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Charles Murito is the Director for Government Affairs and Public Policy for Google in Sub-Saharan Africa.
For nearly two decades, Charles has helped some of the world’s leading tech, media and entertainment companies to define their strategy, grow, and advance their footprint in emerging markets. This includes roles at MTV Base, Warner Bros, and Turner Broadcasting – where he served as the Director of Business Development and Strategy. While at Turner, he spearheaded the development & launch of an Arabic Cartoon Network channel and conceptualized the Cartoon Network Academy to train a generation of Arabic animators.
He has previously served as Google’s Country Director for Kenya, overseeing in-country revenue growth. Parallel to that he served as Google’s Diversity and Inclusion lead for EMEA emerging markets, working with the global EMEA team to build a more equitable organization in which every employee can thrive. Charles also serves as a Board Director for CSquared, a Google portfolio company.
In his current role, he leads Sub-Saharan Africa’s Government Affairs and Public Policy team, defining Google’s strategy in being a partner to African government’s digital transformation and working with other partners contributing to the development of Africa’s policy and regulatory landscape for socio-economic growth.
Outside work, Charles loves good food, art and farming, and is passionate about leveraging technology to drive economic development.
Professor Mohammed Belhocine is an Algerian national. Former Head of the Department of Internal Medicine, he held various positions in Algeria, at the Faculty of Medicine and the Ministry of Health, before joining the international civil service in 1997. Former Director of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases at the WHO Regional Office for Africa (in Harare, then in Brazzaville), he was also WHO Representative in Nigeria and Tanzania. He ended his career as UN System Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Tunisia from 2009 to 2013. From June 2015 to February 2016, at the request of the WHO Regional Director, he returned to duty as WHO
Representative in Guinea, playing an active role in providing technical support and expertise to the country’s response to the Ebola epidemic. He is 71 years old and is an international consultant in Public Health and Development. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, he was appointed as a member of the Scientific Committee for the monitoring of the pandemic, and was assigned, by the President of the Republic, with the task of monitoring epidemiological investigations around confirmed or suspected cases of Covid-19. In October 2021, supported by his country, he was elected to the position of Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation within the African Union.
Professor Belhocine is the father of three children, and has six grandchildren.
Professor PLO Lumumba is the Founder of the PLO Lumumba Foundation and a consultant with Lumumba and Lumumba Advocates, a member of the Africa Justice Group (AJG). He is an Advocate of the High Courts of Kenya and Tanganyika and a certified mediator. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya FCPS (K), a Fellow of the Kenya Institute of Management (FKIM) and Honorary Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS). He is the Chairman of Farafina Investment Group in Monrovia, Liberia and Economic Strategic Growth and Development Initiative for Africa based in Nigeria.
He has authored several books on diverse subjects. With several speeches on diverse subjects delivered in and outside Africa, Lumumba is recognized as one of the leading public speakers in Africa and the African in Diaspora. He is the founder of several organizations including the PLO Lumumba Foundation, a charitable organization that has been in operation since 1990. He has also been twice recognized as one of the 100 most influential Africans.
Mr. Rekgotsofetse Chikane is a lecturer in public policy at the Wits School of Governance and a Research Associate at the Wits Institute for Socio-Economic Research. He graduated from the University of Oxford (Blavatnik School of Government) having completed his Masters in Public Policy degree in 2017, and a Bachelor in Social Science (Hons) degree at the University of Cape Town in 2015, specialising in Public Policy, Public Administration and Economics. His focus is Public Policy, Complexity Economics, Decoloniality and Digital Governance.
He is currently a fellow with the International Strategy Forum which is coordinated by the Schmidt Futures. He is an activist and the author of Breaking a Rainbow, Building a Nation: The Politics behind the #MustFall Movements. He is a Mandela-Rhodes Scholar, a Mandela-Washington Fellow, a Chevening Scholar, a former Masters Fellow at the Public Affairs Research Institute, one of Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young People (2016 – Civil Society) and an Obama Africa Programme leader for 2019. He previously worked as the National President of InkuluFreeHeid, a non-partisan youth organisation focused on deepening democracy and enhancing social cohesion in South Africa. He also worked as a Strategist at MegaTech AI, an emerging technology consulting firm.
Stephen is an international consultant with broad expertise for over 25 years in digital financial services, payment systems, central banking practices and legal and regulatory frameworks.
He is the founder Chairman of Fintech Institute a Nairobi based capacity building and digital financial services consultancy firm. Prior to working as an International consultant, Stephen was in charge of the National Payments System division at the Central Bank of Kenya, where he pioneered and championed mobile financial services in Kenya, Africa and globally – key among them the M-Pesa payment platform run by Safaricom.
He has considerable experience working with wide range stakeholders in the digital financial world (Telecommunication firms, Banks, donor organizations, Treasury, other regulators). At a regional level, he has extended his leadership expertise in the harmonization of various initiatives at East Africa Community (EAC) level.
At an international level, he is a regular contributor and an acclaimed global speaker at World Bank, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) fora. Stephen holds a post graduate diploma from Fletcher School of Tufts University B.Sc., degree in Mechanical Engineering and LLB degree from University of Nairobi and an MBA, Finance and International Business from Syracuse University, USA. In addition, he has excellent research capabilities and is frequently requested to carry out peer review assignments and book reviews for colleagues in the industry.
Dr. Melissa Omino, is an intellectual property (IP) expert with a research focus on the development and negotiation of IP provisions in international trade agreements by and with Global South countries. A cum laude graduate with practical legal experience both in academia and practice, Dr. Omino holds a Doctorate in Law (focusing on Intellectual Property and Trade Law). Her range of expertise also includes the legal frameworks within the sphere of Artificial Intelligence, Data Protection and Digital Rights.
She also focuses her energies in mentoring and nurturing researchers as part of her role as Acting Director at the Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology (CIPIT) where she leads projects in IP and data protection. Dr. Omino is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She is also a co-host of the Friendly Troll Podcast where she disseminates research to a wider audience in the Global South in accessible language.
Dr Catherine Nyaki Adeya is an experienced leader and advocate with over 25 years working in technology and development. She has a rich experience across academia, civil society, government, and the private sector. Catherine was the Director of Research at the World Wide Web Foundation (WF) until November 2022. She was responsible for coordinating a global research team dedicated to achieving a web that is safe and empowering for everyone. She oversaw the organization’s groundbreaking research in areas from internet access, privacy and data rights, and women’s rights online, focused on low- and middle-income countries. Catherine has extensive knowledge and is widely spoken and published in the ICT for Development sector. Catherine began her career as a Research Fellow at the United Nations University’s Institute for New Technologies in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Driven by a commitment to tackling global inequality, she moved back to Africa due to her belief that the web and digital technologies must be used to expand opportunities and drive development. She has served as the Director of Business Process Outsourcing at the Ministry of ICT in Kenya; and as founder CEO of the Konza Technopolis Development Authority. Catherine was instrumental in the development of the East Africa Centre for Internet Governance and Policy (CIGAP) at the renowned Strathmore University in Nairobi. She is an independent non- executive director at Standard Chartered Bank Kenya and Old Mutual East Africa Holdings. She also serves on the advisory board of the Strathmore Academy of International Research Collaboration (SAIRC).
