WSA GLOBAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Country Head and Ambassador
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Head of ICT Industry Capacity Building Sector
Ahmed Yahia Darwish, has an expanding portfolio of qualifications in industry development with the focus on SMEs development acquired throughout twenty six years of working experience covering program management at national level, ICT technical background, B2B/G2B/G2G/G2C business development, capacity building projects at the institutional and professional levels.
Leveraging on his full time work he pursued his career as a Industry Capacity Building Director responsible for capacity building programs at national level as the backbone of ITIDA' strategy and the guarantor of sustainable development of the ICT sector in Egypt. He manages a number of programs that have been designed and devised with a focus on developing the skills of the ICT workforce for individuals and companies. These programs focus on providing the needed skill sets, either technical or managerial, to entry level employees, middle managers and chief executives.
He designed and managed (Grow IT) as ITIDA's core program of building institutional capacity of the ICT SMEs in cooperation with highly ranked international consultancy firms (Atos, Hewitt, Arthur D. Little, QAI and CID) to increase the international competitiveness of 100 Egyptian ICT companies that are existing exporters, or who have export potential.
He succeeded to manage independently the Management Development Programs (Manage IT) aim at preparing managers at the start of their managerial careers to deal with higher levels of management responsibilities based on the latest techniques and international standards and focus on building the capacity of SMEs through providing the ICT calibers with the managerial skills, knowledge and the best practices.
He succeeded to design and implement (Finance IT) program in cooperation with the Egyptian banking sector for the first time in Egypt. In cooperation with the banking sector three lines of credit have been customized to meet the business needs of the ICT SMEs and to help them facing the economical instability.
In addition to his efforts in building the Capacity of the ICT SMEs, Ahmed has designed and implemented the National ICT Companies Database, that contains all registered ICT companies as the only centralized reference for all the ICT Sector in Egypt.
On the professional designations level, he is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Board Member, and Eminent Expert of the World Summit Award (WSA).
Job Titles:
- Digital Strategist
- Head of Innovation, Development and CSR
Alexander Felsenberg is a digital strategist & engager, corporate & business developer, lobbyist & networker and an advocate for customer & employer centric development.
He work since 1994 in the digital field, were he has seen, experienced and learned the challenges and opportunities that digitalization holds for the different business sectors and the departments (marketing, PR, sales, customer services and HR) within a company.
As an avid speaker, networker and a "man of action" for the digital cause, he has profound experience in:
Strategy development (digital communication and digital transformation)
Service & product creation (web & mobile)
Marketing & Communication (digital, social media, data analytics, behavioral, corporate)
Customer engagement (Hybrid Digital Sales & Customer Care Services)
Sales (e-commerce)
Lobbying
Job Titles:
- General Secretary
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Member of the Following Boards of Directors
Mr Ronchi is member of the following Boards of Directors: Global Forum, European Education New Society Association, Fondazione Italiana Nuove Comunicazioni and Member Emeritus of WSA Board of Directors. Member of the Keio University NoE.
Ronchi is appointed as an expert by: European Commission, Council of Europe, Italian Association of Banks, National Research Council. National and international project coordinator. He cooperated as organizer or programme chair in W3C, ACM, IEEE conferences. Author/contributor of more than 400 papers and various books on: e-Services, e-Culture, IPR, e-Government, e-Health, and e-Learning.
Mr. Ronchi is a professor - Engineering Faculty, Politecnico di Milano.
Andreu Vea is a well known internet pioneer and entrepreneur in Spain. He founded the 4th ISP (in 1994) and later on leaded the internet strategy of Retevision-Auna the second Spanish national telco-carrier which opened the monopoly (hold by Telefonica until that moment 1998). He was involved in launching their ISP, the revolutionary Free Access and the Flat Rate, which doubled the market in less than a year.
He is a Telecom Engineer, Electronic Engineer, and holds the first Ph.D. dissertation thesis (2002) focused on the Internet. Which got the attention of Vint Cerf (father of the internet) who encouraged him to follow his research at Stanford (2003).
Since then he has been an Invited Scholar at this University and has focused his research on finding internet pioneers around the world. This program has been internationally awarded by ISOC (the Internet Society) which is since 2007 supporting its efforts.
Dr Vea has contributed or founded many internet related organizations (www.espanix.net, www.catnix.net, www.isoc-es.org ) and has been part of multiple steering committees as the Internet Global Congress or in ISOC.
