Co-creating a Smarter Future for Rwanda

Kigali, Rwanda, June 17-18, 2013

SPEAKER BIOS

Hon. Ambassador Claver GATETE,

Hon. Amb Claver Gatete is the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. Prior to his appointment as Minister, He was the Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda. Amb. Claver Gatete joined the National Bank of Rwanda from the United Kingdom where he was Rwanda’s Ambassador to the UK, Ireland and Iceland.

Hon. Jean-Philbert NSENGIMANA, Minister of ICT and Youth, Rwanda

Hon. Jean Philbert Nsengimana is the Minister of Youth and ICT in Rwanda. His professional experience spans from academia, public and private sectors. He previously was a Country Director for Voxiva Rwanda, a USA company, where he led the implementation of award winning mobile centric information solutions in Health and Agriculture sectors. Prior to joining Voxiva, Hon Nsengimana worked for the Development Gateway Foundation as the regional

coordinator for Africa where he spearheaded efforts of national organizations in 15 countries to support governments and regional institutions in rolling out web based tools for electronic procurement, official development aid management, ICT capacity building and knowledge sharing. He built and led teams that won the Technology in Government Award (TIGA) in 2007 for best e-Health solution in Africa (TRACnet and mUbuzima). He implemented eSoko, a mobile-based Market information system serving more than 2,500,000 farmers in real time market information, winning the TIGA award 2011 for best e-Agriculture solution in Africa. In 2003, he launched and directed for 5 years Rwanda Development Gateway, an organization that has been instrumental in establishing Rwanda’s Government web presence and promotion of a broad ICT for development agenda in Rwanda. He started his career as a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science of the National University of Rwanda. Hon Nsengimana holds a Global MBA in IT

Management from S P Jain School of Global Management Dubai-Singapore and a Masters of ICT in Software Engineering from the National University of Rwanda.

Carolyn (Carrie) TURK, Country Manager for Rwanda, the World Bank

Carolyn (Carrie)Turk, United Kingdom national, Joined the World Bank Group in 1998, and has held positions in the East Asia and Pacific region (as a Senior Poverty Economics, based in Viet Nam) and in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region where she was managing the Social Development team. Prior to joining the World Bank, Carrie worked with the UK Department for International Development. Ms. Turk was appointed Country Manager for Rwanda in September 2012. She holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Economics from the University of Cambridge UK, and has authored numerous publications on poverty and inequality, most recently a book based on

research into gender inequality in 20 countries.

H.E. Kayuza OGAWA, Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Rwanda

Ambassador Ogawa entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978, and has work experience in Senegal, Switzerland, India, and France. He has assumed his duties as Ambassador of Japan to Rwanda since late March 2013.

Patrick Nyirishema, Head of ICT Department - RDB

Patrick NYIRISHEMA serves a senior official within Government of Rwanda. He is currently the Head of ICT department within the Rwanda Development Board and has spent the last seven years holding national/strategic responsibilities in the ICT sector.

He also currently advises and works directly for President Paul Kagame as focal point for the Global Commission for Digital Development and Presidential Infrastructure Championship Initiative

Jane TREADWELL, CEO, DesignGov

Jane Treadwell is the CEO of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Public Sector Design, having joined the Centre in July 2012.

She has worked at international levels with the World Bank as a Senior Consultant in Government Transformation over the last 5 years, and prior to that had a lengthy career working in a range of senior roles and portfolios in Federal and State Governments. They included areas as diverse as public sector reform,

correctional services, public health, community services and as a government and agency CIO. Jane has received a number of awards recognising her contribution to the ICT industry – National CIO in 2005, and iAwards Woman of the Year in 2011 – when she initiated the Random Hacks of Kindness events in Melbourne a few years ago. She is a member of the NSW Government ICT Industry Advisory Panel and holds a Masters in Business Administration and degrees in Science and Nutrition & Dietetics. She has recently completed an online coursera Certificate in Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

