Speaker Biographies

Speakers

Moderators

Mario Maniewicz

Deputy Director of the Radiocommunications Bureau, ITU

Mr. Mario Maniewicz is the Deputy-Director of the International Telecommunication Union’s Radiocommunication Bureau. The Bureau is responsible for the application of the Radio Regulations and for technical and administrative support of ITU World and Regional Radiocommunication Conferences, Radiocommunication Assemblies and Study Groups. The Bureau also carries out the international regulatory processes for registration of frequency assignments and satellite orbits and assists administrations in their coordination and implementation of frequency spectrum and orbit requirements as well as in resolving cases of harmful interference. It provides the specialized technical secretariat for the work of the Radiocommunication Study Groups and the Radiocommunication Assembly in the development of recommendations for spectrum utilization and radio system characteristics.

Mr. Maniewicz has been with the ITU for more than 25 years, where he has held various positions of responsibility at ITU headquarters as well as in the Regional Offices in Peru, Chile and Brazil, leading activities towards fostering global telecommunications development.

During his tenure at ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, as Chief of the Infrastructure, Enabling Environment and E-Applications Department, Mr. Maniewicz directed ITU’s efforts to assist developing countries in bridging the digital divide by promoting the use of ICT-based networks, services and applications, while ensuring the use of appropriate technologies to build or extend their information and communication infrastructure and adapt to the rapidly changing telecommunication/ICT environment. This includes the provision of guidelines and tools for the development of policy and regulatory frameworks, financing policies and strategies, development of telecommunication and IP-based networks, promotion of pervasive broadband deployment, digital broadcasting and spectrum management, as well as the use of reliable and cost-effective ICT applications while enhancing cyber-security. Mr. Maniewicz is also responsible for the Union's activities in the promotion of access and use of telecommunications and ICTs for groups that have been marginalized in their access to current mainstream ICT services, including women, youth, indigenous people, persons with disabilities and people living in remote communities.

Before becoming Chief of Infrastructure, Enabling Environment and E-Applications, Mr. Maniewicz was Chief of Policies and Strategies at ITU’s BDT, where he was responsible for the Union’s activities in the policy and regulatory domain, human capacity building, ICT statistical data collection and analysis, and other development domains, including Internet and IP networks development. Previously, Mr. Maniewicz was Head of Human Capacity Building, where he was actively involved in promoting projects and activities in developing countries specifically related to Training, Human Resources Management and Development, Organizational Development and Managerial Development for Telecommunications. He was directly involved in the development of models and guidelines for the transformation of telecommunication organizations to better face a changing environment towards competition. He has helped governments, regulators and operators of developing countries in the definition of their organizational and managerial strategies and policies, the identification of their HR and Organizational Development needs, including training of top level managers of telecommunication organizations in modern management and competitive transformation related aspects. He has also broad experience in project management in various fields such as rural telecommunication development, frequency management and monitoring, transformation of the telecommunication sector, strengthening of regulatory agencies and transformation of telecommunication operators, among others.

Originally from Uruguay, Mr. Maniewicz is an Electronic Engineer specialized in Telecommunications. Before joining the ITU he held both technical and managerial positions in the main telecommunication operator in his home country. He also worked as assistant professor at the Faculty of Engineering of Uruguay’s main University.

Stephen Sipho Mncube

Chairperson, ICASA

Dr Stephen Sipho Mncube was born on 17 October 1940 in Edenvale, Gauteng and matriculated at Rochester, New York. Dr Mncube is a former Manager in the Development Information Business Unit at the Development Bank of Southern Africa responsible for mobilizing and providing finance and expertise for infrastructural development in Southern Africa.
Before he was appointed Chairperson of state signal distributor, Sentech, Dr Mncube served as a Chairperson of the National Information Technology Forum for three years. He has also served as a Non Executive Director of Arivia.Kom (Pty) Limited.

He spent most of his life in the USA where he served in various senior research and management positions at universities, public schools, corporations and institutes and at the US Environmental Protection Agency.
He obtained his PhD in Adult Education, MLS, Information and Library Science from Syracuse University in the USA and Bachelor of Science: General Studies from the Rochester University.

Dr Mncube has written extensively on information communication technology and information-related areas (locally and internationally), having authored over 30 publications and documents, poetry, dissertations and position papers.

