Cobus van der Merwe is a former army man who has managed to carve out an impressive second career in defence technology. He’s an experienced negotiation team leader in both partnership establishment and contract closure in land warfare and aviation systems. He is currently a senior executive specialising in electronic warfare at Saab Grintek Defense, based in Centurion, South Africa. Cobus has extensive experience in leading defence-level operational test and evaluation teams and performing...

Back in 2012, Musa Kalenga was voted as one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian, and for good reason. Musa is a talented digital specialist, marketing maven, author, former Group Head of Digital Marketing at Nedbank, former Africa Client Partner at Facebook, current Head of Brand at IAB South Africa, and Founder and CEO of a new adtech startup called Microtising. His professional business experience spans over twelve years and includes building his first company...

Simon Carpenter is Chief Technology Officer at SAP Africa. In his rather long and varied career at SAP he has been a massive proponent of Digital Transformation and its role in enabling self-sufficiency, inclusiveness and sustainable economic growth on the continent. Simon’s also passionate about helping executives understand how SAP can help them drive their innovation and digital transformation agendas. Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission. Additional music by Kevin MacLeod...

Chad Larson is one of the three founders of the Kenyan solar power start-up M-KOPA Solar. He serves as the company’s Finance Director and Chief Credit Officer and has lived in Nairobi with his wife and three boys since the company launched in 2011. Chad is a qualified CFA and an Oxford MBA who previously served as the CFO of the Africap Microfinance Investment Fund, based in Johannesburg, and prior to that, he spent 10 years in the investment banking division of Bank of America in Sydney...

Eline Blaauboer is Managing Partner at both TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund. She’s worked in the venture capital and private equity sector in both Europe and Africa for last 14 years— gaining loads of experience with new investments and portfolio management, negotiation and structuring of investment rounds and deal flow generation. Her latest undertaking is something called 'Africa Tech Ventures' - a fund focussed on investing in and accelerating the growth of disruptive...

Ethiopian-born, Solomon Assefa is the Director of IBM Research in Africa. He is responsible for IBM’s research labs in Kenya and South Africa, and oversees the development of technologies that aim to transform key industries and address the continent’s grand challenges. As a Research Scientist, Solomon has spent a lot of time at IBM working on nanophotonics technology. His research contributions include high-speed optical detectors, nano-structured platforms for bio-sensing, and quantum...

Tomi Davies is a Nigerian investor, author and tech evangelist who is widely considered the God-father of Africa’s angel investment scene. He is also the founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN), as well as the founding President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN). He lives and works mostly in the UK, and he’s spent much of the last decade investing, mentoring, and advising start-up founders, angel investors, venture capitalists and a good number of public and private...

Riaan Badenhorst’s worst disappointment as a young man has led to a fairly successful career in IT security. There’s no doubt that the folks at Kaspersky Lab— currently the world’s fourth largest antivirus vendor, are rather pleased that Riaan’s childhood dreams didn’t come true. Today, Riaan heads up operations for Kaspersky Lab’s Africa Business— a position he’s occupied since late 2012. In his executive role, Riaan oversees Kaspersky Lab's operations in more than 40 countries across the...

Brendan Horan is a chartered accountant who has served as Managing Director of Mix Telematics Africa since June 2014 when the firm’s fleet and consumer businesses on the continent were merged into one business. Founded in 1996, Mix Telematics has grown into a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions, and is listed on both the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange. Using a Software-as-a-Service delivery model, MiX Telematics delivers...

Frank Schutte, is formerly the Managing Director for Retail Product & Marketing for South Africa’s largest life insurer— Liberty. In a gutsy move, he left his cushy gig there to found a startup called MobiLife, which is "Africa’s first 100% mobile insurance offering" that aims to transform micro-insurance in South Africa. In this conversation Frank chats about what would possess him to take on the massive incumbents who currently dominate South Africa’s fiercely competitive...

Gareth Cliff is not only a controversial South African Radio DJ and a judge on DSTV’s hugely popular Idols South Africa, but also the Co-founder & President of Africa’s largest podcast producer, CliffCentral.com. His colourful journey within broadcasting led him to quit one of South Africa’s most lucrative radio gigs to launch a platform that now boasts over 40 podcast titles and garners over 100,000 downloads per week. In this conversation, Gareth unpacks the values that motivated his...

Maya Horgan Famodu is a consummate eclectic who wears the beautiful complexity of her Nigerian-Swedish-American heritage with pride. Maya is the Founder and Managing Director of Ingressive, a firm dedicated to guiding global capital to African entrepreneurs through a 2,000 member angel database, and semi-annual investor tours. Alongside her serious commitment to promoting entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, Maya takes time out to write for Inc., the Huffington Post, and several other...