Samia MELHEM, Lead ICT Policy Specialist, ICT Sector Unit, World Bank

Samia Melhem is the lead ICT specialist for the Transformation agenda in the ICT unit. She chairs the eDevelopment Community of Practice, and leads ICT unit’s knowledge and learning program. She is an international expert on egovernment . Her projects focus on improving Public sector delivery to citizens and businesses; and on creating the enabling environment for societal transformation and governance. Samia contributes to research on eGovernment policies, legislation and impact. She led the eProcurement Reference guide, the Gender and ICT toolkit, the ICT Components guide and the Telecoms Regulatory toolkit. One of the eGovernment projects she supervised, eRwanda, won the

Technology in Government Award (TIGA) sponsored by UN and the Government of Finland in June 2011. Samia has worked in different regions (Africa, Europe, Asia and MENA), in several sectors (financial management, public sector reform, education, health, agriculture, innovation) in more than forty countries. She has degrees in Electrical Engineering, (BSEE); Computer Sciences (MS), and MBA (Finance).

Arleen Cannata SEED, Senior Information Officer in the Information Technology Solutions Knowledge and Information Unit

In addition to managing the information services of the World Bank, Arleen also supports numerous operational projects, providing eGovernment technical assistance to the governments of Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Kenya, Congo-Brazza, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Mexico, Mozambique and Guinea. She designed and implemented the eRwanda project and the eGovernment components of the RCIP Africa projects. Prior to this,

Arleen was the World Bank’s Regional IT Officer for South Asia from 1999 to 2002, where she was responsible for the internal IT support for five countries: India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Arleen was recruited to the Bank after having spent nearly 10 years working in Africa, as the Regional ICT Officer for UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, based in Nairobi. There she led the organization’s transition from telex and typewriter technology to electronic mail, LANs and knowledge databases. She undertook a special assignment in Rwanda, from July through December 1994, to help reopen the UNICEF Office in Kigali right after the genocide and establish computing and telecommunications facilities. Prior to her posting in Africa, Arleen had been stationed in UNICEF’s HQ in New York, where she designed and implemented UNICEF’s first email system in the mid-1980s. Her work has taken her to more than 55 countries throughout the world to introduce technology, train staff and contribute to development. A New York City native, Arleen possesses an MS in Management Information Systems from Columbia University in the City of New York and is a frequent speaker and writer on the topic of ICT for Development.

Jeff KAPLAN, Senior Consultant, ICT Unit, Founder and Director of the Open ePolicy Group

Jeff is a strategic management consultant to government agencies and multinational companies on Open Data, Open Innovation and technology strategies. A recognized global expert, Jeff has worked with countries as diverse as the Republic of Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Republic of Macedonia and Nigeria to help ensure their Open Data, Open Innovation and Open Government agendas catalyze innovations both in the market and within government. He currently acts as Lead Facilitator for the

Open Data Innovations Network (ODIN), a global community of practice hosted on founded by the World Bank and hosted on LinkedIn. Jeff’s also advises selected emerging market clients on growth of digital content businesses. For example, reporting to the Chairman and CEO of the largest media company in Arab world—with $1.4 billion market cap and over 1,000 employees—Jeff conceived and won Board approval of a 3-year business plan for spin-off of $60 million company with subsidiaries focused on digital content and online verticals. Jeff was also Founder & Director of the Open ePolicy Group, a pioneering, global network of government CIOs and industry executives based at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society that published the Roadmap for ICT Ecosystems, a set of policy tools for use of open technologies to drive interoperability and innovation. Jeff received a Juris Doctor degree with honors from Harvard Law School and a B.A. with honors from Yale University. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and an International Affairs Fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Jeff can be followed on Twitter @jeffkaplan88 or emailed at: jeff@openesolutions.com.

Oleg PETROV, Senior Program Officer, ICT Unit, World Bank

Oleg Petrov is a champion of open government and ICT for development (ICT4D) at the World Bank in a variety of leadership roles with emphasis on program coordination, knowledge sharing and capacity building. Currently, Oleg is the program coordinator for ICT activities in Russia and Balkans, and for knowledge sharing and learning activities of the ICT Unit of Sustainable Development Vice-Presidency, including the HELP program, Open Development Technology Alliance, Open Government Data working group and e-Development Thematic Group. Until recently, he was the WB team leader for Moldova Governance e-Transformation program, the first Bank funded project to support open

data and cloud computing infrastructure. He has been with the World Bank for 16 years working on ICT4D, private and financial sector development, and knowledge management. Oleg conceived the Global Development Gateway (1999), initiated and coordinated about 20 Country Gateways in Europe and Asia (1999-2001) and a global portal on ICT4D and Afghanistan Reconstruction (2002-2003). He contributed to several integrated e-development and e-government projects funded by the World Bank, including e-Sri Lanka and e-Ghana. He also worked with the European Union’s Public Sector Institutional Reform project in Russia as senior international expert on e-government contributing to client capacity building, single window program and e-government strategy development.