Dr Mncube is currently serving a Chairperson of the Board of Tasima - the consortium formed in 2002 to manage the five-year National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS) project on behalf of the National Department of Transport and the nine provinces. Tasima is a self-contained business unit operating as an independent company.

He was a member of Comtask, the Task Group established by government in 1996 to, among others, review existing government communication policy at national, provincial and local levels; and to review existing government communication structures and facilities at national, provincial and local levels. Dr Mncube also served as Chairman of Technical Task Team on Broadcasting Policy in 1998.

Other activities

Member – Association of Adult and Continuing Education
Member – Advisory Board of the United Nations Development African Futures Programme
Member – African Studies Association

Ishmael Chikwenhere

Chairman, Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, and ATU

Born and grew up in Zimbabwe

• Farmer
• Former Head Technical - President’s Department
• Retired Civil Servant
• Ex diplomat served as Minister Counsellor
• MBA Student
• Bachelor of Science Maths, Physics and Chemistry
• Diploma in Elect. Engineering with option in Electronics in Mechanic Engineering with option in Power Production
• CIS Intermediate Stage
• Diploma Certificate Local Government Studies
• ACCA Post graduate in Management and Finance
• Certificate in Management of Change with Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration

Reward Kangai

CEO, Netone

Biography to appear shortly...

Abdoulkarim Soumaila

Secretary General, African Telecommunications Union (ATU)

Mr. Abdoulkarim Soumaila is the current Secretary General of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) since January 2011, having been elected at an Ordinary Session of ATU plenipotentiary Conference held in Brazzaville - Congo, in September 2010. He is leading the continental body entrusted with building consensus within African countries and coordinating African Common Proposals in international fora. Prior to his election as the Secretary General of ATU, he was the Director of Information Technologies at the Ministry of Communication, New Information Technologies and Culture in Niger from 2007 to 2010.

Mr. Soumaila in his 20 years as a Telecommunication expert and professional, has acquired a solid experience in Management of Telecommunication networks and services development strategy and has contributed immensely to the implementation of sectorial policies and innovative investment projects in several African countries. He has also diligently managed the affairs of the Union for the period he has been the Secretary General.

Mr. Soumaila holds a Master of science in Operational Telecommunications from the University of Coventry (UK) and Telecommunications Application Diploma from National Institute of Posts and Telecommunication in Rabat (Morocco).

Andreas Geiss

Head of Spectrum Management, European Commission

Andreas Geiss is Head of Unit for Spectrum Policy in DG CONNECT of the European Commission. He has been working for the European Commission since 2002 in various positions. His responsibilities included mobile communications, the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme and negotiations with the Member States in different settings. Before joining the European Commission he worked for the European Radiocommunications Office (ERO), where he was project leader for projects dealing with terrestrial and satellite communications and setting up the ECO Frequency Information System (EFIS). He has been involved in the European preparations for World Radiocommunications Conferences since 1995. Andreas has a master's degree in electrical engineering and started his professional career in 1991 at the German Regulatory Authority in the area of telecommunications.

Mindel de la Torre

Chief, International Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, United States

Since October 2009, Mindel De La Torre has been Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In that role, she leads the FCC’s efforts internationally – both on a bilateral and multilateral basis. She oversees the International Bureau’s functions with regard to licensing of international and domestic satellites, international long distance, international broadcast stations, and submarine cables. Ms. De La Torre was previously at the FCC between 1994-1998 as Deputy Chief of the Telecommunications Division of the International Bureau.

Before returning to the FCC, she was president of the Telecommunications Management Group, Inc. (TMG), a consulting firm in the Washington DC area. Her work at TMG included advising businesses, international organizations, and regulators on issues relevant to liberalization and commercialization of the telecommunications sector. Ms. De La Torre managed a variety of teams responsible for telecommunications projects, including advising telecommunications agencies in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East regarding key restructuring and regulatory issues, redrafting and updating telecommunications laws and involvement in third generation mobile issues.

She has been a member of various U.S. delegations to ITU conferences, such as the
World Conference on International Telecommunications, World Radiocommunication Conferences, World Telecommunication Development Conferences, and Plenipotentiary Conferences. She has also participated actively in regional telecommunications organizations, such as CITEL and APEC.

Ms. De La Torre also worked at the Department of Commerce – for over four years at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and for three years in the General Counsel’s office.

