Central Region Executive, BCX

Mark Mc Kerr joined BCX from Dimension Data, where he was from 2014-2019, as MEA Managed Network Service Practice manager and Cloud Optimized Hybrid WAN Solution owner (SDWAN). Mark has over 12 years in the ICT industry and brings to BCX a deep understanding of the industry and MEA market, with a passion for client success through adoption of innovation.

Prior to Dimension Data, Mark worked at IBM as Energy and Utilities / Industrial and Telco Sector Sales Lead – ITS.

Mark brings to BCX a belief in the art of the possible and helps clients realise their ambitions in the digital world.

Chief Executive Officer Openserve and Telkom Group Chief Information Officer

Versatile Senior Executive with over 25years’ experience in the ICT industry. Recently been appointed as CEO – Openserve in addition to being the Telkom Group CIO.

Career Highlights:

• Chief Executive Officer – Openserve, 1 April 2020 – present
• Group Chief Information Officer – Telkom , Dec 2018 – present
• Chief Commercial Officer – Openserve, Jan 2018 – Nov 2018
• Chief of International Business BCX, Oct 2016 – Dec 2017
• Chief Operations Officer – BCX, Oct 2015 – Sept 2016
• Managing Director: Cybernest, April 2013 – Sept 2015

Qualifications:

• BSc degree in Computer Science (UWC)
• Executive Development Programme (Wits)

Shaheen has over 20 years’ experience in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) arena and plans to drive strategic initiatives and provide executive-level support to top decisionmakers, both within BCX and for our customers. Shaheen joined us in June 2019 and has experience in leadership and management in all areas of finance, sales and delivery.

Before joining BCX, Shaheen was Channel Sales Director at Dell EMC South Africa.  He led the Channel Sales organisation in South Africa and Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, implementing and heading up a consultative selling approach to position Dell EMC’s global strategy. Shaheen previously held positions at Microsoft and T-Systems.

Shaheen holds a Bachelor from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Mark Walker is responsible for International Data Corporation (IDC) research and consulting across the sub-Saharan Africa region. He has over 20 years’ experience in techno-economic and competitive analysis of the Middle Eastern and African region and consults to multinational organisations, government, and commercial enterprises. Mark completed his technology training in the Air Force and has graduate qualifications in marketing and business administration from the IMM and Universities of South Africa (UNISA) and Witwatersrand.

Prof. Brian Armstrong is one of the foremost ICT industry leaders in South Africa, with over 30 years of top level management experience in Telecommunications, IT, technology R&D and systems engineering, both in South Africa and abroad. He is widely regarded as a thought leader in digitalisation, convergence and business strategy.

Brian is currently Professor in the Chair of Digital Business at the Wits Business School. He consults widely to industry and government on technological disruption and digital business and is an acclaimed public speaker on digital transformation and its socio-economic impacts. Previously Brian spent seven years in Telkom, as Group Chief Operating Officer and Group Chief Commercial Officer, and at BT as Vice President for Middle East and Africa. Brian completed his BSc (Eng) and MSc (Eng) at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1982 and 1984 respectively, and obtained his PhD from University College London in 1992.

Garsen Naidu is the Country Manager for Cisco South Africa. He is responsible for executing a country- wide vision and strategy that delivers transformational value to our customers and partners; driving growth across all technology segments; managing and achieving operational excellence; and continuing to develop strategic relationships across the entire ecosystem to drive a digital agenda for South Africa.

While his tenure as Country Manager began in 2019, Garsen has been with Cisco for a decade, having joined the company in 2010. His previous role was Head of Channel & Engineering for Cisco’s Sub- Saharan Africa region which includes Southern, Eastern, and English-speaking Western Africa since 2017. Prior to this he held the position of Regional Sales Manager for Cisco Southern Africa, a role which he occupied from October 2015.

Garsen started at Cisco in 2010 as an Enterprise Account Manager and he immediately transformed the scale of Cisco’s Energy business; which at that time was the largest for an enterprise customer in South Africa. His career trajectory with Cisco has continued to escalate in a very impactful way since then.

He began his career as a Software Development Engineer in the Aerospace industry designing software and hardware systems for defence systems. His sales career began when he redefined the sales strategy for Denel, a South African Defence and Aerospace company. Following a rationalization of the sales organization, Garsen successfully concluded key deals for the company in East Asia.

Garsen’s academic achievements include a MBA (distinction) from GIBS, a B.Sc. in Engineering – Electrical – Information Systems and a Diploma in Electrical Engineering.

He is a devout family man, is married and has a son.

Craig is a partner of FutureWorld international, working alongside clients understand, create and design their ideal futures through Imagineering and thinking from the future. His areas of expertise include emergent technology (AI, blockchain, Quantum, CRISPr), business models, company culture and New World of Work. Across Africa, he has spoken at length on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the preparedness of the continent.

He’s converted his own car to electric: proof he believes in creating the future we could have! He also turned down an opportunity to head up one of Richard Branson’s companies to create a global platform for tomorrow’s leaders.

Craig moderated the 10th BRICs summit on 4IR with H.E. Presidents Xi, Putin and Ramaphosa & PM Modi in attendance, African Innovation Symposium with the United Nations. He is a keynote speaker at conferences including the SA Innovation Awards, Finance Indaba, Manufacturing Indaba, Africa Agri conference & ITWeb Digital Economy. He is an adjunct professor at the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Duke Corporate Education. Clients include UNAIDS, Tata, Shell, MTN, Airbus, Danone, Microsoft, Fidelity, Accenture, Barclays, Investec, Discovery, Standard Bank, BMW, Huawei and the Indian government.

