Daniel McKorley

Daniel Asante McKorley, known as McDan, is a Ghanaian businessman and the founder and executive chairman of the McDan Group of Companies. He started McDan Shipping in 1999 with one employee and has built the group into shipping, logistics, aviation, salt, real estate and construction.

Early life and education

He was born in June 1971 in La, Accra, the eighth of ten children in a poor family. From about the age of 12 he sold kerosene, clothes and doughnuts on the streets to help at home. He was admitted to the University of Ghana but dropped out because he could not pay the fees. About fifteen years later he went back to school and earned a BSc and an Executive MBA from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He also holds a leadership diploma from Lehigh University in the United States and several honorary doctorates, which is why he is often called Dr McKorley.

McDan Shipping

He founded McDan Shipping in November 1999, with its head office in Accra and branches in Tema and Takoradi, doing freight forwarding and customs clearance. Membership of international freight networks gave the company agents in more than 2,400 ports, and it later opened offices in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea.

McDan Aviation

McDan Aviation received its operating licence in 2019 and rebuilt the disused Terminal 1 at Kotoka International Airport as a private jet terminal. It opened on 28 January 2022 as Ghana's first private jet terminal. Three days later Ghana Airports Company Limited suspended it, citing debts of more than $4.5 million, construction without approval and security breaches. The terminal later reopened, but was shut again on 30 December 2024 over debts of more than $3 million, and resumed service on 20 January 2025 after McDan settled with the airports company.

Other businesses

The group also mines and processes salt at Ada through ElectroChem Ghana, and has interests in real estate, construction and port logistics.

Recognition

The Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management named him its Man of the Year and he kept the title in 2024. McDan Aviation was named Aviation Company of the Year at the 2025 Ghana-West Africa Business Excellence Awards.