What Kwesi Adofo-Mensah Bringing to GM Role

Multiple factors were at play in the Browns improvement over the past two seasons, but Adofo-Mensah helped the team post its best records (11-5 in 2020 and 8-9 in 2021) since 2007.

Last August, Adofo-Mensah was named among The Athletic’s 40 Under 40 as one of “football’s youngest power brokers” as a 39-year-old.

Berry said he and his colleagues are “beyond excited” for Adofo-Mensah’s new role with the Vikings.

“Kwesi’s infectious energy, critical thinking skills, collaborative spirit and expertise across the football operations/player personnel spectrum made a lasting footprint here in a short period of time,” Berry said. “These same characteristics will make him an exceptional leader, problem-solver and roster architect for the Vikings. While we are sad to see him go, we are proud of the person and executive that Kwesi is. We wish him and his fiancée, Chelsea, nothing but the best moving forward.”

Prior to joining the NFL, Adofo-Mensah worked as an associate portfolio manager at Taylor Woods Capital and was Vice President/Executive Director at Credit Suisse as a commodities trader.

Adofo-Mensah graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He later went on to receive his master’s degree in economics from Stanford University.

“I would say that my whole life, and not just my professional life, I have been really passionate about decision-making under uncertainty,” Adofo-Mensah told Cleveland reporters in 2020. “I think Wall Street and my commodity trading background is a reflection of that. I think my graduate school in economics is a reflection that. I think playing basketball is a reflection of that.

“What draws people to sports from an academic environment is that you get a chance to apply some of these academic principles and the things that happen kind of subconsciously on the court or on the field,” he added.

Last summer, Adofo-Mensah spoke at the NFL’s Coaching Summit, where he showed a glimpse of how he uses advanced statistics to grade quarterback talent and shared his approach to using research and development within talent evaluation.

“[Analytics] is about evolution, not revolution,” Adofo-Mensah said. “We take this framework that has been used for years, and we’re just applying it to different things. We’re creating decision rules, and we’re determining how those decision rules will help us in the future.

“Hope is not a strategy,” he added. “There are lots of things that can occur in the future, and it’s our job and obligation to study them, understand the risks and choose a course of action that will put us in a good situation no matter what happens.”