Dr. Yaw Adu Ampomah was born on the 21^st of August 1952 and is married with four children. He holds a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Hull and a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Ghana. Dr. Yaw Adu Ampomah was the special advisor to the minister of agriculture on cocoa affairs and he was a member of the research team that developed the inter amazon cocoa hybrids and lastly leader of the research team that developed elite cocoa varieties now released to cocoa farmers in Ghana.

He is a member of the Ghana Science Association, International Group for Genetics Improvement for Cocoa (INGENIC) and was the Chairman of the Ghana Cocobod Committee for Investigation into the Occurrence of Light Crop Cocoa Beans in Major Crops (1998-2000).