Workshop 3 THE AFRICAN E-LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Transcription

1 Workshop 3 THE AFRICAN E-LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Dar es Salaam United Republic of Tanzania June

2 Professor Clement K. Dzidonu Professor Clement Dzidonu is the President of the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT). He is also Adjunct Professor of Information Technology, and Professor of Business Administration at Touro University International, California, USA. He is a member of the Council of the Informatics Development Institute (Dublin, Ireland) and a Senior Research Fellow of the International Institute of Information Technology (INIIT). Professor Dzidonu from 1984, taught and conducted research at a number of universities including: Trinity College, Dublin; National University of Ireland, Galway, Makerere University, Uganda, the National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe and Valley View University, Accra, Ghana. He has published seven computer books and over ninety scientific papers and reports. During the past twenty years, he has been involved in a number of ICT related projects and initiatives in Europe and Africa for a number of Governments, and international agencies including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, the African Development Bank among others. Some of Professor Dzidonu s International Recognitions and Awards, include: Meritorious Award for Distinguished Services to the Field of Computer: Awarded by the International Biographical Center (IBC) Cambridge, UK (1998) Listed in the Who s Who in the World as an Author and Computer Science Educator Awarded the Outstanding People of the 20th Century Medal by the International Biographical Center (IBC) Cambridge, UK (1999) Winner of the 2003 World Technology Award. He is the first African to Win this Award. Other Winners include: Tony Blair, Former British Prime Minister (2005), Al Gore Former Vice President of the USA (2006) and Nobel Laureate (2007) and Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda (2009) Life Achievement Award, The 1 st Ghana ICT Awards (2008) The ICT Personality of the Year, West Africa, The West African ICT Awards (2010) Walter Fust Born in 1945, Walter Fust studied at St Gallen University and graduated with a master in political science. He was working in banking and public administration before entering the Swiss Diplomatic service in 1975 where he then got assigned to Geneva, Baghdad and Tokyo. From September 1983 until end of 1984 he served in the integration office (EFTA/EU). During the years 1985 and 1986 he was personal advisor to federal councilor Dr. Kurt Furgler, Minister of Public Economy and President of the Swiss Confederation (1985). End of 1986 he was elected as managing director of the Swiss office for trade promotion (OSEC). From 1990 to 1993, he was Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior (science/research, environment, culture, social affairs, public health etc.). During the period of September 1993 and April 2008, Ambassador Walter Fust head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Following this, he served as CEO and Director General of the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva until

3 Walter Fust is chairman of UNESCO s International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC) and President of Globethics.net Geneva. He serves as member of the International Forum of Federations (Ottawa) and in the Board of Trustees of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the new library of Alexandria/Egypt. He is member of the board of the International Risk Governance Council/Geneva and of philanthropy foundations. Honors and Awards: National Award Medals from Mali, Ukraine Special Awards from Bangladesh and India Decorated in China as Friendship Ambassador Dr. Nagy K. Hanna is an author, educator and independent consultant on e-transformation and innovation strategies. He has over 35 years experience advising countries and aid agencies on e-transformation policies and strategies, innovation systems, e-government, e-leadership institutions, ICT industry, and country development strategies. He is a Visiting Scholar, European Union Research Center; Research Associate, Center for International Science and Technology Policy, George Washington University; Senior Scholar, Leadership Scholars Network, UoM; Senior Fellow, Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies; Commissioner, World IT Forum & Co-chair of e-government Commission; and member of editorial board of several journals and book series on innovation, technology and knowledge economy..he was the World Bank s senior advisor on e-strategies, founded the e-development Community of Practice, and chaired its global dialogue series; He led Bank assistance for India s software export strategy, and e-sri-lanka, the first World Bank lending operation for comprehensive e-development. He lectures and publishes on strategy and leadership for the knowledge economy. He holds PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and executive development diploma from Harvard. nagyhanna@comcast.net Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a citizen of Ghana, was appointed Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) on 8 September 2003, bringing to the position some 25 years of high level experience in government, diplomacy, business, banking, and consulting. He is a former Minister of Communication of the Republic of Ghana and one-time Ambassador of Ghana to the United States and Mexico. He also served as Minister of Education, Minister responsible for Mines and Energy and as a member of UNESCO s Executive Board in Paris. Before his appointment at the CTO, he was Chief Executive of his own business consulting firm, Spio-Garbrah & Associates, based in Ghana. As a Minister of Communication of Ghana, from 1997 to 1998, Dr Spio-Garbrah initiated, developed and implemented policies and programmes that supported the increasing convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting, the Internet, publishing, news media and postal services, all of which were under his supervision. Concurrently, as 3

