2021 Speakers

Hadji Mmadi Ali is a Senior Executive at Comores Telecom, Manager of the .km ccTLD, the Comoros ccTLD. He is the Chairman of Africa Top Level Domains Organization Executive Committee on which he has served for more than 5 years as the Vice President. He serves as a Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) Councilor at ICANN. He is an active member of the Internet Community in Comoros and in Africa. Ali Hadji is the President and founding member of Internet Society (ISOC) Comoros Chapter. Hadji is active at AFRINIC, the regional Internet numbers registry where he served on the nominating committee in the year 2019.

Angela Matlapeng is the current Vice Chairperson of the Africa Top Level Domains Organization (AfTLD) since June 2020; and was first appointed to the AfTLD EXCOM in June 2019 at the AIS20. She works at Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (the Manager of the .bw ccTLD) as a CIRT Analyst were she also assists with the management of the .bw ccTLD. Ms. Matlapeng represents AfTLD in the Africa Anti-Abuse Working Group responsible for awareness and capacity building in cybersecurity issues including the security of the DNS. Angela is also co-piloting the DNS Observatory Project that is ongoing at AfTLD and is an active member of the IGLC at ICANN.

Pierre Dandjinou is currently Vice President, global stakeholder engagement at ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and numbers, headquartered in Los Angeles, California.. Pierre coordinates ICANN's engagement with African stakeholders and oversees the implementation of ICANN's African strategy. This strategy largely supports African participation to policy development at ICANN, capacity building on DNS technology, management and security, and promotion of the DNS industry in Africa.

Before joining ICANN, Pierre was Executive Director of the multidisciplinary firm ‘Strategy Consulting Group’ based in Cotonou (Benin) and in Dakar (Senegal); this followed his 12 years tenure as  a Senior Regional Adviser,  ICTs for Development and e-Governance, at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In this context, he assisted UNDP offices in sub-Saharan Africa in various aspects, including the analysis, design and management of information systems and strategies; Consulting support in ICT policies and strategies for development, electronic governance (e-Governance) and the Modernization of public administration; as well as project evaluation and knowledge management.

Before joining the UNDP in 1997, Pierre was Director of the consulting firm ‘Infocom Services’ and carried out several expert missions for many institutions including FAO, CTA, ILCA, la Francophonie and UNESCO. Pierre has contributed to several initiatives relating to the development of the internet in Africa; he is a founding member of several institutions and professional associations, including ISOC, ICANN, and AFRINIC, of ​​which he served as chair of the Board. Pierre graduated as an engineer, information systems from the Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III) and from the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris. He has also attended numerous specialized training courses on the digital economy, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

Amreesh Phokeer works as an Internet Measurement and Data Expert at the Internet Society. He is focused on efforts around Internet measurement, Internet shutdowns, and understanding market trends that impact the growth of the Internet across the globe. Prior to joining ISOC, Amreesh was a Research Manager at AFRINIC, where he spearheaded the organisation’s research activities in the areas of Internet security and Internet measurements.

Mr. Barrack Otieno serves as the General Manager of Africa Top Level Domains Organization www.aftld.org, the regional association of Country Code Top Level Domain Registries and Secretariat of the Africa Domain Name System Forum.  He is also the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dot Africa Foundation as well as a trustee at the Kenya ICT Action Network a Policy Think tank. He was the founding president of the Internet Society Kenya Chapter, former secretariat of Africa Regional At Large Organization (www.afralo.org) the voice of Internet users from the African continent within the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. He is involved in local, regional and international standards development for the International Standards Organization (ISO 27000 series on Information Security Management) through the Kenya Bureu of Standards Technical Committee on IT Security which he chairs as a representative of the Computer Society of Kenya.

Bob is the Senior Manager for Stakeholder Engagement in Africa at ICANN. He is a telecommunication engineer with over 15 years of experience in the multi-disciplinary Telecommunication/ICT/DNS industry with skills and strengths in Internet public policy development, government engagement as well as project and operations management. Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Technology, an MBA in Strategic Management and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Certified Cisco Network Associate (CCNA).

Yaovi is the Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Operations at ICANN, for the Africa region. He is an electrical engineer with more than 30 years’ work experience in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Yaovi has previously worked for the Association of African Universities (AAU) as Senior IT Officer (2008 to 2012), and coordinated several activities for the USAID/Leland Initiative (an Internet Development Project) in Africa (1997 to 2004). From 1992 to 1997 he worked as a consultant to computerize the News Agency in West African countries for the WANAD/UNESCO project.

