Speaker Category: Speaker

Comfort Mbofana is a renowned radio personality and a senior media executive in Zimbabwe. He works as the General Manager of Zimpapers, Radio Broadcasting Division- the most profitable radio consortium in the country incorporating four radio stations including  the biggest and most awarded urban radio station, Star FM.

Professor Stephen Kiama Gitahi is the 8th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi. He holds a doctorate degree in Structural Biology from the University of Bern, Switzerland under the mentorship of Professor Peter Gehr . His PhD marked a culmination of a long journey of sustained personal illumination driven by an abiding curiosity to broaden the horizons of knowledge.

 As Professor Kiama pursued his scholarly and teaching roles, leadership duties seemed to beckon at every turn. It is in delivering these tasks that he garnered broad hands-on skills, practical knowledge and fundamental proficiencies in key structural, legislative and regulatory frameworks crucial to the effective management of institutions of higher learning. In the fullness of time, he has accumulated a vast wealth of administrative experience, honed his skills in management of people and programmes for set outputs, cut his teeth in leadership and distinguished himself as a capable leader. His progressive rise in leadership roles where he has served in senior management positions at the University of Nairobi over the past 17 years speak to this fact.

In addition, he has exhibited remarkable gift in people management, eye for detail and possesses exemplary skills in financial management, networking, fundraising and resource mobilization. It is for this reason that Professor Kiama was appointed a juror for Wangari Maathai Institute Campus and University of Nairobi Tower design competitions respectively, Golden Climate Awards organized by Light Academy and the Wangari Maathai Scholarship Award.

Doctor Youssef MAZOUZ is a university professor in digital transformation, and an internationally renowned expert in digitization and cybersecurity, has participated in several information systems security projects. 

He held the position of Head of Information Systems Development within a ministry in Morocco for 10 years, while also serving as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) within a public sector administration. Additionally, he serves as Secretary General of the African Cybersecurity Center (CAC), a non- governmental organization bringing together Chief Information Officers (C10s) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) from the African public and private sectors.

Jeff Mote is a dynamic media consultant with extensive experience in radio, television and digital media. He has produced and anchored shows for both regional and international outlets (Reuters Africa and DW Africa). Currently in media and communications consultancy, he’s leveraging his expertise to refine strategies and drive impactful communication.

He was a member of the negotiating team of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the Pretoria Peace Talks, where the Pretoria Peace Agreement was signed in November 2022. He has an LL.B. from Addis Ababa University Faculty of Law and an LL.M. from University Colleague London. He was a Senior Fellow, at Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, Harvard University. He was Assistant Director General for Global Issues at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). He served as Ambassador & Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations Offices in Geneva and Vienna; Ambassador to Switzerland, and non-resident ambassador to Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary & Romania, and a deputy head of mission at the Ethiopian Embassy in Brussels. He was the legal advisor to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the African Union Commission on International Law/2009-2014 and served in the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund Advisory Council.

Rosalia Omungo is Chief Executive Officer for Kenya Editors’ Guild, the foremost professional association for editors in Kenya. She is in charge of mobilizing resources  and implementing  the institution’s strategy to deliver professionalism and excellence in journalism. These include sourcing professional development opportunities for reporters and editors, community engagement with communities as well advocating for policies that promote media freedom. She takes keen interest in leadership and strategy development. She completed the Knight Science Journalism fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017 and has previously worked as television managing editor where she led the Health, Science and environment desk. While in the newsroom, she reported widely on climate change and biodiversity. She is a Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) fellow, and was the inaugural Earth Journalism Scholar at University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2014. Her work has earned her accolades among them Commonwealth award for Environmental Reporting in Africa in 2010. She holds a masters degree in Development Communication from Daystar University, Kenya.

Ibrahim Sagna is a seasoned investor with close to three decades of global finance roles with multilateral institutions such as IMF, AFC, Afreximbank and asset managers like ECP and Millenium Global. 

Mr. Sagna is Executive Chairman of Silverbacks Holdings, a private investment firm managing assets in tech, sports, entertainment and media, primarily in Africa. He is also podcast host of IN THE VALLEY, as well as Vice-Chairman and Founding Partner of the Cape Town Tigers, the 3x South Africa basketball champion club affiliated to NBA’s Basketball Africa League (BAL).  

He is a member of the Governing Body of Global Sports Summit. His other boards involvements include FEDA, Founders Factory Africa, Utopia Capital, Beacon Media, Media54 and he serves as mentor at Tim Draper’s University in California.  

Mr. Sagna holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from Boston College, and exec degrees from Harvard Business School, London Business School, and INSEAD.

His Excellency Amb. Prof. Muhammadou M.O. Kah is the Ambassador of The Republic of the Gambia to the Swiss confederation & Permanent Representative to the UN Office at Geneva, World Trade Organisation (WTO), and other international organizations at Geneva, Switzerland. He served as the past Chairman of the Africa Group of Ambassadors at Geneva (April 2021- Sept. 2021) and currently is the Vice President (Africa) for the UN Human Rights Council (2022 and 2023); Vice Chairman for UNCTAD’s Commission on Science and Technology Development and a member of the Advisory Board of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Bureau (TDB) (June 2021-July 2023). Amb. Prof. Kah served as one of two Ambassadors designated as Friends of the Chair of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly and serves as one of the Vice Chairs of the General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). He is a founding Board member of The International Digital Health and AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR), Geneva, Switzerland; Council Member: DCAF-Geneva Center For Security sector Governance Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland.

Amb. Prof. Kah served as the first Gambian-born third Vice Chancellor (President/Rector) of The University of The Gambia (UTG) from 2009-2015. Prior to becoming UTG’s Vice Chancellor in 2009, he spent 4 years in Nigeria as the Founding Dean of the School of IT and Computing at the American University of Nigeria (AUN) where he doubled for a year as Interim Dean of the School of Business & Entrepreneurship and served as Interim CIO of the University.  After his tenure at AUN, he was appointed to serve as a member of the University’s Board of Trustees for eight years. He was requested to step down and return to the University to provide academic and administrative leadership for the transformation of the University as Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost and Professor of IT & Computing (2017-2020).  Amb. Prof. Kah also served as Vice Rector for Technology & Innovation; Professor and Founding Dean of the School of IT & Engineering at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan (2015-2017). During his tenure, he provided leadership and spear headed resource mobilization that established a funded centre of excellence at the University- the ADA Centre for Data Analytics and Research to builds capacity, competencies on Data Science, Big Data, AI, Machine Learning and other emerging technologies and a hub of collaboration and partnership with key industry players and reputable Universities.

 

Founder and CEO of GLOBAL MEDIA AFRICA, Mostapha Mellouk has over 25-years of experience in the management of TV channels like  2M,  Al-Jazeera Children’s Channel in the Qatar Foundation, and Medi1Sat. He is an international speaker on the topic of the Media and a member of several associations and active committees in the audiovisual field in Morocco and abroad. He regularly works with national and international organizations on topics related to media, broadcasting, news and content. He was appointed as board member of AllAfrica Global Media in 2023.

Steve Gitagama is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Nation Media Group. He is also the Group Finance Director and has been a Board member since March 2008. He is also on the board of 9 other companies. Mr. Gitagama is an executive director, a director of the Group’s Subsidiary Companies and is a member of the Strategy and Investments Committee. He previously worked as a Finance Director with East African Breweries Limited and as Group Finance Director at Monitor Publications Ltd.