Ethiopian-born, Solomon Assefa is the Director of IBM Research in Africa. He is responsible for IBM’s research labs in Kenya and South Africa, and oversees the development of technologies that aim to transform key industries and address the continent’s grand challenges.

As a Research Scientist, Solomon has spent a lot of time at IBM working on nanophotonics technology. His research contributions include high-speed optical detectors, nano-structured platforms for bio-sensing, and quantum information processing. He’s co-authored over 150 publications, has over 50 patents, holds a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is an Honorary Professor at University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission. 
Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Addressing Grand Challenges With Solomon Assefa

The African Tech Conversations series features relaxed in-depth chats that Andile Masuku has with leading entrepreneurs, innovators and thought-leaders who are intimately involved in Africa's tech scene.

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Cobus van der Merwe is a former army man who has managed to carve out an impressive second career in defence technology. He’s an experienced negotiation team leader in both partnership establishment and contract closure in land warfare and aviation systems. He is currently a senior executive specialising in electronic warfare at Saab Grintek Defense, based in Centurion, South Africa. 

Cobus has extensive experience in leading defence-level operational test and evaluation teams and performing customer value engineering. In this conversation, taped a couple of months ago, Cobus shares insights gleaned from an extensive defence career which straddled the seismic shifts which occurred within South Africa’s socio-economic landscape over the last three or four decades.

Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.

Electronic Warfare With Cobus Van Der Merwe

Back in 2012, Musa Kalenga was voted as one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian, and for good reason. Musa is a talented digital specialist, marketing maven, author, former Group Head of Digital Marketing at Nedbank, former Africa Client Partner at Facebook, current Head of Brand at IAB South Africa, and Founder and CEO of a new adtech startup called Microtising.

His professional business experience spans over twelve years and includes building his first company from zero to R6,5 million in turnover by the age of 26. Throughout his career, Musa has consistently done impressive work for foreign governments and multi-national companies-- assisting them to leverage digital innovation to advance their organisational objectives.

In this chat with Andile Masuku, Musa shares loads of insights on starting up in Africa and talks about the challenges of navigating Africa's corporate digital scene.

Ladders and Trampolines With Musa Kalenga

Simon Carpenter is Chief Technology Officer at SAP Africa. In his rather long and varied career at SAP he has been a massive proponent of Digital Transformation and its role in enabling self-sufficiency, inclusiveness and sustainable economic growth on the continent. Simon’s also passionate about helping executives understand how SAP can help them drive their innovation and digital transformation agendas.

Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission. 
Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Digital Transformation With Simon Carpenter

Chad Larson is one of the three founders of the Kenyan solar power start-up M-KOPA Solar. He serves as the company’s Finance Director and Chief Credit Officer and has lived in Nairobi with his wife and three boys since the company launched in 2011. 

Chad is a qualified CFA and an Oxford MBA who previously served as the CFO of the Africap Microfinance Investment Fund, based in Johannesburg, and prior to that, he spent 10 years in the investment banking division of Bank of America in Sydney and New York, working on fixed income, structured finance, and derivative transactions.

M-KOPA Solar is aiming to be a $1 billion company by providing pay-as-you-go energy to off-grid homes. To that end, the company successfully closed a $19 million round of financing led by Generation Investment Management LLP in December 2015.

Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission. 
Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Turning The Lights On With Chad Larson

Eline Blaauboer is Managing Partner at both TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund. She’s worked in the venture capital and private equity sector in both Europe and Africa for last 14 years— gaining loads of experience with new investments and portfolio management, negotiation and structuring of investment rounds and deal flow generation. 

Her latest undertaking is something called 'Africa Tech Ventures' - a fund focussed on investing in and accelerating the growth of disruptive tech-enabled start-ups and businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eline and her team at Africa Tech Ventures are currently in the process of fundraising and on the look-out for investors interested in collaborating with them.

Theme music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission. 
Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).

Addressing Grand Challenges With Solomon Assefa

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