Velma Corcoran
General Manager, Middle East Africa
Airbnb
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Velma is a firm believer in the potential of technology to drive inclusive growth and entrepreneurship across Africa. As Airbnb’s regional lead for Africa and the Middle East, Velma leads Airbnb’s Campaigns work across the region, including the creation of the Airbnb Africa Academy and the Africa Travel Summit. She is passionate about how Airbnb can redefine travel in Africa and take tourism to people and places that need it most, and the role technology will play in unlocking this potential.
Velma joined Airbnb in March 2016 as the Regional Market Manager for Sub Saharan Africa. Prior to this she led marketing for Cape Town Tourism, where her team won numerous awards for destination marketing leadership, including with the UNWTO, Travel & Leisure Smitty Awards, and Cannes Gold.
Richard Cazalet
Exec: Strategy and Transformation
Telkom SA
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Richard is an experienced business leader with over 25 years’ involvement in the telecommunications industry over a wide range of technology and business areas. Prior to Telkom, he worked at Deloitte and Accenture, proving business consultancy services to fixed and mobile service providers in Africa and the Middle East. He also held various technical and sales roles at Siemens and started his telecommunications career manufacturing optical fibre in a production facility in South Africa. He holds master’s degrees in Applied Physics and Business Leadership and is married with two daughters. He enjoys road running, swimming, sailing, and hiking / camping.
Amadou Diallo
Chief Executive Officer Middle East & Africa
DHL Global Forwarding
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Since June 2017 Amadou Diallo has been CEO of DHL Global Forwarding Middle East & Africa. He is the founder of Saloodo! GmbH. He was previously CEO DHL Freight, CEO Africa and South Asia Pacific DHL Global Forwarding and prior to this Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Post DHL Logistics Divisions and Managing Director for the integration of Exel and DHL.
Mr. Diallo has more than 25 years of experience in the tourism, banking, express and logistics industries. He is Senegalese and is fluent in several languages including English, German, French, Fulani, Wolof and Spanish. Mr. Diallo is Chairman of Amref in Germany and in the boards of Welthungerhilfe, Africa 2.0, Schiller International University.
Nollie Maoto
Chief Data and Analytics Officer – Merchant Services
FNB South Africa
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Nollie Maoto is a Chief Data and Analytics Officer at one of the big 4 banks in South Africa. She has over 15 years of experience in the Financial Services industry. Nollie was names the Data Analytics Leader of the Year 2022 by Dalebrook Media South Africa in July 2022.
Nollie has been named as one of CDO Magazine’s Global Data Power Women for 2022. Nollie is one of the 2022 Corinium Global Top 100 Leaders in Data & Analytics and is an Inspiring Fifty SA 2021 nominee as one of the 50 most inspiring women in the STEM sectors in South Africa. Nollie is a seasoned speaker and panellist in the Data and Analytics industry, not just in South Africa but also globally. In July 2022 Nollie was named the CDO Ambassador for South Africa. Nollie came 4th overall at the Strategic African Women in Leadership (SAWIL) Trailblazers Awards 2020 for displaying unparalleled leadership values and advocating for gender equality and is also now the interim CEO of Strategic African Women in Leadership (SAWIL).
Nollie is extremely passionate about the data and analytics industry and more so, the empowerment and advancement of women in this industry globally.
Stephen Kiptinness
Chief Corporate Affairs Officer
Safaricom
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Stephen is responsible for Safaricom’s reputation management, public policy, legal and regulatory affairs. He is in charge of steering the development and implementation of Safaricom’s corporate investment strategy as well as overseeing internal and external communications. He also leads the development of a roadmap that will embed purpose in everything we do at Safaricom and among our stakeholders.
Stephen has more than 27 years of cumulative legal experience. He joined Safaricom from Kiptinness & Odhiambo Associates LLP where he was a Senior Partner heading the Technology and Intellectual Property practice for the last 10 years. Before starting his practice, Stephen worked at Telkom Kenya Orange, heading Regulatory Affairs for 3 years, from 2009 to 2012.
Prior to his role at Telkom Orange, he held various legal roles including Legal Officer and subsequently Senior Legal Officer at the Communications Authority of Kenya, and Legal Manager at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, having commenced his legal career as a Trainee Advocate at Oraro & Co. Advocates. Stephen also teaches at the University of Nairobi School of Law.
He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL. B Hons) from the ILS Law College, University of Pune, a Diploma in Computer Science, a Certificate in Human Resource Management, a Post graduate Diploma in Law and a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Information Technology & Telecommunications Law from the London School of Economics.
Funke Opeke
Founder & CEO
MainOne
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Funke Opeke, is the founder and CEO of MainOne, a leading Digital Infrastructure service provider that built West Africa’s first open-access submarine cable system interconnecting Nigeria; Ghana; and Portugal in 2010. In 2015, the company launched its data center operations in West Africa with MDXi – a $40M investment resulting in West Africa’s largest Tier III data center in Lagos, Nigeria, and now with presence in Accra and Abidjan. In 2019, she chaired the Presidential Committee to develop Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan for 2020 – 2025. MainOne was acquired by Equinix, the global digital infrastructure company as its entry point to doing business in Africa on April 1, 2022.
Mathapelo Malao
Mathapelo Malao is the Head of Energy, Environment and ICT at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and has extensive experience in infrastructure finance where she has worked in corporate and project finance advisory firms as well as spent a significant amount of years in private equity. Mathapelo has a proven track record in financial, technical and legal due diligence having worked on complex deal structuring and; strategy formulation on transactions across diverse sectors in South Africa and outside of South Africa.
Prior to joining the DBSA, Mathapelo worked as an Investment Principal at African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), one of South Africa’s largest Pan African infrastructure private equity fund manager, a subsidiary of Old Mutual Alternative Investments, where she led all Public Private Partnership (PPP) transactions and provided management oversight to PPP assets held by Old Mutual Life Assurance (South Africa) Ltd including significant renewable energy assets, toll road assets and also worked on healthcare projects. Mathapelo also managed one of Old Mutual’s largest renewable energy portfolio, namely Project Cricket which comprised of six Solar PV assets with a combined contracted capacity of 450MW. Prior to AIIM, Mathapelo worked at the Gautrain Management Agency where she led the finance workstream for the Additional Rolling Stock procurement program and also worked at KPMG Corporate and Project Finance team working on some of the countries flagship infrastructure projects which included energy, transport and rail projects. Mathapelo also worked in management consulting at Deloitte Consulting where she worked in the corporate strategy team developing corporate strategy plans for some of South Africa blue chip companies.
Mathapelo previously served on the boards of Zeerust Solar, Bokamoso Solar and Matla a Bokone Solar, including De Wildt Solar and Greefspan Solar PV Project, all projects developed under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer program and also served on the board of the N3TC Toll Road Concession.