Ms. De La Torre has a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. from the University of Texas. She is a member of the Texas bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association. Having lived overseas most of her life, she speaks fluent Portuguese, French, and Spanish and is proficient in Italian.

Mortimer Hope

Director Spectrum and Public Policy, Africa, GSMA

Mortimer Hope is Director: Spectrum and Public Policy Africa at the GSM Association from July 2014. He is responsible for developing and disseminating GSMA public policy in areas such as spectrum, infrastructure sharing, international mobile roaming and taxation. This involves working with various stakeholders such as operators, regulators and government departments across Africa.
Prior to the GSMA he was Executive Head of Division for Technical Regulation at Vodacom, where he was responsible for policy development and management of scarce resources such as spectrum and numbers. Before Vodacom

Mortimer spent six years at the South African Communications regulator ICASA in various engineering management roles, one of which was Senior Manager for spectrum management.

While at Vodacom Mortimer was Chairman of GSM Association Africa Regional Interest Group, where he led the MNO engagement on regulatory matters such as SADC Home and Away Roaming. He has participated in the last three ITU World Radiocommunicaton Conferences (WRC 2003, 2007 and 2012), focusing on spectrum for mobile communications.

Mortimer holds a Master of Science Degree in Telecommunications from the Moscow Technical University of Communications Technology and an MBA from the University of Pretoria. He is registered as a Professional Engineer by the Engineering Council of South Africa and is a Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Adam Imoro

Consultant, African Union of Broadcasting (UAR)

Ing. Dr. Adam Icarus Imoro as a Consultant to African Union of Broadcasting (AUB) has worked on the analogue television (ATT) to digital terrestrial television transmission (DTT) transition/migration, spectrum policy issues and the Multimedia Exchange Network On Satellite (MENOS) Project. MENOS project among others, aims at exchanging programs among AUB members. Since 2011 he has attended a number of international conferences/workshops on spectrum issues and made several presentations on behalf of AUB to ensure that broadcasters’ spectrum/frequency needs in the transition from ATT to DTT are guaranteed.

Ing. Dr. Imoro is one of four Consultants tasked to Study Frequency Plan for FM Radio Broadcasting Services by the National Communication Authority of Ghana. As a member of Ghana’s Digital Broadcasting Migration Committee, Ing. Dr. Imoro has been an active participant in handling of the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial television transmission in Ghana.

Ing. Dr. Imoro is a Deputy Director of Engineering of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in-charge of Radio and TV studios systems. He started his Engineering career in 1988 as Assistant Broadcast Engineer, handled radio and television network planning and spectrum management tasks, headed the Engineering Training School as Chief Engineer of Training and acted as Director of Engineering.

Ing. Dr. Imoro is a part-time lecturer in Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) on Antennas in Wireless communication for postgraduate students. Previously Ing. Dr. Imoro was a part-time and visiting lecturer and final year project supervisor in various areas of electrical, electronic, telecommunication engineering and Telecom Policy in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and Ghana Technology University College. He was visiting Lecturer in Butare University, Rwanda in 2007.

Ing. Dr. Imoro is currently the Editor –in-Chief of Journal Ghana Institution of Engineers of Ghana where he has been a National Council member since 2002.

Ing. Dr. Adam I. Imoro holds Doctor of Engineering, Master of Engineering and Bachelor Engineering degrees from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science of Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, respectively.

Geoff Daniell

Correspondent for Sub-Saharan Africa, Global VSAT Forum (GVF)

Geoffrey Daniell (Pr. Eng., MBL, B.Sc. Eng. (Elec.) is a private consultant in the telecommunications industry sector.

Geoff Worked for Telkom SA Ltd for a period of 28 years in all fields of telecommunications. Geoff has consulted and worked on telecommunication projects across Africa on satellite, optic fibre and wireless telecommunications projects. Geoff is part of a team deploying the South African National Research and Education Network (SA NREN), implemented by the Council for Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR) on behalf of the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Geoff served on the design and evaluation committees for the development of the West Africa Cable System (WACS). He also served on a committee that developed the National Broadband Plan for South Africa.

Geoff specialises in the development of business plans, the evaluation of technical proposals, the preparation of RFPs for the identification and selection of technologies for network rollouts. Geoff is a specialist in satellite communications systems, and provides satellite communication training courses for non-technical and technical personnel.

