Panel -- Information Technology & Software

Panel Summary:

Technology has been responsible for rapid growth in several global economies over the last decade, most recently and notably, India.  Africa’s technology industry has remained relatively under-developed, however there has been a surge in the industry as players recognize the continent’s potential as the lone remaining technology frontier.  In this panel, representatives from the two leading global technology companies, Microsoft and Google together with other prominent industry professionals will review the recent performance and assess the future prospects of the African IT & Software market. What are the emerging opportunities and how does the future competitive landscape look in the face of new market entrants, impact of IT & Software on development of the respective economies on the continent and opportunities for collaboration with established technology companies and economies?

Malik Fal
Business Marketing & Operations Group Lead
(West-East Central Africa)
Microsoft Inc

 Malik Fal is Microsoft’s Business Marketing & Operations (BMO) Group lead for West-East-Central Africa, based in Johannesburg to cover 49 African countries. The BMO function at Microsoft is often described as a COO position, combining business planning, strategy, and marketing. Before Microsoft Malik was with the OTF Group consultancy where he was Vice President, Africa region. OTF group was previously part of the Monitor Group, functioning as Monitor’s Country Competitiveness (MCC) practice.
 
After completing five years of business studies, Malik worked for six years for Pepsi-Cola International, across eastern and southern Africa. He then attended Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where he received a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA-2).
 
While at PepsiCo, Malik first worked in Operations as a District Manager in the Boston metro area, and later as a Franchise Bottler Manager covering several countries in Southern Africa and Indian Ocean islands. Being an African who was educated and professionally trained in Africa, Europe, and the US, Malik developed a passion for understanding the “essence of development” through exposure to a number of different models. He is particularly experienced in business strategy for firms in developing countries, and the practical roles government, private sector institutions, and individuals must play to find focused and sustainable solutions in the development process.
 
These interests brought him to the Monitor Company in the summer of 1998. It was there, in the MCC practice that for the first time Malik got a chance to see some of today’s most innovative ideas about development. While at MCC, he worked on Competitiveness programs for countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. He has also led consulting engagements with the World Bank, one of MCC’s, and now OTF’s, long term clients.
 
Through his work at Monitor and the OTF group, Malik has dealt closely with the key strategic issues facing a myriad of industries such as tourism, coffee, ICT, tea, mining, horticulture, and others, working with both public and private sector leaders in those industries. Malik’s most recent responsibilities included the management of full-fledged competitiveness engagements for the Office of the President of Rwanda, OTF’s various business development initiatives across Africa, teaching engagements with Harvard Business School's pilot executive course entitled "Making Markets Work", and on-going engagements with OTF's long-term development institutional clients such as the World Bank, DFID, or USAID.
 
Malik’s leisure interests include running, swimming, and travel; he is also a voracious reader on a wide range of topics.
 
Paul Kukubo
CEO
Kenya ICT Board
Mr. Kukubo held senior roles in Marketing and Advertising including a Directorship at McCann-Erickson Kenya before co-founding the technology firm 3mice Interactive Ltd, East Africa’s premier e-commerce solutions provider. He was previously Chairman of the Marketing Society of Kenya where he spearheaded the Brand Kenya initiative. Brand Kenya was adopted by the Kenyan Government as one of the five pillars for sustained economic recovery. 

Mr. Kukubo holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Sociology (Hons) from the University of Nairobi and is considered one of Kenya’s leading thinkers on technology strategy. He was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Kenyans to Watch by the East African Standard (Est. 1902), the longest-serving newspaper in the region.  He is married with two young children and is an avid squash player.

The Kenya ICT Board is a sixty-person organization with strong influence over the Kenyan ICT sector including the outsourcing industry, the content development industry, development of e-government, digital inclusion programs, etc. As CEO, he manages a budget of more than $120 Million used for development as well as relationships with technology companies, The World Bank and other multilateral agencies and the Kenya Government. From a base of a few thousand today, Kenya aims to be on track for 100,000 jobs in technology outsourcing by 2012.


Yemi Lalude
Managing Director
Adlevo Capital
Yemi Lalude has over ten years of engineering, business development, product marketing, and investing experience in the information technology industry. He joined Granite Global Ventures from Siebel Systems where he managed, and was instrumental in the start-up of, the customer satisfaction product line. Prior to Siebel, Yemi spent six years at Hewlett-Packard where he held engineering and leadership positions in the manufacturing and R&D functions of the inkjet printer business. He was part of the core group of employees who started and built Hewlett-Packard's Specialty Printing Systems business.

Yemi received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honors) from the University of Lagos (Nigeria), an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business. He represents Granite Global Ventures on the boards of Intelliden, Accruent, and athenahealth. Yemi also invested in Netscaler (acquired by Citrix Systems) and Netli (acquired by Akamai).

In his spare time, Yemi enjoys flying airplanes and playing golf. He is also actively involved in mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs in the US and Africa.
Joseph Mucheru
Office Lead East Africa
Google Kenya
Mr. Joseph Mucheru is the office lead for Google Kenya and has been charged with running the day to day operations and strategy for Google in East Africa since being hired in June 2007.

Prior to joining Google he worked as Wananchi Online, a company he co-founded in 1999. He held various roles at the company including Chief Technology Officer, Strategy & Business Director and most recently Chief Executive Officer. He obtained his undergraduate degree (B Sc. (Hons)) in Economics & Computer Science at City University in London in 1993 and has since accumulated numerous certifications.

His outside interests include work as a founding member the Computer Security Incidence Response Team of Kenya (CSIRT), He is a member Muthaiga Golf Club, enjoys sports (hockey and squash), travelling, music, films, politics and business and surfing the net.
Thomas Nash
Chairman and CEO
Xalles Limited
Mr. Nash is an experienced project director for IT implementation projects, a change leader, business strategist and problem solver. He is also an author, trainer, international public speaker and business advisor.  He has run Xalles and its predecessor companies for 11 years.  Mr. Nash is currently on the Board of Directors of 6 companies spanning Asia, North America, and Europe.

He is a public speaker on 5 continents, and has provided business advice to more than 200 firms worldwide. Xalles has a group of mobile staff in 13 countries across 5 continents.  Mr. Nash has advised companies, IT associations and countries on their IT marketing strategies. 

Within Africa the firm’s attention has most recently been on Ghana, Angola and South Africa.  Mr. Nash can compare and contrast the IT strategies required within Africa to the strategies he has recommended for other regions and nations. 

Mr. Nash is an advisor and investor in the Ghana Cyber City technology park project and is a strategic advisor to other firms doing business in Africa.
Michael I. Norton
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School

Michael I. Norton is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Marketing Unit at the Harvard Business School.

He holds a B.A. in Psychology and English from Williams College and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Princeton University.

Prior to joining HBS, Professor Norton was a Fellow at the MIT Media Lab and MIT’s Sloan School of Management, where he taught Marketing Management to both undergraduate and graduate students. At HBS, he teaches the first-year MBA course in Marketing.