Sebastian FOO, Senior ICT Consultant & Owner of The White Landscape In his previous IDA International role, he conducted eGovernment presentations and workshops to government leaders i.e. Presidents and Prime Ministers from more than 20 countries e.g. Russian, Botswana, Moldova and Tajikistan. During his career with IDA Singapore, Sebastian headed various eGovernment departments, spanning from G2B, G2C, G2E and Innovations. He has worked on the conceptualization, planning, & programme management for whole-of-government ICT projects, one of which is the Government Electronic Business (GeBIZ),

Singapore government's one-stop e-procurement portal. Collectively, their eGovernment effort has led to the Singapore government being ranked number one in an Accenture 2007 study on "Leadership in Customer Service". Sebastian has also made significant contributions towards Singapore’s drive to be a pro-enterprise nation utilizing ICT. He has conceptualized & programme managed the Enterprise One Portal, a G2B gateway, & the Online Business Licensing Service, a whole-of-government electronic licensing system to facilitate ease in starting up for Small Medium Businesses. These initiatives were instrumental in Singapore’s No.1 ranking by World Bank for the Ease of Doing Business, for 6 consecutive years.

Wanil CHOI, Research Fellow, National Information Society Agency (NIA), Republic of Korea

Dr. Wanil Choi participated in National Administrative Information Systems Project (first e-Government project in Korea) in 1985-1987 at Dacom which was the main contractor at the NAIS project. Since 1987, when NIA was established to foster the National Basic Information System in 5 main public areas, he became deeply involved in the national informatization projects and government policy making over 25 years ranging from planning to implementation serving major duties as following: Vice President, IT technology Division, and Information Exchange Center; Manager, IT Audit Dept., Information Sharing and Use

Dept. Starting from 2007, Dr. Choi is an affiliated professor at the Graduate School of ICT of Seogang Univ., Seoul.

Caroline FIGUERES, Managing Director, International Institute for Communication and Development

Caroline Figuères (1960) received her MSc. degree from the French National School of Engineering for Water and Environment (ENGEES) in 1985. She has a broad range of experience of working in developing countries, particularly in Africa and Asia. From 1985 till 2002 she worked for French and Dutch consulting companies mostly on integrated water and land management issues, including agricultural and industrial uses of water. While working at the UNESCO-IHE Water Education Institute she also gained a high level of expertise and experience with training, education and capacity building of professional coming from developing countries. Under her leadership

several distance-learning short courses have been developed. In January 2008 she was appointed Managing Director of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), a not-for-profit organization specializing in empowering local organizations in developing countries to develop and implement ICT solutions that are relevant to their needs. Through short missions she got expertise in addressing rural and urban development challenges. She combines many years of practical experience acquired during her work in developing countries with the knowledge of innovative uses of ICT in different sectors (agriculture, water, health, education, environment, governance, etc.). Incorporating ICT in development projects in various sectors can generate important meaningful social changes for local communities and accelerate development. Local ownership, capacity development and the creation of an enabling environment are fundamental to the overall development process.

Chris SMITH, e-Procurement Expert, Crown Agents

Chris is an international procurement specialist and e-procurement adviser with 35 years of experience in implementing donor funded projects in Africa, Asia, the Caucuses and the Middle East. His expertise includes project design, project management, procurement, logistics and advisory services for a diverse range of private and public sector clients and donors including the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Government of Japan and the World Bank. Over the last 5 years Chris has focussed on e-procurement projects

including training, business analysis for new IT systems, customisation of donor websites and development of procurement management information systems, and providing advice to the governments of Armenia, Barbados Rwanda and Yemen and on the design and implementation of e-procurement systems. In 2012 Chris undertook an assignment for the African Development Bank to conduct an e-readiness assessment study and mapping of the profile of e-procurement developments throughout Africa.

