RIA is pleased to announce the appointment of a new board of directors. Our new directors have expertise in diverse issues that intersect with our work positioning them excellently to oversee RIA’s dynamic and evolving research agenda, which currently involves examining the uneven distribution of benefits and harms associated with the intensifying global processes of digitalisation and datafication.
Meet our new board members!
Mandlesilo Msimang is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Nozala Women Investments, a woman owned private equity firm with a diversified portfolio in the minerals and energy sector and in industrial and consumer services. Mandla is a seasoned executive, an entrepreneur and an ICT regulation and policy expert. Her areas of specialisation in the ICT sector are broadband strategy, ICT accessibility and the financing of universal access and service.
Mlamli Booi is currently the CEO of SENTECH, a state-owned ICT infrastructure company. Mlami has been working in the ICT sector in various positions since 1986, notching up more than thirty years’ experience in the ICT sector at different levels in areas such as business leadership, engineering, policy, regulatory, strategy and management.
Andrew Donaldson is a senior research associate of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, who has published in the fields of demography, economics of education, social policy, macroeconomics and public finance. From 2001 to 2017, Andrew served as a Deputy Director-General in the National Treasury responsible for the Budget Office and subsequently the Public Finance division, and as the inaugural head of the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC).
Shaun Pather is Professor and Chair of the Department of Information Systems in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Western Cape. Shaun is an ICT for Development (ICT4D) expert and National Research Foundation rated researcher who focuses on Information Society issues centred around societal upliftment facilitated by ICTs, and the impact thereof on policy. He has been involved in both research and real-world interventions, which seek to minimize digital inequality, including through delivering broadband solutions to marginalized communities.
Joining the new team are Dr Tracy Cohen who retains her position as a director, having served on RIA’s former board of directors as well as our executive director, Dr Alison Gillwald.
