Archives: Speakers

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Prof Goski Alabi

Professor Goski Alabi is an accomplished academic, practitioner and entrepreneur with experience in academia, consultancy, and regulations. She is a Professor of Quality Management and Leadership and holds B.Sc. in Chemistry and a Diploma in Education from the University of Cape Coast, an M. Phil. in Food Science from the University of Ghana, Legon, a Doctor of Business Administration from the Swiss Management Centre, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Central University of Nicaragua.

Prof. Goski is currently the Dean of the Centre for International Education and Collaboration at the University for Professional Studies, Accra and served as the Founding Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the University. As the Founding Dean she grew the School from zero to 1000 students in six short years. She is a Quality Management professional of the highest order. She is a Chartered Quality Professional (CQP) from the Chartered Quality Institute, UK. She has consulted widely, and has published over 70 scholarly journal articles, books conference and technical papers. Prof. Goski Alabi proposed and facilitated the establishment of the Otumfuo Centre for Traditional Leadership and the Drolor Centre for Strategic Leadership, two leadership centres of excellence in Ghana. Prof. Goski is passionate about open supported teaching and learning and is the co-founder of Laweh Open University College.

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Sarah Jones

Sarah Jones is EOSC Engagement Manager at GÉANT, where she works with NRENs on supporting Open Science. She is an information professional with over a decade working in research data services in the higher education sector. At the Digital Curation Centre she led the DMPonline service and worked on consultancy and training. Sarah was rapporteur on the European Commission’s FAIR Data Expert Group and independent expert on the EOSC Executive Board, chairing the FAIR Working Group.

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Dr. Peggy Oti-Boateng

Dr. Peggy Efua Oti-Boateng is the Director of the Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building in the Natural Sciences Sector at UNESCO. Dr. Oti-Boateng has been responsible for projects and programmes relating to science policy and basic sciences  at the multisectoral regional office in Harare (Zimbabwe). She was regional thematic adviser for Africa for the formulation of policies and capacity building in science, technology and innovation. She also served as focal point for the African Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology and was the Head of the Sciences Sector for the Southern African Development Community. She had additional responsibilities in the area of water sciences, ecology and intersectionality.

Dr. Oti-Boateng holds a PhD in Food Science and Technology obtained from Adelaide University in Australia and an MSc, with a specialization in Biochemistry, obtained from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi (Ghana).  Dr. Oti-Boateng began her career in 1985 as a researcher at the Technology Consultancy Centre at the College of Engineering at KNUST. In 1989 she was appointed Consultant and Trainer at the South Australian Department for Training and Employment in Adelaide (Australia) and from 2005 to 2010, she served as Director of the Research Centre at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, working in collaboration with national and international strategic partners. In 2011, Dr. Oti-Boateng joined the UNESCO Office in Nairobi, Kenya as a Senior Programme Specialist . In this capacity, she was responsible for developing, coordinating, implementing and evaluating projects and programmes of activities relating to the basic sciences and science policy for sustainable development in Africa. In 2015, Dr. Oti-Boateng was transferred at equivalent grade to the multisectoral regional office in Harare (Zimbabwe).

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Prof. Kazutsuna Yamaji

Prof. Yamaji serves both as a professor at the National Institute of Informatics (NII)’s Foundation of Content Management and as the director of the NII’s Research Center for Open Science and Data Platform. He specializes in the studies of media informatics and databases, and his current responsibilities mainly involve academic data platforms, such as institutional data repositories and the Gakuin Federation, which is comprised of academic institutions and companies that use or publish e-learning resources. In 2017, he launched the course titled “Research Data Management in the Age of Open Science” on an online learning platform “gacco.” Dr. Yamaji is a recipient of the 2018 MEXT Ministry Award in science and technology.

He earned his PhD in engineering from Toyohashi University of Technology and worked at Wakayama Medical University and the RIKEN Center for Brain Science among other institutions before joining the NII in 2007 as associate professor.