Geoff represents the Global VSAT Forum in Sub Saharan Africa. He is a member of the GVF's regulatory working group and the technical training group, and is a Master Trainer.

Geoff is a registered Professional Engineer and Member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers.

Andrew Barendse

Managing Executive Regulatory Affairs, Vodacom South Africa

Andrew Barendse is Head of Regulatory Affairs Vodacom SA where he is responsible for managing all regulatory issues in SA.

Andrew is an accomplished Executive offering over twenty five years’ experience in the Telecoms sector. In addition, Andrew has five years’ experience at Board level (Telkom International [Pty] Ltd, International Institute of Communications) and over ten years’ experience in Academia (Delft University of Technology, University of Witwatersrand). Andrew is a published researcher presenting a global footprint in telecoms policy (including a five-year residence in the Netherlands).

Andrew holds a Ph.D from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, an MBA from the University of Cape Town and a B.Ed from the University of Johannesburg.

Philippe Berard

Managing Consultant, Coleago Consulting

Philippe Berard a seasoned Finance professional with a proven experience in Telecoms Business Development including Financial Modelling, Program Managing, Mergers and Carve-outs and twenty years of exposure to the Technology and Mobile & Fixed Telecom industries. Berard has worked across different geographies covering the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, North and South-East Africa, and Southern Asia with telecommunications operators, equipment manufacturers and consulting companies
At Coleago Berard specialises on spectrum valuation modelling, working with global MSO’s and MNO's with a particular focus on re-farming strategies, Wi-Fi networks and spectrum sharing.

Elizabeth Migwalla

Senior Director and Head of Government Affairs, Africa, Qualcomm

Elizabeth Migwalla is Senior Director and Head of Government Affairs (Africa) for Qualcomm International Incorporated (Qualcomm). In this role, which she has held for eight years, Elizabeth interfaces directly with key government ministries, regulatory authorities as well as regional and international regulatory forums, in order to drive the adoption of advanced broadband wireless technologies and service on the continent.

Elizabeth’s distinguished career in various aspects of telecommunications engineering, operations, services and policy spans more than 31 years. She has built a reputation as one of Africa’s leading experts on communications policy through her many accomplishments during this period. In 2012 Elizabeth was named among the top 50 female executives in Middle East and Africa by CommsMEA magazine.

Prior to joining Qualcomm Elizabeth served The Boeing Company as its Regional Director for Regulatory Affairs for four years. Elizabeth also performed a similar role for ICO Global Communications for a period of five years.

Before entering the private sector in 1997, Elizabeth worked at the Kenya Post and Telecommunications Corporation, as both head of its International Services and Planning and Engineering departments. Elizabeth holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Engineering from the University of Nairobi (Kenya), and an MBA from Bond University in Australia.

Florence Martey

Deputy Director of Engineering, National Communications Authority, Ghana

Florence Martey is Deputy Director of Engineering at The National Communications Authority (NCA) in Ghana, where she has worked since January 1999.

Prior to this, Florence worked from August 1984 – December 1998 in the Shipping & Navigation Division at The Ghana Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Florence holds a MA in Communications Policy & Regulation and a Post Graduate Certificate in Regulation of Telecommunications, both received from The University of Westminster in London, UK; and a MA in Public Administration, received from The Ghana Institute of Public Administration.

Florence is married with 3 children, and enjoys Reading, Lawn Tennis and Music.

Gerhard Petrick

Deputy Chairperson, Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association

Gerhard is widely regarded as digital broadcasting enthusiast. He is passionate about media, broadcasting and information communication technology and how these shape lives. Gerhard has worked in a variety of engineering and ICT-management fields, served as Councillor of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and contributed to South Africa’s bid to host the international square kilometre array radio telescope.

Gerhard’s more recent focus was on digital broadcasting, assessing mobile TV business opportunities in Europe, Asia and South America, network planning, frequency- and spectrum management, standardisation and interference mitigation.

He is currently Head of Department: Research and Development Broadcast Engineering at MultiChoice in South Africa and serves as Deputy Chairperson of the Southern African Digital Broadcasting Association.