He is also involved, in a voluntary capacity, in many community activities with AFRINIC, AFNOG, the ICANN At-Large Advisory committee and the ICANN nomination committee.

Ed is a senior engineer and DevOps manager at Domain Name Services. He is responsible for several dns zones including CO.ZA and .Africa and he helped design and develop the EPP system and DevOps infrastructure used to support those zones.

Ed qualified as a mechanical engineer before realizing the Internet is more interesting than writing engineering software. He has been managing name servers since the mid 90s. Before working at Domain Name Services he was the technical director of one of the larger South African hosting companies.

Adiel A. Akplogan is Vice President for Technical Engagement at ICANN. With more than 25 years’ experience in the ICT industry (20 specifically in the Internet Technology Industry), Adiel has previously worked as CEO for AFRINIC (The African Network Information Centre), IT Director for Symbol Technology in France (2001-2003) and Director of New Technology at CAFÉ Informatique in Togo (1994-2000). Recognized as one of the Internet technology pioneers in Africa, he has contributed to technical capacity building and deployment of some of the first private Internet Service Providers in Africa from 1996-1999.

During his career, Adiel has served on the Boards and Advisory Committees of many global and international organizations such as the UN Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group (IGF-MAG from 2006-2009), the Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (ATAC/UNECA from 2005-2006), the Executive Council of the Number Resource Organization (NRO – 2005-2015 as Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer), ICANN's Strategic Panel on its role in the Internet governance ecosystem, the African Union's AXIS program Steering Committee (2012-2015), the African Network Operators Group and the Africa Internet Summit's Administration and Program committee (AFNOG/AIS – 2000-2015) and the Organisation International de la Francophonie (OIF) Expert Group on Internet Governance (since 1999).

Passionate about Internet technology and its impact on human development, he has actively contributed to the setup of several technical coordination bodies in Africa such as the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG), the African ccTLD Managers Association (AfTLD), AfricaCERT, and the Africa Internet Summit (AIS).

Adiel Akplogan has a graduate degree in electrical engineering and holds a master’s degree in E-Business and New Technology Management from Paris Graduate School of Management. He lives and works from Montréal, Canada.

Joel Karubiu is the Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Network Information Center ( KeNIC)  and has over 20 years as an innovative and creative solutions provider with an edge in marketing and business development.

Joel is tasked with ensuring a robust Domain Registry System in Kenya and ensuring the growth of a unique identification of every Kenyan in the online space. In addition, he drives an Internet governance and compliance agenda within the community.

He holds a master’s degree in International Business Administration from United States International University (USIU) as well as diplomas from various institutions.

Joel is passionate about youth development in the field of marketing and entrepreneurship and leads talks with student marketers on their career journeys and is a mentor to many, he has also been involved in strategic input to various marketing activities at both private and public

Edith Eziukwu Udeagu is the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), Secretary to the NiRA Executive Board of Directors and Head of the NiRA Secretariat.

The NiRA manages the registry for the .ng Internet domain names and is responsible for maintaining the database of registered names in the .ng country code Top Level Domains (.ng ccTLD) namespace in the public interest of Nigeria and the global Internet communities. NiRA operates the 3-R model and is not responsible for the registration of the .ng domain names. The .ng domain names are registered via the platform of NiRA Accredited Registrars.

Jasper holds a MSc in Info Systems.  He is the President of the Internet Society Zimbabwe Chapter, Director of the Zimbabwe Youth Sustainable Development Goals, and Board Member of the Zimbabwe Youth Council.

Jasper is an ICT expert with vast experience in network engineering, innovation, cyber security, policy, and research. He is the lead member for the conveyors of the Zimbabwe DNS Forum. He is a founding member of the Information Communication Technology Students Association (MSU 2008) which created the bridge between ICT students and the industry. Jasper is the founder for the Zimbabwe Youth in Sustainable Development Goals and has worked on several projects to promote Internet use for development with United Nations Agencies in Zimbabwe.

Neil Dundas is an African born and raised entrepreneur, lawyer, and techie. He is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Domain Name Services (Pty) Ltd.

Neil has served as a previous chief executive of UniForum SA and oversaw its transition to the ZA Central Registry (ZACR), an organization responsible for the administration of various .za SLDs, including Africa largest commercial namespace co.za. In his role as CEO, Neil was also involved with securing the support of the African Union Commission (AUC) and other key African Internet stakeholders, to facilitate the ZACR's application and launch of the dotAfrica (.africa) Top Level Domain through ICANN’s 2012 gTLD application round.

