Our Management

Prof Baylie Damtie is the Vice Chancellor of Kepler. He oversees the initiation and development of upskilling and regular degree programs at Kepler. He is also leading the region’s  employability system change program of Ashesi University. Before joining Kepler,  Baylie was the President of Bahir Dar University for seven years (2011-2018). During his term, he initiated and led the expansion of  PhD programs that increased from 2 to 32, masters from 5 to 134, undergraduate from 45 to 75 and the publications of the University per year reached 586 from just below 10. He also initiated and led the establishment of one of the largest medical schools in Ethiopia with a teaching hospital. Prof Baylie Damtie  has also pioneered high skills oversea employment opportunities by forging innovative private-public partnership and enabling about 400 engineering graduates to secure overseas employment per year by establishing ISO certified and IMO recognized Maritime Academy at Bahir Dar University. The Washera Geospace and Radar Science Laboratory at Bahir Dar University, a leading space research laboratory in the region, is also the brainchild of Prof Baylie Damtie.

His educational background includes PhD in Space Physics from the University of Oulu (Finland), MSc in Space Physics from Tromso University (Norway) and BSc in Physics from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia).