Who is Chicago Bears GM candidate Kwesi Adofo-Mensah?
The Chicago Bears are interviewing Cleveland Browns vice president of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah took a much different route to the NFL than most of the candidates you will read about. He was essentially a day trader, and first earned an economics degree from Princeton, and followed that up with a master’s from Stanford. He also traded Energy derivatives as an Executive Director as well as a role as Associate Portfolio Manager at Taylor Woods Capital Group.
When he graduated from Stanford in 2013, he was hired by the San Francisco 49ers. It is worth noting for Chicago Bears fans that Jim Harbaugh was with the 49ers when they hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and obviously appreciates the Stanford graduate.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was with the 49ers from 2013 through 2020 with a variety of roles including Manager for Research and Development, and Vice President of Operations.
He was hired by the Browns in 2020 as the vice president of football operations. The role was described as the assistant GM job, and he is considered the second man in line with the Browns currently.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is just 40 years old, but given his long list of accolades, and the respect he has across the NFL, he appears to be one of the hotter young rising names. He obviously has sharp business acumen, but nearly a decade in the NFL now is nothing to sniff at either. It is also nice to see that the 49ers moved him around to a few different areas in the front office.
While he does not have a direct relationship with Bill Polian, the Browns GM Andrew Berry started his career as an executive for Polian with the Colts. Berry obviously gave the recommendation to Polian, and Polian seems to have the Chicago Bears interested in what he has to say.
This, combined with the small connection to Jim Harbaugh has to have Chicago Bears on alert as to what he may bring to the table.