Anriette Esterhuysen was the executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) - the largest ICT-focused civil society network in the world - from 2000 to 2017. She continues to work with APC as a consultant and convenes the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG), a joint initiative of APC, the African Union Commission and Research ICT Africa.

Ms. Esterhuysen has served as Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Committee of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. as well as on the African Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's African Information Society Initiative (1996-1999), the United Nations ICT Task Force (2002-2005), the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Working Group on Financing Mechanisms (2003-2005), the Commission on Science and Technology for Development Working Group on Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Improvements (2011-2012) and on Enhanced Cooperation (2017-2018), the Global Commission on Internet Governance and the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the IGF (2012-2014).

She was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame as a Global Connecter in 2013 and received an EFF Pioneer Award in 2015. Ms. Esterhuysen serves as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace and as a member of the board of directors of the .ZA (South Africa) domain name authority, ZADNA.

Avri Doria is a research consultant with a number of contracts with both NGOs and the technical community. She served on the UN Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation I (WGEC) and the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). She served as a member the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Secretariat and was a member of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (IGF MAG). As a technologist she has been involved in the development of Internet protocols and architectures for over 30 years; is co-chair of a Research Group on Human Rights Protocol Considerations and a member of the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). She has been active in ICANN policy, was chair of the GNSO Council and is currently a member of the ICANN Board. Avri was awarded the ICANN Multistakeholder Ethos award in 2014.

Bob is a telecommunications Eng. with 10+ years’ experience in the multi-disciplinary Telecoms/ICT industry and Project Management. As the primary representative of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in East and Southern Africa, Bob is charged with developing and executing the organization’s strategic and tactical objectives in the region including: Overseeing, leading and executing ICANN’s engagement in the region with all stakeholders, including governments, the academic, business and legal communities as well non-commercial interests; Monitoring, identifying and analyzing internet related developments, public policy issues and trends, and impact on strategy in the region translating these into practical plans.

Chenai Chair’s interest in the ICT sector developed from learning of mobiles for development while writing her Master’s thesis titled, “Mobile Phones for Development: How Have Women in the Informal Sector used their Mobile Phones to Enhance Themselves and their Business?” in 2014. Chenai focuses on issues of ICT access and use and related policy development, and has worked on projects in South Africa, Zambia, Rwanda, Ghana and Kenya. Her areas of research include youth access and use, gendered issues of access and internet governance. She recently completed a policy paper on youth, internet and deprivation in Africa.

Ephraim is a trained lawyer, a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP – PMI USA), and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (the UK and Kenya) and a Certified Professional Mediator (MTI East Africa), with over nine years in the African and global International Trade, Technology, Media and Telecommunications industry.

Between 2014 and 2018 he served as the youngest advisor on Internet Governance to two UN Secretary Generals: Ban Ki–moon and António Guterres. Additionally, since 2012 he has executed international development projects with a diverse range of leading international institutions across 46 African Union member countries and served as an Independent Expert to two ICANN Implementation Advisory Groups.

Presently, Ephraim does research on the nexus of Digital Infrastructures, Digital Trade, Electronic Commerce and Data Protection and Open Data with an international institution, ARTICLE 19. He is also a member of the GFCE Advisory Board, Digital Peace Now, Siasa Place, European Commission GIPO advisory group among other board positions. He is also a full member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), the Project Management Institute (PMI) and Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU).

Fahd has been part of the ICANN world since the summer of 2008 where he was active in many ICANN working groups. In October 2013, he joined ICANN the organisations as part of the Global Stakeholder Engagement Team (GSE) supporting the Middle East. Today, he is deeply involved in some of regional projects that promote ICANN’s work in the region. One key project he works on is the MEAC regional School on Internet Governance (MEAC-SIG) where he has been involved in 4 different editions 2014. He is a member of the Arab IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) since its inception in 2012, and is also a MAG member of the North Africa IGF. He holds a BSc in Computer Engineering with honors, and an MBA. He is happily married and has 3 kids, and calls Amman, Jordan his home.

Koliwe Majama is a Zimbabwean media, information, communications and technologies consultant with over 15 years of experience working in civil society lobbying and advocacy. As a trained journalist with a diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication, Koliwe has practiced as both a print and broadcast journalist in Zimbabwe. She also holds a Masters in Public policy and governance, a BSc in Media and Society Studies and is an AfriSIG alumnus. In the region and globally, Koliwe is invested in networking and thought leadership on varying internet governance trends, including gender and the internet – which she has a passion for. Currently, Koliwe works with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) the  AfriSIG organiser and Coordinator of the African Declaration on Internet and Freedoms Coalition.

Mawaki is a scholar as well as a consultant and an entrepreneur in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). He is particularly enthusiastic about assisting African countries build the fundamentals for a truly digital economy through inclusive and evidence-based ICT-enabling policies. He has nearly 20 years of experience on societal issues relating to ICTs, consulting for organizations including UNESCO, the International Development Research Center, the Open Society Foundations, the African Union’s NEPAD Agency, UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, Hivos, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), etc. Mawaki earned a PhD in Information Science and Technology from Syracuse University (Syracuse, New York) with a research focus on Internet governance, policy and digital identity management. He is a founding member of the Board of Trustees at Sovrin Foundation which has been set up to govern a global public utility for decentralized identity provided via Sovrin Network, and is dedicated to building a trustworthy identity layer to the Internet protocols. Over the last dozen of years, Mawaki has been actively involved in internet governance spaces such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), particularly as a Policy Councillor in matters the Internet’s generic top-level domain names; the global civil society’s Internet Governance Caucus; and the UN-led process, Internet Governance Forum, both at global level and on various levels in Africa. Founder of DigiLexis Consulting, Dr. Chango intends to increasingly engage his thoughts and actions to help spur Internet-enabled entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa as well as governments to embrace the most adequate policies in that regard while improving their own operations in the digital age. Currently residing in Togo where he lectures at Kara University, Mawaki speaks English, French and Portuguese.

Olga is a Cameroonian who has been working as a freelance translator (eng-french and vice versa) for the past 12 years and later also became a freelance digital security consultant and trainer. She loves working on women empowerment project as has the desire to see all women and girls become self-reliant through the use of the internet and ICTs. Olga is an Alumni of AfriSIG 2015, year during which she started being involved in internet governance issues and taking part in some of its processes. In addition to being a freelancer, she currently works with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) as the Africa communications officer and French editor.

Walther is fascinated with how technology affects us every day and finds it important to grasp the legal implications of this relationship.He is proactive when it comes to understanding emerging and disruptive technologies. His passion for technology and the law has led to the interaction with very interesting people on issues such as regulating self-driving cars and cryptocurrencies to blockchain based anti-piracy tools to global internet governance issues. He always attempts to link emerging technology back to how it affects the law or what the legal implications there might be. Walther’s current work revolves around understanding and interpreting risk stemming from the use and interaction with technology. His exposure ranges from drafting website compliance documents to examining the impact of various laws on the digital space in Africa. He spoke at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2017 (FIFAfrica17) on the impact of internet shutdowns on the rule of law in Africa at. He was selected as a member of the NextGen@ICANN59 program where I presented on the geoTLDs (Africa in particular) and Universal Acceptance in an African context. He enjoys staying updated on the latest technological advancements with policy and legislative changes thrown in for good measure. He is on his way to becoming an expert advisor on issues such as cybersecurity and cybercrime, online privacy and data protection, innovation technology and ICT contracts.