Paul KUKUBO, Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya ICT Board

Paul Kukubo is the first CEO of the newly established East Africa Exchange (EAX), based in Kigali, Rwanda. The East Africa Exchange (EAX) was launched in Davos, Switzerland in January of 2013 by H.E. President Paul Kagame, Nicolas Berggruen and Ambassador Jendayi Frazer with the objectives to develop the Rwandan and East African commodity markets. EAX carries the support of the Rwandan Government, the cooperation of the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, and is financially supported through the private

investment of Africa Exchange Holdings (AFEX, comprising Berggruen Holdings, Heirs Holdings, and 50 Ventures) as well as local stakeholder Ngali Holdings. The initiative is part of AFEX’s overall objective to develop a network of commodity exchanges around Africa— starting in Rwanda and the East Africa Community— to transform trade dynamics and ensure higher incomes for the rural poor as they become more closely connected to the global economy. EAX will utilize NASDAQ OMX technology to offer trading with integrity and precise clearing in order to promote a partnership with the East African countries to form a regional EAC exchange. EAX is also supported by the Nicolas Bergguren Institute on Governance and the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Prior to joining EAX, Paul Kukubo was the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Board—a State Corporation under the Ministry of Information and Communications that oversees the development and the marketing of Kenya as an ICT investment destination. In his capacity, Paul had led the team that developed the Kenya National ICT Masterplan 2017, and was a leading member of the Konza Technology City Master-planning team. He has a resounding influence in the Kenyan ICT field and has a keen interest in developing the various subsectors such as business process outsourcing; public sector shared services and e-Applications; local content; digital

inclusion; and public key infrastructure. And recent to the list is the Open Data initiative, which was charged with creating public sector transparency through the release of critical data to the public. Paul has commanded various senior roles in marketing and advertising prior to co-founding 3mice Interactive Ltd in 1998—East Africa's premier e-commerce solutions provider. He has also served as Chairman of the Marketing Society of Kenya.

Mesfin MAKONNEN, HP, Enterprise Group General Manager - Rest of Africa; Managing Director, Ethiopia

Mesfin (‘Mes’) Makonnen is HP Enterprise Group (EG) General Manager for Rest of Africa (40 countries & Territories including Rwanda) and Managing Director for HP Ethiopia, with responsibility for the performance of all HP business units. He has taken over this responsibility at the beginning of 2012 helping launch the HP Ethiopia office and already showing great improvement in customer relations as well as partner management. Mes has 19 years of experience in the IT industry, having spent the last 6 years working across Africa

holding both technical and managerial roles for large IT vendors. His bi-lingual background has helped him impact both English speaking and French speaking Africa and is seen as a trusted advisor for several large organizations, government institutions as well as partners. Mesfin is a member of the US-Ethiopia Business Forum.

Toks FAYOMI, Consultant, World Bank

Toks is a consultant on job creation and ICT projects with the World Bank. Prior to her work with World Bank, she had taken on project management roles in China, England, United States, and Nigeria. She is also a co-founder of an agriculture company that aims to improve the lives of sesame seed farmers in Nigeria.

Mark SEARS, Founder & CEO, CloudFactory

After doing tech startups in Canada and the US for about 10 years, Mark has spent the last 4 years living in Nepal and using his unique blend of technology and business experience to develop CloudFactory towards creating work for 1 million people. He started his career as a software developer with Sun Microsystems before finding his groove in the world of startups. Moving into technology evangelism and product management roles he helped a 5 person startup grow to 130 employees across 4 international offices after raising $48 million in venture capital. Mark then raised angel

investment launched and managed his own startup company for 6 years before coming to Nepal and starting the CloudFactory adventure.

Evan KUBICEK, VP Workforce, CloudFactory

Before joining CloudFactory Evan was working with Professionals International to provide business training and coaching services throughout the developing world. Entrepreneurship, teaching university level business courses, life coaching, construction, consulting.... if there is something that needs to get done, he's probably done it. Evan’s work has taken him to Mexico, Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Haiti, Morocco, Burkina Faso, and now Nepal. As VP of Workforce, Evan is focused on raising up 1 million workers throughout the developing world.

