John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, born on 21 July 1944 in Tarkwa in Ghana’s Western Region, was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as the 11th president of Ghana from 2009 until his death on 24 July 2012. 

He was the first Ghanaian president to die in office. Mills defeated Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 presidential election and was sworn in on 7 January 2009. Before becoming president, he served as Vice President of Ghana from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry John Rawlings and had earlier lost the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

A native of Ekumfi Otuam in the Central Region and a member of the Fante ethnic group, Mills was the second of seven children. He had his early education at Huni Valley Methodist Primary and Komenda Methodist Middle School, followed by secondary school at Achimota School. 

He later earned a law degree from the University of Ghana, and continued his studies at the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies, earning an LLM and a PhD in law, respectively, by the age of 27. His doctoral thesis focused on taxation and economic development.

Mills began his professional career as a lecturer at the University of Ghana, where he taught for nearly 25 years. He held visiting academic roles at Temple University in the United States and Leiden University in the Netherlands, and participated in the Fulbright Scholar programme at Stanford Law School in 1971. 

He also served as Commissioner and later Acting Commissioner of Ghana’s Internal Revenue Service from 1988 to 1996, and became an Associate Professor of Law in 1992. In 2002, he was a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

In politics, Mills became Vice President after Rawlings selected him as running mate for the 1996 elections following the departure of then Vice President Kow Nkensen Arkaah. He chaired both the Police Council and the Economic Management Team. 

After Rawlings’ final term ended, Mills was chosen as the NDC's candidate for the 2000 and 2004 elections but lost both times to John Agyekum Kufuor. He was again elected as the NDC flag bearer in 2006 and won the presidency in the closely contested 2008 elections, defeating Akufo-Addo in a runoff vote.

As president, Mills promoted a more inclusive and less divisive political agenda. He oversaw Ghana’s entry into oil production and is credited with achieving single-digit inflation, economic growth, and stabilizing the cedi. In 2011, Ghana recorded one of the highest economic growth rates in the world. His administration reduced the budget deficit, improved foreign reserves, and attracted increased foreign direct investment. 

He implemented the Single Spine Salary system to enhance public sector wages and established the Ghana Revenue Authority to improve revenue collection. Ghana also met key monetary criteria for the proposed West African common currency during his presidency and was recognized as the best place to do business in West Africa in the World Bank’s 2011 rankings.

On the education front, Mills expanded the capitation grant and school feeding program, distributed millions of free exercise books, and provided free school uniforms and over 100,000 laptops to students. He eliminated nearly 1,700 of the 4,320 schools operating under trees and worked on improving classroom infrastructure. 

His government also supported teachers pursuing distance education and established two new public universities: the University of Health and Allied Sciences and the University of Energy and Natural Resources. Throughout his presidency, Mills remained committed to social democratic values and was guided by a vision for a better and more equitable Ghana.