Austin Tam-George

Austin Tam-George is a Nigerian academic and communication consultant who served in the Rivers State Government as the Commissioner for Information and Communication, from 21 December 2015 to 23 June 2017 when he voluntarily resigned from his post in Governor Nyesom Wike's Cabinet.

Tam-George studied leadership and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and earned a Ph.D from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

He was also Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow and lecturer at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Before his appointment into Government, Tam-George was the executive director of the Institute of Communication and Corporate Studies in Lagos.

Education
Tam-George was a Senior Executive Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts,USA, where he studied leadership and public policy [October 2022 cohort).

He received his Ph.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa in 2007 and attended the IESE Business School in Barcelona, where he studied communication and leadership in the International Faculty Programme in 2011.

Tam-George earned a master's degree in English from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1998).

Career
As an academic, he taught at Pan-African University in Nigeria and at University of Cape Town where he was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow.

In 2008, he worked as research consultant to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development in its good governance monitoring projects across Africa.

Commissioner of Information and Communications
On 9 December 2015, the House of Assembly voted unanimously to confirm Tam-George as Governor Wike's choice to succeed Ibim Semenitari as the Commissioner of Information and Communications. On 18 December 2015, he was officially sworn into office.