Antoine SEBERA, Chief Executive Officer of Broadband Systems Corporation Ltd (BSC)

Antoine is the Chief Executive Officer of Broadband Systems Corporation Ltd (BSC), a company that manages the largest fiber-optic network and the most advance data center in Rwanda. He has more than 10 years of experience in the ICT industry ranging from academic, consulting, project management and telecommunications sectors. Antoine played a key role in Rwandan flagship projects such as the Rwanda Development Gateway Portal, the e-Rwanda Project and was the lead person in managing the construction of the National Fiber Optic Backbone Network and the Kigali Metropolitan Network.

He also played a leading role in the creation and operationalization of BSC. Antoine also sits on the Board of Directors of the National Post Office and is also a member of the Rwanda National Payment Systems Council.

Saki KUMAGAI, Social Development Consultant, the World Bank

Saki is a social development consultant at the World Bank’s Social Development Department (SDV). Her sectoral focus areas at SDV are Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Social Accountability (SA) and SA in extractive industry operations. She has been supporting the World Bank practitioners incorporating SA approaches and tools in operations through knowledge management, brokering, and creation as well as through research. She also co-authors a case study of a SA project in Cambodia and a guidance note on extractive industry operations. Prior to joining the World Bank, Saki worked as a research analyst on science and technology policy with a

private firm and as a research assistant in economics policy at the London School of Economics (LSE). She also has worked for and volunteered with various non-governmental organizations in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. Saki holds a bachelor’s degree in

international relations and sociology from the American University and a master’s degree in human rights from the LSE.

Shin LEE, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and Transportation, Cardiff University

She has been teaching and researching for the past 13 years at Cardiff University. She grew up in South Korea and received her training in urban planning and transport from the University of Southern California. While in California, she worked as a research associate at the University of Southern California for over 7 years and taught for a year at California State University, Northridge before moving to the UK. As Course Director for MSc in Transport and Planning, she leads the transport team in Cardiff School of Planning and Geography. She is Editor of International Planning Studies and authored some 30 scholarly papers.

At the World Bank's ICT Sector Unit, she is working on Big Data and Analytics to explore the use of various types of locational data in transport planning as well as developing a framework that will help define and assess the ICT’s role in the city in a rigorous manner.

Stela MOCAN, Executive Director, E-Government Center/CIO Office, Government of Moldova

Stela Mocan has helped lay the foundations for the National eGovernance Transformation Agenda and create the e-Government Center/CIO Office of the Government of Moldova in August 2010. Currently, Stela leads a fast growing team of 22 people with the mission to improve public services through technology. Prior to creating eGC, Stela was adviser to the Prime Minister. From 1998 to 2008, Stela has worked in international development organizations like UNDP, USAID, and IRI where she has built extensive expertise in the areas of democracy building and governance, political party strengthening and women's empowerment, civil society and local

economic development in Moldova. While earning her Master in Public Administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Stela was also a Mason & Kokkalis Fellow. She also received a post-graduate diploma in Political Science from the National School of Political and Administrative Studies in Romania.

Wayne BURKE, Open Forum Foundation

Wayne Moses Burke works with governments to connect them to their citizens. He founded the nonprofit Open Forum Foundation in Washington, DC and through its work, builds trusting and productive relationships between citizens and their governments and helps governments to see the value of engaging with citizens in-person and through ICTs. He does by designing and facilitating collaborative events

for government agencies, advising them on their citizen engagement strategies, and helping them to understand the value of the modern open government movement. More information at http://open4m.org/.

James SAAKA, Executive Director, National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (NITA-U)

James Saaka joined the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U) as Executive Director in August 2010. His responsibility is to ensure that NITA-U achieves its mandate: to coordinate, promote and monitor IT development within the context of national, social and economic development of Uganda. James joined NITA-U from Shell International B.V., where he spent 12 years – from July 1998 until July 2010. James’s last assignment in Shell from 2008 to 2010 was Business Services Manager for Strategy & Compliance for the Shell Group, under the Group CIO office based in The Hague, in the Netherlands. He started his career in Bank of Uganda as a Systems Analyst from 1993 to

1995. James Saaka graduated from the University of Vladimir Polytechnic Institute, The Soviet Union, with Bachelors in Computer Science in 1988. He obtained a Masters in Computer Science from the same University in 1991. Dorothy K. GORDON, Director-General of Ghana's Advanced Information Technology Institute