Elhadji Maman Laminou

Executive Secretary, West Africa Telecommunication Regulation Assembly (WATRA)

With over twenty two years of experience in the telecommunications and ICT sector in business and network development, and more than ten years at the international high level working for international institutions working for state governments, regulators and operators including international organizations such as ECOWAS, UEMOA, ITU for specific work missions in various projects, ELH MAMAN Laminou is the executive secretary of West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly.

Ebele Okobi

Head of Public Policy, Africa, Facebook

Ebele Okobi is the Head of Public Policy, Africa at Facebook, where she leads the company’s public policy work across Africa. Prior to Facebook, Ebele was the founding Global Head and Senior Legal Director for Human Rights at Yahoo, where she led Yahoo’s global efforts to address the legal and policy issues related to privacy, free expression and access.

Ebele previously worked as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, Paris and London. She has also worked in the NGO sector, as a consumer rights policy attorney at Consumers Union in San Francisco, and as a senior director of Advisory Services at Catalyst (a non-profit with the mission of advancing women in business) in Silicon Valley. In that role, she moved to Amsterdam and initiated and led Catalyst’s expansion to Europe. Ebele was also a member of Nike’s first Management Development Program in Nike’s Europe Middle East and Africa headquarters, based in the Netherlands, where she created marketing, corporate responsibility and business development strategy for sub-Saharan Africa, for NikeWomen and Nike Digital. In 2001, she took a sabbatical to volunteer for human rights organizations in the US and Senegal.

Ebele was a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative from 2008 to 2014, was elected a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the advisory boards of Women in Technology in Nigeria and TipHub. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Southern California, a Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School and an MBA Certificat des Études from HEC-Paris. She is married and has four children.

Jens Langenhorst

Sales Manager, Southern Africa, SES

Jens believes that key technology advancements provide improvements for effective and efficient spectrum utilisation. This drove him to establish the Future Wireless Technology Forum (FWTF) in 2014, as a series of collaborative discussions hosted by WAPA, the purpose of which is to explore trends, best practices, and opportunities for new wireless technologies and solutions in the context of the regulatory framework of South Africa. Jens joined the SES world-leading satellite operator, in 2014 as a Commercial Sales Manager in the Southern Africa team. Prior to this he was the Teleport manager and Radio Planning Manager at Internet Solutions a division of Dimension Data. Jens started his career in semiconductors with Siemens in Munich, Germany which later became Infineon Technologies AG. He was expatriated twice to the USA as an RF applications engineer. Jens grew up in Cape Town and after returning from 10 years abroad he now lives with his family in Johannesburg.

Alessandro Casagni

Head of EU Wireless Regulatory Policy Wireless Network Product Line, Huawei

Head of EU Wireless Regulatory Policy, managing the wireless regulation issues within Huawei Wireless Strategies & Business Development Department.
Alessandro holds a master degree in electronic engineering from Rome University.
During the period 2007 to 2009, Alessandro worked in Huawei WiMAX and LTE Product Line departments with special focus on the European regulation matters.
Prior to joining Huawei, Alessandro held several marketing and technical positions in Mediaset broadcasting company (2006 – 2007), Siemens mobile communications (2002 – 2006) and Accenture ICT consulting company (2000 – 2002).

Lasse Wieweg

Director, Government and Industry Relations, Ericsson

Lasse Wieweg, Director, Government and industry relations, at Ericsson, has worked with telecommunications topics his whole professional career, starting in 1973 with Ericsson. In 1986, following some over-seas assignments, he took up a position at the Frequency Management department within the Swedish Telecommunications Authority. In 1994, he took up a new position within the Swedish Defence Material Administration, looking after Frequency Management for the Swedish Defence Forces. Since 1997, Lasse is back in Ericsson, particularly addressing international policies in the Radio Regulatory and Spectrum domains within the Ericsson Group Function in Stockholm, Sweden.

Daniel Onyango Obam

Communications Radio Technology Expert, National Communications Secreteriat, Kenya

Daniel Obam works at the National Communications Secretariat as ICT Policy Advisor to the Government of Kenya, and is the Project Manager responsible for implementing the roadmap for migration to digital TV in Kenya. He is an ITU Expert on spectrum management and also has policy and regulatory expertise on wireless broadband.

He holds an MSc in Engineering Management from the University of Southern California and a BSc (HONS-TELECOMMS) from the University of Nairobi, in addition to a Certificate in Project Management & Appraisal from the Arthur D. Little Management Education Institution, Massachusetts.