Neil is a Co-founder and Director of DNS Africa Ltd, an ICANN accredited registrar and registry service provider (RSP) based in Mauritius. Neil is also a finalist in the 2012 South African IT Personality of the Year (ITWeb).

Oluniyi Ajao is the Founder / CEO of Web4Africa, a leading ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web hosting company in the Africa region. He has led the company from an early player back in 2002 into a strong market contender with active clients across over 120 countries. He actively participates in relevant conversations related to the DNS industry, IP network peering, and the Internet ecosystem in general, in Africa. With a strong affinity for digital technology, Oluniyi actively follows and writes online about technology in Africa.

Seun Ojedeji is a technology expert with specialty in IT infrastructure development, systems networking, e-learning and policy development. He holds a number of professional certifications and a degree in computer science from University of Ilorin. Seun has been privileged to participate in major local and international technical training, workshops and conferences where he either served as a trainee, trainer, presenter, lead instructor, or session chair. He is current member and former Vice Chair of the AFRINIC Board of Directors and also the Chair of the African Regional At-Large Organization (AFRALO) at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Simon has worked in the telecommunication and Internet industry for the past sixteen years. He serves as a Technical Contact for Dot TZ ccTLD at the TCRA. He is the founding member of the TZNOG, ISOC Chapter, and IPv6 National Committee in Tanzania. Globally, Simon serves as a member of the AfTLD Technical Working Group, where he volunteers as a tutor in various capacity-building courses organized by the AfTLD to ccTLDs operators in Africa and works with the NSRC on a part-time basis. Simon holds a BSc in Information Systems and Technology (USIU-A) and an MSc in Information Systems Management (Salford University).

Joe is a tech enthusiast with over ten years’ experience in information systems development and administration. Joe has built various server and application systems. He has experience in information systems development, administration and security, Linux systems administration in CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE Operating Systems, DNS and DNSSEC setup and management and virtualization technologies including VMware and Proxmox.

Albert is telecommunication engineer and lawyer, with more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and information and communication technologies sector. In 2020, he has been appointed as the Director of Standardization and Cooperation at the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ANTIC), responsible, among other things, for coordinating the management of the ".cm" ccTLD. He served between 2005 and 2013 as Head of the IT Unit of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, from 2013 to 2018, Inspector in charge of technical issues in the same ministry and Director of the National Centre for Cryptography and Electronic Certification from 2018 to 2020. He has also contributed for many years to the working groups and conferences of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

EDUCATION

Dr Simba received his B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Electronics Science and Communications from the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1998, and the M.E and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Information Engineering from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, in 2003 and 2006, respectively.

WORK

Currently, Dr Ally Yahaya Simba is the Executive Secretary of East African Communications Organization (EACO) from 1^st August 2017.

EACO is a regional organisation responsible for communications sector policy harmonisation in East African region and is headquartered in Kigali Rwanda under the hosting agreement between the Government of Rwanda and EACO signed in September 2012.

Prior to his appointment, Dr. Ally Y. Simba has been the Director of Knowledge Management with the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH). He has over 16 years of experience in the communication Industry where he has worked as an Engineer with a mobile phone operator, as a researcher, as regulator and as policy maker with the Central Government of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Olusegun Akinwunmi is the Web Services Administrator at the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA). NiRA is the Registry and Manager of .ng ccTLD (Nigeria's Country Code Top Level Domain).

Olusegun has worked at NiRA for nine years and is highly experienced in the Domain Name System, PHP Web Development and, Linux OS Administration.

Olusegun has facilitated at many NiRA trainings/conferences conducted for NiRA Accredited Registrars and Members of the public. Olusegun is always eager and keen to impact knowledge on people.

Olusegun has attended both local and international training on the Domain Name System (DNS) and related topics.  He also serves as one of the DNS support staff at NiRA rendering support to both the NiRA Accredited Registrars and Registrants on issues that have to do with domain name registration and management.

Mr Olusegun Akinwunmi is a very resourceful person, always seeking for better ways to achieve set targets and in resolving challenges.

Michael Musya is the technical manager of Afriregister S.A, an ICANN accredited registrar and has over 10 years in the ICT industry.

Michael has been a consultant in various firms in Africa and has been involved  in the setup of both registrar and  registry systems, hosting platforms and various Application Programming Interface  platform integrations. He also volunteers as a tutor in various capacity-building courses organized by the Africa Top Level Domains Organization for  ccTLD operators in Africa.