4 chairman of the National Communication Authority, he had responsibility for regulating all aspects of the telecom, Internet and broadcasting sectors. Whilst Education minister from 1998 to 2002, he was credited with the creation of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), which currently mobilizes some $100 million each year from the VAT for educational sector infrastructure and student assistance programmes. Earlier, he had chaired the Public Education Committee that helped to establish the VAT system in Ghana, which currently nets more than $400 million of additional revenue to support the full range of government expenditures. As Ambassador to the United States, from 1994 to 1997, Dr Spio-Garbrah was noted for his success in rebuilding Ghana s image across the USA, including organising an unprecedented eight-city investment promotion programme for Ghana s President in the USA. As a result partly of the successful bilateral programmes he executed, Ghana became the first country to be visited by President Clinton during his famous five-country Africa visit in Before joining the Ghana government, Dr Spio- Garbrah was Head of Communication at the seventy-seven member-nation African Development Bank from 1991 to 1994, where he directed the $33 billion bank s global corporate and marketing communications and acted as institutional spokesman. Earlier, from 1988 to 1991, he had performed similar functions as an External Relations Officer at the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank affiliate, in Washington. His previous experience included working as a mortgage banker in New Jersey, as an award-winning sales executive with Southwestern Bell, and as chairman of the Middle East Africa Group within the international public relations firm of Hill and Knowlton in New York. In that capacity, from 1979 to 1985, he provided investment, export and tourism promotion counsel to the governments of Indonesia, Turkey, The Netherlands and Austria, financial relations advice to the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, Credit Agricole of France, UBAF-Arab American Bank, and energy sector intelligence to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Prior to his studies in the United States, Dr Spio-Garbrah, was the General Manager of Ghana s second-largest advertising agency, and was also the well-known host of a national television prime time interview and discussion programme, In Town. e.spio-garbrah@cto.int Flavio Zeni My education background is in Organisational studies and Communication (Laurea in Sociology from University of Trento, Italy and Master of Arts in Communication from Stanford University, Ca, USA). My professional experience has seen my involvement in organizational studies, communication, social marketing and since 1995 I have been mainly working on the deployment of ICTs in public administrations to support the delivery of better services, improve dialogue with citizens and enhancement organizational efficiency and effectiveness. I am currently the Chief Technical Adviser of the Africa i- Parliaments Action Plan, a project implemented by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). It is a regional capacity building initiative that aims to empower the legislatures to better fulfill their democratic functions through increased and easy access to high quality information for citizens, Members of Parliament and Parliamentary administrations in order to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability of Parliaments. The main project 4

5 achievements so far include the development of Bungeni (bungeni.org), an open source parliamentary information system and Akoma Ntoso (akomantoso.org), an XML framework for parliamentary and legislative documents. Talal Sulaiman Al Rahbi Talal Al Rahbi is currently holding a post as the Deputy CEO for Operations at Information Technology Authority (ITA) in the Sultanate of Oman. He is responsible for ITA Divisions that are implementing training programs and strategic awareness in support of the Digital Oman Strategy and egovernment initiative, and directs programs and projects concerning development of the IT industry in the Sultanate. Also under Mr. Al Rahbi s mandate is promoting the e.oman initiative locally and globally,supervising programs for international software licensing agreements. Among his responsibilities is managing research work related to surveys, statistics and indicators for ITA. Mr. Al Rahbi is also in charge of operations related to ITA contracts and investment. He is currently a member of the board for the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and is a member of the Technical Committee for Statistics in the Sultanate of Oman. Talal Al Rahbi holds a BA in Economics from the University of Louisiana,and an MA in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Oregon United States of America. 5