He is also the Chairman of the ITU Radiocommunication Advisory Group.

Igor Furdik

Key Account Manager, Specure

Igor has been Key account manager and auction consultant with SPECURE since 2013. He has been working with Regulatory authorities in the areas of the spectrum auctions and spectrum monitoring. This included advising key stakeholders, gathering their requirements and ensuring that these are met during the actual process of the spectrum auction.

Prior to his engagement with SPECURE, Igor was involved in multiple management roles in the IT industry, his responsibilities included reporting to C-level executives, shaping the IT strategy and processes.
 
Igor holds a Master of Science degree  in Computer Science from University of Comenius in Bratislava.

Tony Lavender

CEO, Plum Consulting

Tony Lavender has more than 30 years of experience in radio and telecommunications. He has worked on a wide range of communications policy, regulation and radio spectrum issues including advising UK Government on options for provision of mobile broadband in partial not spots; assessing the potential use of 3.4-4.2 GHz for IMT including options for sharing in the band; provision of expert advice on the development of a spectrum toolkit for use by regulators and governments; assessing the economic benefits of the potential introduction of licensed shared access (LSA) for mobile broadband services at 2.3 GHz in Europe; and practical guidance on digital switch over.
Tony is a member of the steering board of the UK Spectrum Policy Forum and a member of the UK Government’s expert panel established to make recommendations on the full value of radio spectrum.
Prior to Plum Tony worked at Analysys Mason and at Ovum. Before his consulting career Tony was at Oftel, the UK telecommunications regulator, and he has also worked for BT.
Tony Lavender is a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the UK Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and holds a BSc eng. (Electrical and Electronic Engineering), from the University of London.

Daniel Hamadeh

Director, Spectrum Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Middle East and North Africa, Motorola Solutions

A technology and regulatory executive with 18 years of experience across the Middle East and Africa having worked in both private and public sector and in the development of public policy for managing radio spectrum, a key asset for mobile and ICT development and for the protection of public safety.
 
As an advocate of future of public safety broadband communications, Daniel works closely with regulators and public safety and emergency communication agencies to develop policy decisions 'today' that allow for modernizing public safety and disaster relief readiness through advances in technology.
 
He is featured speaker at public events such as the CCME, LTE World Summit, IEEE COMSEC, and Mobile Broadband events on spectrum and technology regulatory policy issues.

H Nwana

Executive Director, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA)

As Executive Director of the Dynamic Spectrum Aillance, H Nwana assists with the development and execution of the organization’s strategic initiatives and outreach to and recruitment of potential partners and members across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

Prior to joining the Alliance, Nwana was Group Director of Spectrum Policy at Ofcom, where he ran UK’s Spectrum Policy and spearheaded UK’s dynamic spectrum management activities, specifically focusing on TV White Spaces for broadband and other applications. While at Ofcom, Nwana was responsible for multi-million pound policy projects including the UK’s Digital TV Clearance programme (part of UK’s digital switchover programme) which concluded in 2013. Nwana also oversaw the UK 4G auction that raised billions and concluded in February 2013.

Before this, Nwana was Managing Director at Arqiva and earlier in his career he worked at Quadriga Worldwide Ltd where he was instrumental in the introduction of digital technology and services to the hospitality industry across Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Before Quadriga, he was a venture capitalist for 2 years and, even earlier, a Senior award-winning and published technologist at BT plc for 5 years. He also holds university professorial visiting appointments. Nwana has just published an authoritative book entitled Telecommunications, Media & Technology (TMT) for Emerging Economies: How to make TMT Improve Developing Economies for the 2020s – published in April 2014.

Ellen Nanuses

Secretary General, Southern Africa Broadcasting Association (SABA)

Ellen Nanuses is the Secretary General of the Southern Africa Broadcasting Association-SABA. SABA is the leading knowledge exchange platform for radio and television operators in Southern Africa. The aim is to become the lead in Africa.

Nanuses is a Broadcast Journalist who headed the News and Current Affairs Department for two of the largest southern regions in Namibia for the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation. Ellen has 13-years experience in Media and Broadcasting covering Technical Services, Production, and News and Current Affairs.

Her focal areas are international relations and the impact of the African continent on the development of the first world countries, the impact of the rising BRICS countries and Regional Integration efforts within Africa.

