Countdown begins; here are the key speakers for CIO East Africa’s Year Ahead Event

IT stakeholders in the ICT sector will gather on Thursday for The Year Ahead, a conference organised by CIO East Africa for learning and exploring IT trends and technologies that will stargaze the technology landscape in the region for the next 12 months.

The trends identified for this year are rooted in CIO East Africa Research and will help attendees gain insights and concise, actionable information.

The event will also focus on key topics around Blockchain, Cyber vigilance, Entreprise Security, thought leadership, digital transformation among other interesting IT Trends.

Here are some of the IT Leaders who will be speaking at the event:

Martin Mirero,

Director ICT-Huduma Kenya Secretariat

Martin is a seasoned ICT professional with 15 years’ experience in executive-level ICT management in both the private and public sectors. He has worked closely with the governments and public sector agencies of some of the larger and more vibrant economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, Nigeria and of course Kenya – where he is currently based, as the CIO/Director of ICT at Huduma Kenya.

Martin holds an MSc in Computer Science (Intelligent Agents) from Essex University, England, and a BSc Computer Science (Hons) degree from African Nazarene University. He is currently pursuing a PhD with University of South Africa (UNISA)

Lenin Sembo Oyuga

Director, Government Business and Region Leader, East Africa & Indian Ocean Islands at Thomson Reuters

Lenin is a Technology, Strategy and Business Development Professional with a passion for Leading Organizations and Innovations.

He currently works at Thomson Reuters where he heads the Government Business (Entire Public Sector Value Chain, Private Sector and Corporate) across East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands Region

Lenin is a graduate of Electronic and Computer Engineering at JKUAT – Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, M.Sc. Web Sciences and Big data from University of Liverpool and an Oracle DBA.

Fernando Wangila

ICT Director – National Transport Safety Authority

Fernando Wangila is the ICT Director at National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA). Named the 2017 CIO of The Year at the East Africa CIO100 Symposium and Awards, his wealth of experience has earned him the title Starter of Things among his industry peers comprising thought leaders and IT Experts.

Holding a PhD in Business Innovation and Technology Management and MSc., he has been instrumental in ICT Policy and Regulation in the country. He also holds a Bachelor of Science Technology Electronics from University of Eastern Africa Baraton.

Nikki Summers

Regional Director for Sage in East Africa

Nikki Summers leads the Sage business in East Africa. She is responsible for the growth and positioning of Sage in East Africa, a fast-growing territory that the company has targeted for strategic investment in the years to come.

Before assuming this role, Nikki was responsible for growing Sage One into the leading cloud-based accounting brand for Small & Medium Businesses across East and West Africa.

Joseph Mathenge CISSP, GCFW, CISM, ITIL(v3)

Chief Operation Officer

Serianu LTD

Joseph Mathenge is an experienced operational leader, team builder, tried and tested, skilled professional in Information Systems Security.

He is currently the Chief Operating officer at Serianu Limited. As the COO he oversees multiple teams of incident responders, security analysts, information system security officers, and security engineers who provide day to day security services to thousands of virtual cloud hosted, and non-virtual client systems.

Prior to  joining Serianu, I served as the Chief Information Security officer of Airtel Africa in charge of security operations in the 17 African countries where Airtel Operated.

He holds various industry recognized professional certifications including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Sans Certified Firewall expect and Incident handler (GCFW, GCIH) to mention a few.

He also holds Masters Degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in High Tech Crime investigations from the University of George Washington in Washington DC.

Louis Onyango Otieno

Director, Corporate Affairs – 4Afrika

Microsoft Middles East & Africa

A 30-year business and ICT leader, Louis Onyango OTIENO has accrued a unique set of experiences across public and private sector decision-making in the US and Africa.

A software developer by training and a MBA graduate, Otieno began his professional career in the US rising to AVP at EEC Financial Services in New York and New Jersey. He was responsible for IT systems integration as the firm expanded through mergers and acquisitions.

In 1997, Otieno returned to Africa to lead Microsoft’s expansion across West, East, Central Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. Based in Nairobi and Johannesburg for 20 years, Louis held senior roles including Director for the Marketing, Business Operations and the Enterprise Sales groups, as well as the GM responsible for East and Southern Africa.

Otieno is currently the Director in the Middle East and Africa team responsible for Corporate Affairs with Microsoft 4Afrika.

Otieno is a past President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya. He has served as an ICT advisor to the Presidents of Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. He has served on the boards of Kenya’s Vision 2030 Board, Enablis (E. Africa) and Red Media (Nigeria). He sits on the boards of Uchumi Supermarkets (Kenya) and Nation Media Group.

Eunice Kariuki

Director Partnerships, Innovation and Capacity Development

ICT Authority

Eunice Kariuki is the Director of Partnerships, Innovation and Capacity.

Prior to her present position she was the Marketing Director at Kenya ICT Board for 7 years. She also worked in Microsoft as a Public Sector Account Manager in charge of Education in Eastern and Southern Africa, Eastman Kodak and Avro International Aerospace in UK. She also founded and managed Records & Archives Management Systems (RAMS) Ltd.

She holds an MBA in Strategic Management from Maastricht School of Management affiliated to Eastern Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI), a BSc. (Hons.) Degree in Business Studies from UK, a Higher National Diploma in Business Information Technology (BITech), and Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Diploma. She has been a member of the CIM since 1998. She is also a member of the Institute of Directors.

Karien Bornheim

CEO / MD

Footprint Africa Business Solutions Ltd

Karien Bornheim has over twenty-five years of IT, business and management experience, covering all industries but with special emphasis on the financial, telecommunication, retail and government sectors.

She has extensive knowledge of the African continent having spent close on 20 years covering the IT Software business for IBM (Software Executive for Africa) and Footprint Africa Business Solutions (FABS – CEO).

She holds degrees in information technology and psychology from the University of Cape Town as well as diplomas in Accounting and French. She is also technically certified on a number of IT Software technologies.

Karien has been a certified project manager, working on significant multicultural, multi country, multi-million-dollar projects for IBM across the world whilst based in Italy, the U.K. and briefly in the U.S.A.

At present, Karien is the CEO and owner of Footprint Africa Business Solutions, head quartered in Mauritius with branches in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroun and the DRC, specializing in IT solutions which encompass Software, Services, Training and Security, Governance, Risk and Compliance across the various industries.