Confirmed speakers for Connected Africa 2015

Shobena Appalraju is the Avanti Sales Director for Africa based in Johannesburg.  Shobena is South African and attended University in the UK having achieved a Master’s Degree in Video Production, BSC (Hons) in New Technology (Media and Communication).  She has a wealth of experience in Satellite...

Eugene Avenant received his Bachelors of Engineering from the University of Pretoria in 1989. He started his career as a RF System engineer active in Antenna design and Radar transceiver design at the CSIR, Aerotek. He joined the CSIR Satellite Applications Centre in 1999 as a RF Systems engineer...

Patel Mmusi Barwabatsile worked as an Applications and Software developer in the telecom, insurance, business process reengineering industry. Have extensive experience delivering technical projects in the telecom industry, as an Applications and Software Engineer and a Product Development...

Loren Braithwaite Kabosha is an Executive Director of the South African Communications Forum (SACF) and Chairperson, Consumer Advisory Panel, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Braithwaite Kabosha is also a Principal consultant on ICT Policy for Layela Consulting. She was ...

Antony (known in most social and professional circles simply as Tony) worked over 16 years in the Banking Sector in Zimbabwe in various senior executive positions specialising mainly in Corporate Banking and Information Technology portfolios.  He served with distinction, in all the three banks that ...

Jason heads up retail and consumer experience efforts for Project Ara, a Google effort to create a modular smartphone platform. In this role, he manages consumer research, UI design and retail experience. Prior to Google, Jason worked at Motorola and AT&T, and co-founded SparkTruck, an...

Mitchell Burnside Clapp currently works at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agendy (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia, USA. He specializes in advanced operational space applications, air vehicle design, and analysis and design in thermodynamics and heat transfer.Prior to DARPA, Mr. Burnside Clapp ...

Electronic Engineer by the Polytechnic University in Madrid, she has more than 30 years experience in Telecommunications, having performed responsibility positions in different areas like: software development, system specification, project management, consultancy (in data modeling, business...

Mr. Decaux is Country Manager, South Africa and Sales Director, Sub-Saharan Africa, at Orange Business Services a position he has held since September 2013. He manages Orange’s overall relationship, sales and growth strategy for the large enterprise market in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Decaux’s...

Samervin Dichoso is currently employed as a Senior Product Manager for International Data Services in Globe Telecom Inc., Philippines. As a product manager he is required to wear multiple hats and perform roles such as a project manager, visionary strategist, business owner, program...

Aldred Dreyer is a digital broadcast specialist who started his career at Sentech investigating digital terrestrial television and compression technologies. This resulted in the first DTT test transmissions in 2001 and the recommendation of DTT standards through SADIBA. At the SABC he continued to...

With 25+ years of experience in state-of-the-art wireless terrestrial, space and satellitecommunication technologies on 4 continents (Europe, USA, Asia and Africa) for companies involved in:AEROSPACE communication satellites manufacturing, collaborating as ESA staff with the maincontractor Matra...

Jean-Philippe Gillet is responsible for leading Intelsat’s sales effort in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.Prior to joining Intelsat in 2003, Mr. Gillet served for five years as Vice President of International Sales for Globecast North America (France Telecom Group). Prior to that position, he...

Ellie is CEO of Nomosphere, a wireless network operator based in Johannesburg that delivers value-added services over telecommunications networks, and co-founder of customer intelligence and one-to-one analytics company Viento. She also serves as Chairperson of the Wireless Access Providers’...

Daryl Haw is a senior sales engineer at SES, responsible for designing, recommending and supporting satellite solutions for customers across Africa. Daryl has worked in the telecommunications and network industries for over 20 years, lending his talents to several manufacturing, construction and...

Sunil Joshi is MD and CEO of Neotel (Pty) Ltd. Prior to joining Tata Communications in 2007, he was based in New Zealand and Australia for over 12 years, working in various capacities with IBM New Zealand Limited, IBM Australia Limited, and TelstraClear Limited where, as Head of Business...

Thabo Makenete’s academic background is in Electrical Engineering (Light Current) where he focused mainly on Digital and Communication Systems. Following my studies, he has worked for Sentech for a period of 5.5 years as a Broadcasting Technician. Here he was responsible for rolling out Radio and...

Sias Mostert serves as Head of Commercial and Executive Director of SunSpace and Information Systems Pty Ltd. Mr. Mostert serves as Director of Programme Development at SunSpace. He has been at department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at University of Stellenbosch and also its Assiciate...

Takalani Maxwell (Max) Nonge holds the position of a Managing Director at Platco Digital. His responsibilities include recruiting channels to ensure that the company meet its target in line with the business strategy and objectives. His technical expertise ensures that Platco's uplink facility...

Eric M.K Osiakwan is the Executive Secretary both of the African Internet Service Providers Association and the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association He is also a Visiting Fellow and Scholar at the Stanford University and Reuters Foundation Digital Vision Program, Project Co-ordinator for UC ...

Malcolm is a Broadcast professional with some 30 years all round broadcast experience. He is passionate about his work and possesses a strong work ethic and the ability to engender same from his team. His innovative and lateral thinking has enabled the exploitation of unique content opportunities...

Ibrahima Guimba-Saidou joined SES in January 2012 and leads the Africa Commercial Region as Senior Vice-President. Ibrahima’s responsibilities include building a strong team on the continent to assist customers in bridging the digital divide and building their businesses via satellite...

Ryan am currently the COO of WIOCC, taking a lead role in developing the East African telecom market through the EASSy cable system. Previously, at Reliance Globalcom, I represented the CTO group relating to product, partner and M&A integration initiatives. He has held other positions at FLAG...

Dr. Richard Mark Soley is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OMG ®, Executive Director of the Cloud Standards Customer Council, and Executive Director of the Industrial Internet Consortium.As Chairman and CEO of OMG, Dr. Soley is responsible for the vision and direction of the world's...

Dr. Janos Sztipanovits is currently the E. Bronson Ingram Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Vanderbilt University and founding director of the Institute for Software Integrated Systems. His current research interest includes the foundation and applications of model and component-based...

Wilgon has been involved in the IT industry since 1997 and in Telecom projects since 2003. He is currently Group CTO of Azur Telecom Group, responsible for overseeing global technology, strategy and business development for the operations (Congo, Gabon, RCA) of Azur Telecom Group. Wilgon is a...