SABA is a membership organization of broadcasters in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region embracing private, commercial and public broadcasters. We strive to enhance the professionalism and credibility of broadcasters.

SABA has also embraced stakeholders in the broadcasting industry including regulators, support service providers and suppliers in a bid to create an active SABA platform for action and a meeting of minds in the SADC broadcasting industry.

SABA’s objectives remain to support individual SADC countries transition from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting, to provide training in journalism, production, and institutional development; facilitate content creation and exchange; and empowerment of women in media.

Simon Edkins

Senior Economist, Copenhagen Economics

Simon is a Senior Economist and Leader of the Auctions Service at Copenhagen Economics. Simon advises both bidders and regulatory authorities in the preparation and execution of spectrum auctions. As an experienced telecommunications expert specialised in spectrum auctions and spectrum management, he has extensive experience with leading, challenging and facilitating the development of coherent and actionable business plans for spectrum acquisition and technology evolution. As a consultant, Simon combines his strong grounding in economic theory, business planning / modelling principles, and strategy development with the required pragmatism to distil complicated issues into robust plans and results. He has strong programming and quantitative analysis skills and is a certified project manager. Simon has been a key member of bidding teams in many recent high value spectrum auctions. Prior to joining Copenhagen Economics, Simon was a Senior Manager in the Spectrum Strategy and Economic Analysis team at Orange Group and holds a 1st Class Degree in Economics and Business Administration.

Bashir Gwandu

Chairman, Commonwealth ITU Group (CIG)

Dr. Bashir Gwandu: The Chairman of Commonwealth ITU Group (CIG), was the Executive Commissioner (Technical Services) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), was also the Chairman of Radiocommunications Advisory Group of the ITU (the RAG), and the Vice Chairman of ITU-R Joint Task Group 4567 (JTG-4567). Gwandu has served as the Vice-Chair of Committee 4 of the ITU Radiocommunications Assembly 2012 (RA-12). He became the Chairman of the CIG in March 2012. He was the Acting CEO of the Nigerian Telecoms Regulatory body, the NCC, from June to July 2010. After receiving his BSc in Physics from UsmanDanfodiyo University, Sokoto and an MSc in Applied Physics from the University of Jos, in addition to a brief Engineering service at the Tactical Air-command, Makurdi and lecturing at UsmanDanfodiyo University, Sokoto, he proceeded to the United Kingdom where he attended MSc Courses in Power Electronics and Drives and MSc courses in Communications Engineering; he further obtained an MPhil degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, all from the University of Birmingham. He returned briefly to Usman Danfodiyo University, Sokoto to lecture before going back to the UK to study for a PhD in Electronic/Electrical Engineering at Aston University and subsequently undertook an MBA Finance course at the Birmingham Business School.

Dr Gwandu has designed many devices that are used in the telecom industry some of which have been patented in Europe and United States. He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering Technology (IET) in the UK, and has published over 40 Electronic and Electrical Engineering Research papers in world-class Electrical Engineering journals and conference proceedings. Since 2002, Dr Bashir Gwandu has been involved in research work on Regulation of Utilities.