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Dr Pamela Abbott

Dr Pamela Abott is a Senior Lecturer of Information Systems at the University of Sheffield, UK. She started in academia as a computer scientist and mathematician, however, her academic career in Information Systems spans over some 11 years during which she has held various lecturing positions both in the UK (Brunel University London) and abroad (University College Dublin, Ireland).

Pamela obtained her PhD in Management Studies from Cambridge University in 2004, having pioneered research in an area of global sourcing called “Nearshore Software Outsourcing”. This research interest stemmed from her former career as a Software Quality Analyst at a Barbados-based software outsourcing company specialising in providing services to US-based clients.

Pamela’s more recent work in global sourcing looks at sources of collaboration and innovation through knowledge processes in software and services outsourcing. She carried out most of this research for this latter interest in China in collaboration with Chinese scholars.

She has attracted funding of up to £69,931 to pursue this research and won a prestigious AIS Senior Scholars best paper award for one of the ensuing publications.

Her early work in nearshoring also spawned an interest in ICTs and their effects on developing countries. Most scholars agree that the relationship between ICTs and development is contested; her work helps to uncover some of these contradictions and seek reasons for their continued existence.

Dr Abbott recently participated in two Horizon 2020 EU projects based in Africa which are trying to promote sustainable research and education networks (TANDEM) and science gateways (SciGaIA) to support African scientific communities of practice.

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Funke Opeke

Ms. Funke Opeke, is founder and CEO of MainOne, formerly Main One Cable Company. MainOne is West Africa’s leading communications services and network solutions provider that built West Africa’s first privately owned, open access 7,000 kilometer undersea high capacity cable submarine, a $240-million-dollar project that was completed in time and on budget in 2010. MainOne also built West Africa’s largest Tier III Data Center, MDX-i’s Lekki Data Center, a $40 million investment with a capacity for 600 racks. Ms. Opeke is an experienced telecommunications executive who returned to Nigeria in 2005 as the Chief Technical Officer of MTN after a twenty-year career in the United States.

Prior to her return, she was the Executive Director of Verizon Communications Wholesale Division. Subsequent to MTN, Ms. Opeke advised Transcorp on the acquisition of NITEL and briefly served as the interim Chief Operating Officer, post-acquisition of NITEL. She obtained a first degree in Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nigeria and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York.

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Prof. Nii Narku Quaynor

Dr. Nii Quaynor pioneered Internet development and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, establishing some of Africa’s first Internet connections and helping set up key organizations, including the African Network Operators Group. He also was the founding chairman of AfriNIC, the African Internet numbers registry.

He earned a PhD in Computer Science in 1977, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and helped establish the Computer Science Department at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, where he has taught since 1979.

He was the first African to be elected to the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and served as an at-large director of ICANN for the African region from 2000 to 2003.

Dr. Quaynor was a member of the United Nations Secretary General Advisory Group on ICT, Chair of the OAU Internet Task Force and President of the Internet Society of Ghana.

In 2007, the Internet Society awarded him the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award for his pioneering work in advancing the Internet in Africa. He is a member of the IGF Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG).

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Serge Adjovi

Serge ADJOVI – Director of the Digital Development Agency has been the man at the helms of affairs of RBER – the Benin national research and education network (NREN). He leads ADN to execute Government’s flagship projects and in its role contributes to the concretisation of a strong digital economy for the development of high and very high-speed infrastructures and digital uses.

Serge was the General Manager for Western and Central Africa. He was also the Channel Lead for Sub-Saharan Africa. He has 30 years of experience in the Telecommunications/IT industry having joined Cisco in 2005 as the Channel Account Manager – West and Central Africa. In 2013, he transitioned to become the Regional Channel Manager for Emerging Africa before taking up his current roles in 2015. His wealth of experience stems from both pioneering and managerial roles that cover not all the African continent but also France. Prior to joining Cisco, Serge worked with some of the most well-known global companies like – SITA (Airlines) and Equant / Orange Business Services (OBS). Serge was a recipient of the Sales Champion Award and Best PAM of the Year for Africa and Levant in the 2010 Fiscal Year

 

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