It’s fair to say that the Nigerian-born Toro Orero is a live wire that’s all the way lit. He serves as Managing Partner at DraperDarkFlow— a Silicon Valley VC Fund backed by the illustrious Tim Draper, who’s investment portfolio at DFJ features everything from Tesla and Solarcity to Skype and Twitter. DraperDarkFlow is dedicated to investing in African startups run by "delusional" founders intent on changing the world. Toro also curates SpeedUPAfrica, which is one of the continent’s leading...

Oliver Fortuin heads up BT’s (formerly British Telecoms) operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, where he is tasked with leading the charge for a legacy ICT institution (that is nearly two centuries old) in some of the world’s most promising developing markets. Prior to joining BT, Oliver held executive positions at i1 Solutions, HP and IBM, and earned an MBA from the Open University, UK. In addition to chatting about his upbringing and his journey up the corporate ladder, the conversation...

Oliver Fortuin heads up BT’s (formerly British Telecoms) operations in Sub-Saharan Africa, where he is tasked with leading the charge for a legacy ICT institution (that is nearly two centuries old) in some of the world’s most promising developing markets. Prior to joining BT, Oliver held executive positions at i1 Solutions, HP and IBM, and earned an MBA from the Open University, UK. In addition to chatting about his upbringing and his journey up the corporate ladder, the conversation...

Ben White is exceedingly well-travelled, and his love for building new businesses has taken him all around the world and seen him collaborate with like-minded individuals pretty much anywhere he spends three hours or more. As the founder of what is widely considered Africa’s leading platform for startup funding, VC4A (Venture Capital for Africa)— Ben leads a team that brings together thousands of business professionals from 159 countries who are dedicated to building game-changing startups...

By his own admission, Matthew Lee would not have been voted most likely to become an executive at a leading software multi-national by his classmates at the trade school where he trained to be a plumber. Years after he first left plumbing to try his hand at networking, Matthew worked his way up the corporate ladder at Comztek and Novell. While based in Johannesburg, he now oversees African operations at the German open source software firm, SUSE. Among many other things, Matthew chats to...

Stephen van Coller is the Chief Executive for Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Africa He is a Chartered Accountant who worked for Ernst & Young in South Africa and the UK for many years, before leaving the professional accounting industry to join Deutsche Bank— where he served as head of coverage and corporate advisory. Since joining Barclays in 2006, Stephen has held the positions of Deputy Chief Executive and Head of Investment Banking at Absa Capital and was appointed to...

Our final guest on Season Two of African Tech Conversations is the “unemployable”, disruptive force that is Alan Knott-Craig Jr. It’s natural to assume that Alan Knott-Craig Sr paved the way for his son and namesake, Alan Jr to become one of the most well-recognised personalities on South Africa’s tech scene. And while it’s impossible to disregard the advantages of having such an experienced and well-connected man for a father, Alan Jr has long proved his mettle as a startup founder and...

There’s no doubt about it. WiFi is the new black. California-based, NYSE-listed wireless systems company Ruckus Wireless is betting that the rate of WiFi infrastructure development Africa will continue to rise. And you can be sure that they’re doing what they can to help service the millions of Africans coming online year on year— profitably, of course. In the latest instalment of African Tech Conversations, Andile Masuku chats with the adrenaline-junkie that is Michael Fletcher— who has...

There are many who aspire to the title of “activist”, but few walk the tweet. But Cameroonian-born Rebecca Enonchong is the real deal. Rebecca’s technical and leadership track record at the highest level has led to her being widely considered one of the most credible ambassadors for Africa’s burgeoning tech scene. We can at least vouch for this: Rebecca is not afraid of the truth. Her commitment to helping emerging entrepreneurs on the continent by sharing openly the details of the...

Anyone who's ever heard Gys Kappers speak will know how passionately he advocates for organisations to be super-intentional about systematically tapping every single employee— from the top to the very bottom of their structures, for game-changing insights and wisdom that can otherwise easily go ignored. In the latest episode of African Tech Conversations, Gys shares an incredible story of how an idea put forward by an entry-level factory worker helped the concrete masonry business he had a...

This week’s chat on African Tech Conversations is with a globe-trotting Brit who has spent the last 20 years working in retail, investment and corporate banking in no less than four continents. Before Ashley Veasey’s current gig as Chief Information Officer at Barclays Africa Group, he served in senior leadership positions at corporate giants like Citi Group and JP Morgan. 
Prior to joining Barclays, however, Ashley worked for Standard Chartered Bank as CIO in Singapore, Thailand and Hong...

Brandon Bekker is Managing Director for Africa and the Middle East at email security firm, Mimecast. This former pro rugby player and lawyer-turned-tech salesman has come a long way from his humble entry level position at Internet Solutions. Prior to joining Mimecast in 2008, Brandon spent 10 years within the Dimension Data Group, and ended up serving in executive positions at both Internet Solutions and Dimension Data. At Mimecast, Brandon’s credited for contributing significantly to the...