Lytton as well.

The 50-year-old was recently taking accounting courses at Thompson Rivers University, but has finally put his education on hold to focus on his career.

“But I think I have more than enough education,” Bosompem said with a laugh.

“The mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

He said he thinks Canada has given him much to be proud of and made him a useful member of society.

“I’m very grateful,” Bosompem said.

Logan Lake has been without a chief executive officer since September when former CAO Wayne Volrath retired.

The town’s acting mayor Robin Smith said that for her, what tipped the scales in favour of hiring Bosompem was his energy and the amount of education he has.

“I think that he’s going to be a really good fit for the position up in Logan Lake,” Smith said.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to know him a little bit better and working with him up here.”