Dr Gwandu was the Executive Commissioner for Engineering and Technical Standards at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC); supervised all Directors/Staff concerned with National Spectrum planning, monitoring, and management, Quality of Service Monitoring and Network Optimization, Equipment Conformance Assessment and Interoperability testing -Type-approval, Numbering Plan, Allocation and Management. He was the Executive Commissioner in Charge of Licensing and Consumer Affairs of the NCC until June 2007. At Licensing, Gwandu supervised the Interconnect rate determination of Sept 2006 that led to improved competition thereby leading to significant reduction in telecom Tariff in Nigeria, the re-classification of Sales and Installation Licenses to Class-Category which has encouraged SMEs entry into the market, the issuance of all the 17 Unified- and hundreds of other Licenses in Nigeria that led to increased competition, the Liberalization of International Gateway for GSM operators that allows for carrying of 3rd Party Traffic thereby reducing tariff for International Calls, the elongation of Access Validity period beyond 90days for all networks on execution of every Revenue Generating Event which has cut down consumer loses and inconveniences, the introduction of Anti- Mobile Phone Theft Scheme in Nigeria to curtail phone theft, the introduction of Tariff Comparison Platform for Consumers so as to aid choice, the abolishing charges to Customer Care Lines, the Limiting of waiting times for answer on Customer Care Lines, the Management of Consumer Parliament, and Management of the Nigerian Internet Exchange project for the ICT Industry, the Improvement of Credit Control system of the NCC to ensure prompt payment of statutory fees by operators, the first ever in-depth NCC investigation into the State of the Quality of Service (QoS) of the Nigerian Telecom Networks. He also led the development of the first ever NCC QoS Regulation, and many other regulatory frameworks of the NCC. He was involved in NCC-based training of personnel from other partner regulatory bodies in different aspects of telecom regulation. Gwandu was part of a number of Nigerian Presidential/Ministerial think-tank committees including Vision-20-2020, Nigerian ICT RoadMap, Panel on University Research funding, and the Launch Committee of the recently Launched Nigerian Communications Satellite (NigComsat-1). He represented Nigeria, and sometimes ATU, at the ITU Conferences (such as WRC, WTSA, WSIS, and WTDC) and their preparatory meetings, he is a regular invited speaker at many International Telecom and Telecom Investment Conferences, and has represented Nigeria in many Forums on Telecoms Regulations, and was until recently on the Board of the NigComSat Ltd, and the Board of Digital Bridge Institute.  Gwandu having skills in diverse areas of Engineering, Accounting, Finance, the Art of Regulation and Administration; the key competences required of a utility regulator, was on the Board of NCC

Internationally, Gwandu provided leadership and spoke for the African team on Agenda Item 1.4 of ITU WRC-2007, which was the turning point for Africa on ITU WRC matters. He also led the successful pursuit of the Allocation of 700MHz band to Region 1 during WRC 2012, played a major leadership role in delivering the African goals during the Johannesburg WTSA-08 and Dubai 2012 amongst many other achievements.

Shiletsi Makhofane

Head: Government and Industry Relations, Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa

Head of Government and Industry Relations for Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa, and has more than 20 years of experience in the African telecommunications industry garnered through a variety of roles in a number of leading organisations. He started career in network engineering and occupied various roles in areas such as organization development, business processes, marketing, consulting and strategy.

Baxton Sirewu

Acting Director General, Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ)

Biography to appear shortly...

Noel Watermeyer

Sales Director, Altech Alcom Matomo

Biography to appear shortly...

Thabiso Thukani

Manager of Government and Industry Relations, Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa

Thabiso Thukani is the Government and Industry Relations Manager for Ericsson in Region Sub-Saharan Africa. He is an expert in technical, conceptual and content development of public policy influencing collateral. He has a proven ability to drive effective influencing campaigns and execute successful policy and regulatory change.
Thabiso joined Ericsson in 2005 as a Network Planning Engineer, designing greenfield 2G and later 3G systems across sub-Saharan Africa. He has held various positions of increasing responsibility in services and later in networks business units until his current role in public policy and regulatory unit. He has attended executive management development courses and has completed several telecommunications programs from Ericsson and other leading telecommunications manufacturers.

Graham Louth

Partner, Aetha Consulting

Graham brings to Aetha a wealth of knowledge and practical experience from over 20 years working in the telecoms sector: originally as a leading advisor to operators and regulators on issues such as universal service costing, interconnect price setting, retail price control, margin squeeze analysis, and market reviews (including the development and use of top-down and bottom-up, fully allocated and incremental cost models); more recently as Director of Spectrum Policy at Ofcom (the UK’s electronic communications regulator) in which role he has been responsible for many of the most significant developments in spectrum policy, including the introduction of spectrum trading and liberalisation, refinement of spectrum pricing, auctioning of key spectrum bands, including the UK’s 4G auction of the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands, and the regulatory review of various mobile network sharing and merger agreements.

Marcia Socikwa

Telecoms Expert, and Futures Thinker

Dr Marcia Socikwa is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, and postgraduate of City University and the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom. She has served as Acting Executive Director: Corporate Affairs, Deputy Chair of the Department of Communication Science, and as a Section Head of the Telecommunications Program at the University of South Africa where she supervised Masters students on a variety of topics related to ICT regulations, and later expanded her efforts into the region where she focused on increasing regulatory capacity through Nettel@Africa. Thereafter she served as a consultant for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the USAID and the Government Department of Communications. She was appointed as a Councillor of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) from 2007-2015. She is currently a member of the policy review team.