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John Evans Fifii Atta Mills (born 21 July 1944) is the third and current President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 election. He was Vice President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Early life, education and academic career Mills is a Fanti from Ekumfi Otuam in the Central Region of Ghana but was born in Tarkwa, located in the Western Region of Ghana. He was educated at Achimota School, where he completed the Advanced Level Certificate in 1963, and the University of Ghana, Legon, where he received a bachelor's degree and professional certificate in law in 1967. In 1968, Mills studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and received a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. So began the pattern of the next twenty years of Mills' life, which was largely spent with spells both in Ghana & internationally as an academic. In Mills earned a Ph.D in Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London after completing his doctoral thesis in the area of taxation and economic development. Career as a lecturer Mills' first formal teaching assignment was as a lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana, Legon. He spent close to twenty five years teaching at Legon and other institutions of higher learning, and rose in position from lecturer to senior lecturer to associate professor, and served on numerous boards and committees. Additionally, he traveled worldwide as a visiting lecturer and professor at educational institutions such as the LSE, and presented research papers at symposiums and conferences In 1971, he was selected for the Fulbright Scholar Program at Stanford Law School in the United States Of America. At age 27, he was awarded his PhD after successfully defending his doctoral thesis in the area of taxation and economic development. He returned to Ghana that year, becoming a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana. He became a visiting professor of Temple Law School (Philadelphia, USA), with two stints from 1978 to 1979, and 1986 to 1987, and was a visiting professor at Leiden University (Holland) from 1985 to 1986. During this period, he authored several publications relating to taxation during the 1970s & 1980s. Outside of his academic pursuits, Professor Mills was the Acting Commissioner of Ghana's Internal Revenue Service from 1986 to 1993, and the substantive Commissioner from 1993 to 1996. By 1992, he had become an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ghana. Mills was also a Fulbright scholar at Stanford Law School. Vice-President of Ghana For the inaugural Presidential Elections in 1992, the National Convention Party (NCP) had formed an alliance with the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Former Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Chairman, and leader of Ghana, Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings chose the NCP leader, Kow Nkensen Arkaah, as his running-mate for Vice-President. Having been elected in the 1992 elections, Arkaah served between 1992�1996. However, on 29 January 1996, the NCP broke with the NDC, merging with the People's Convention Party (PCP) to form a rebirth of the Convention People's Party (the formerly outlawed political party of Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah). Thus, in a bitter split, Arkaah would stand as candidate for the reborn CPP in the 1996 Presidential Elections against Rawlings. Rawlings selected Mills for the vacated Vice-Presidency in his bid for re-election to a second term in Ghana's 1996 Presidential Election. Rawlings was re-elected to his second term in office, and Mills became Vice President of Ghana between 1996 to 2000. Personal life He is married to Ernestina Naadu Mills, an educator and has a 19 year old son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills with Ruby Addo. He is a good friend to Pastor T. B. Joshua of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria and regularly visits his church. He said following his inauguration that T.B. Joshua had prophesied to him there would be three elections, the results would be released in January, and he would emerge victorious.