He has a BSc (Eng), MSc (Usability) and MBA from Babson College (USA) as a recipient of the prestigious Frederic C Hamilton scholarship for significant entrepreneurial achievement. During his MBA he was elected the first “non-American” class president. He is completing his PhD to formulate new models for “Futures Thinking” for leaders to create their ideal futures by “creating memories from the future” by working backward from the future when creating company strategy. As Head of Small Business Marketing for Google, he launched South African Business Woza online where SME’s created 50,000 websites in it’s inaugural year – one every ten minutes. He grew revenue by 82% YoY and was selected the African “Googliest Googler!”

Robin Barnwell is a security strategist with 15 years of experience leading teams across a multitude of security disciplines such as SecOps, Risk, Governance, Architecture and Strategy.

Believing that people are an organisation’s strongest asset, he uses his years of experience to enable security teams to use design thinking to work on the right problems – “working smarter, not harder”.
In his current role as Head of Security Strategy for Standard Bank Group, he is responsible for the establishment, alignment and maturity of the Cyber Security strategy across 18 countries in Africa as well as several offices outside of Africa.

He has degrees in Computer Science and Statistics as well as a number of industry certifications.
In his free time, Robin enjoys a good Netflix binge, creating sculptures using Lego, as well as pursuing his passion for travel and experiencing new countries and cultures.

IT law specialist by trade, Vermaak has spent many years working in ICT and representing multinationals.

Vermaak specialises in ICT technologies and network security. She is currently also completing studies towards becoming a certified digital forensic auditor. Vermaak has been instrumental in assisting the Law Society of South Africa with seminars for legal practitioners regarding technology law and cyber crime legislation. As director of a technology academy, she developed training in cyber security and data protection and audits in large companies. She brings a wealth of technology experience to the seminar.

Information security leader with over 22 years of experience in establishing global information security arrays, developing unified and standardised technological security systems, Policies and procedures that are compliant with strict international standards in both business, Operational technology and governmental defence sectors.

Proven abilities to manage complex projects in a dynamic and results- driven business environment. Retired Colonel, Israeli Air-Force.

Nomonde is an accomplished Head of Governance and Reporting for Absa’s Group Engineering Services, one of the largest divisions at Absa Group. The previous roles that she has held within the ABSA Group are:​
– Joint Chief Information Officer for Infrastructure Services ​
– Head of Technology for Barclays Africa Regional Management​

She has extensive experience within the technology space, having started her technology career at UCS Solutions and later British American Tobacco before joining Absa’s technology division in a senior management capacity. ​

In her current role at Absa, Nomonde is responsible for all governance and reporting frameworks and standards across Engineering Services. She is responsible for reporting against Engineering Services’ strategy across local and in-country teams and building critical relationships with both internal and external stakeholders, managing the complex and delicate regulatory relationships, data, dynamics as well as high volumes of change, security and technical risk which is an inherent part of the broader banking environment. ​

Passionate about women in business and working with young talent within the technology industry, Nomonde coaches and mentors young people to inspire them to pursue careers in technology and engineering. She aspires to see a lot more women and young, intelligent African professionals taking up senior roles in the technology industry. ​

Nomonde currently holds the position of the Chairperson for the Wired for Women Technology Forum which is sponsored and supported by IT Web and BCX (Business Connexion)​

Nomonde is married to Muzi and together they have a lovely five-year-old daughter. She has earned a BA Law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and is currently pursuing her MBA through the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).​

Nomonde is a seasoned leader, who was a finalist of the 2017 Veuve Clicquot ELLE Boss awards, and was featured and recognized in both the Elle and Popular Mechanics Magazines as a leader in the technology space – both prominent publications in South Africa

In August 2018, Doug was seconded by Australia to INTERPOL Global Centre for Innovation in Singapore.

In February 2020 he was tasked to establish the Cybercrime Treat Response capability in INTERPOL. Facing the global challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, he lead his team in responding to issues of Ransomware attacks against hospitals and critical infrastructure across many countries around the world, targeted Cyber scammers and cybercriminals that were using COVID-19 as a lure, and developed response and disruption strategies to mitigate the global threats being faced by many of the communities around the world. In June 2020 he was tasked to reinvigorate INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Operations capability.

He spends his time building productive and enduring relationships with member countries, private public partners and other key stakeholders in the fight against Cybercrime. He espouses and practices, “Together we can make a difference”

With extensive academic qualifications and an experienced teacher and facilitator, Doug demonstrates foresight thought leadership that inspires change in the digital revolution.

When not working he is a passionate sailor, scuba diver and enjoys spending as much time as he can with his family.

Pabi Moloi is a cosmopolitan South African radio and television presenter. Pabi has had an extensive career as both a television and radio presenter and her skills, knowledge and charisma make her the perfect broadcaster to drive corporate, advertorial and commercial formats.

Pabi Moloi’s illustrious career has seen her before international audiences, a myriad of prolific movie and music stars as well as in in-depth reality formats. She has also been the face and voice ambassador for multiple multinational brands.
Her presenting career began at the tender age of 11 and she has since hosted shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, The Amazing Date, All Access on MNET, Trending SA on SABC 3 and a variety of other programs for major corporates such as Standard Bank, SAB, SA’s 2010 World Cup as a corespondent to the UK. Pabi has also had extensive experience as a radio presenter hosting shows on stations such as YFM, 947, Metro FM and most prolifically on Power 98.7.

She has been honored as a Best TV Talk Show Host award recipient at the SAFTAwarda and multiple nominee at the South African Radio Awards.
Pabi Moloi currently hosts POWER Weekend Breakfast on talk-station Power 98.7 where she continues to challenge the norm and provide her audiences with insight, inspiration and knowledge. Her effortless presenting style, inquisitive nature and heart of gold always ensure that audiences remain entertained and engaged no matter the platform they experience Pabi Moloi through.