Dorothy K. Gordon is the Director-General of Ghana's Advanced Information Technology Institute, the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE). She leads a team of world-class technology professionals committed to using the opportunities that exist globally to bring development to Africa. Her vision is to move Africa from a situation where it consumes technology developed outside the continent and designed for other markets, to where technology consumed in Africa is the

result of African innovation that provides solutions for overall socio-economic development. Dorothy’s career as a specialist in international development spans over 25 years. Her extensive experience within the United Nations is complemented by work in the private sector and with global civil society organizations. Her leadership and management responsibilities include implementation of multi-million dollar projects and programs throughout Africa and in South Asia as well as strategy, change management and evaluation consulting for major companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has been actively involved in shaping Ghana's Information and Communications Technology scene for close to 20 years. Dorothy is a Council Member of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), Board member and Africa Spokesperson for the World Summit Awards; and

Director, UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA). She sits on various international and national boards focusing on technology, job creation and the achievement of a more favourable environment for women to participate equally in the technology for development process. Didier NKURIKIYIMFURA, Director General in charge of ICT, Ministry of Youth and ICT of Rwanda

Didier Nkurikiyimfura joined the ICT Sector 10 years ago coming from a technical and engineering education. At his current capacity of Director General in charge of ICT in the Ministry of Youth and ICT, Didier is in charge of the country's ICT Policy and Strategy development and coordination. Prior to his current functions, Didier worked in the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) where he served in the capacity of

Head of the IT Security Division, a division that plans implements and coordinates Rwanda’s ICT Security. Didier also worked at the Rwanda Information Technology Authority where he respectively served as Director of the National Computing Center (NCC) and Director of the National Data Center (NDC). A national of Rwanda, Didier holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and a Master of Science Degree in Software Engineering. Syed Zain KHAN, Alliances Consulting Group, Inc.

Syed Zain Khan, CMC is a certified management consultant from Canada and president of Alliances Consulting Group Inc., with offices in Toronto, Canada and Kigali, Rwanda. He has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications and ICT sector including the last 14 years in Africa. His practice areas include strategy, operations, organizational transformation, emerging technologies, business applications, policy and regulation, customer care, and capacity building.

Bruce H. KROGH, Director, Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda (CMU-R)

Bruce H. Krogh is Director of Carnegie Mellon University in Rwanda (CMU-R), a Kigali-based branch of Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, offering master’s degrees in information technology. Dr. Krogh joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1983, where he is currently a professor of electrical and computer engineering, and moved to Rwanda to become Director of CMU-R in January 2012.

Jacob GAHAMANYI, ICT Expert, Rwanda

Jacob has extensive experience in the fields of Public Private Partnership and ICT Strategy Development both as a Practitioner and a Consultant. He has previously worked as Private Sector Development officer with Rwanda Information Technology Authority advising on PPPs in the ICT sector and with H2O Venture Capital Partners as a Business Development Manager. He recently concluded an assignment on behalf of the Ministry of Youth and ICT to develop the ICT Sector Strategic Plan2013-2018. Jacob has consulted for a number of clients including USAID, UNECA, World

Bank, the Rwanda Ministry of ICT and Rwanda Revenue Authorities. He holds a Master of Communications Management (MCM) from the joint International Telecommunications Union/United Kingdom Telecommunications Academy program.

Clarisse IRIBAGIZA, CEO, Hehe Ltd

Clarisse Iribagiza is HeHe’s CEO and is in charge of overseeing the implementation of the company’s overall strategy. A computer Engineer with up to 4 years of experience in Software Engineering, she co-founded HeHe Limited while in her 3rd year at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology. She is also a Think Tank member of World Entrepreneurship Forum and the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers, Kigali Chapter and actively engages in promoting tech

entrepreneurship through the iHills, Rwanda’s youth ICT association which she helped start up and is the current vice president as well as the Girls in ICT network. Clarisse is the inaugural winner of the Inspire Africa Entrepreneurship reality TV show (2012) that brought together 24 young brilliant minds from East Africa to compete in the Apprentice-like TV show that saw her walk away with 50,000USD of business growth capital.