Nowadays he is also International Relations and Networking Director, at La Salle Innovation Park in Spain.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa
- Representative for UN Women 's South Africa Multi - Country Office
Anne Githuku-Shongwe is the Representative for UN Women's South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), which is responsible for women's empowerment and gender equality in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia as well as South Africa, where the office is based. Anne also brings to her role 20 years of experience as a senior international development professional including with the United Nations Development Programme across Africa and managing US Scholarships for African Graduate Scholars.
Anne has been an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of Afroes, a Digital & Gamification Learning enterprise and a thought leader on the Future of Learning.
Anne and Afroes received multiple awards including the prestigious Schwab Foundation/World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award and a National Award - the Order of the Grand Warrior from the President of Kenya. Other awards include the PeaceAPP award of the UN, MEFFYs Award, London UK and Netexplo Award, Paris to name a few.
Anne is a Board Member and Grand Juror of the World Summit Awards for the UN Information Society, a Board Member of CHESTRAD International and I WILL GIVE - a new innovative domestic financing vehicle for African development.
She has a Masters' degree in International Development from The American University; a certificate in Social Innovation from the University of Cape Town, Graduate School of Business, a certificate in The Art of Large Scale Systems Change for Social Entrepreneurship from Harvard University and a Management Certificate from Jones International University.
Job Titles:
- Youth Ambassador Network Africa
Since July 2012 to the present Mr. Ward is CEO at Lamsa. After having completed the Leadership Training Academy and the Bachelor of Information TechnologyAmerican University in Dubai, he was Chairman at Fi-Me for two years, as well as CEO at Ertiqa for 5 years.
He also worked as Managing Director at Bravo Telecom Company & Authorized Regional Distributor from March 2009 - February 2010.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of Metamorphosis Foundation
Bardhyl Jashari is the Director of Metamorphosis Foundation and Information Program Coordinator for Foundation Open Society Institute-Macedonia. He has run national-scope projects for development of Information Society in Macedonia, involving tight cooperation with other international organizations, governmental bodies, business and the civic sector. He serves as a member of the National Task Force for Information Society Development and as a Commissioner for the Agency for Electronic Communications, the telecommunication regulator body in the Republic of Macedonia. He is also member of the MASIT (Macedonian Association of IT companies) IT expert Committee and Project Lead for Creative Commons in Macedonia. Mr. Jashari currently attends postgraduate studies in Public Administration offered by Paris 12 University. He holds an Information System Designer Degree from University of Zagreb, Faculty of Organization and Informatics Varazdin (Croatia).
Carolina has been a fundamental anchor in the growth of the startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America in the last decade. Having been a Harvard Social Venture Fellow in 2009 with her Social Impact Project "Unidas", she then later became a lead member of the first team to create and manage a successful public policy called Start-Up Chile.
She founded the first Chilean Carpooling company ("Yebame") which received an investment given by the original investors of Netflix and Guitar Hero. She is also an SOS Venture Fellow (World Leading Accelerator networks for early stage founders) and an active advisor for innovation at the World Bank (Jamaica 2014, Lebanon 2015, Honduras 2017).
With a background in strategic communications and journalism, she is also author of the book "Comunicación Estrategica: siete casos para la reflexión ".
With experience in leading highly qualified innovative projects, she is currently member of the advisory board of Keiron Technologies (leading health tech company in Chile) and Laboratoria (main digital training platform for women in tech). She co-founded InnovaRock Media and Senior Partner at Moon Advisors - a firm specializing in generating content & data for tech companies that want to enter the Latin American market).
Carolina has been mandated by the WSA Board of Directors to prepare and discover possible options to bring the WSA Global Congress 2024 to Chile.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- President of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies
Catherine Warren is president of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, the international management consultancy for digital distribution and media industries (www.FanTrust.com). Her work has influenced Fortune 500 clients, game companies, producers and portals, providing them with new ways to captivate audiences, build revenues, secure financing and strategic partnerships and capitalize on innovation and intellectual property.
A digital media veteran celebrating 25 years, Catherine leads due diligence on M&A for major game and animation companies, creates fan strategies for blockbuster television franchises such as CSI and advises mobile leaders including Nokia and Orange Telecom on premium game models. Working in North America, the UK and Europe, Catherine has served as a senior manager for both publicly traded and privately held media companies. She has published more than 25 titles for adults and children on science and computing as well as produced numerous award-winning Web sites and interactive broadcasts, including the Gemini Award-winning CTVNews.com.
In addition to WSA, Catherine serves on various digital media boards, including the Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund, which has contributed more than $70M to convergence production, including two recent interactive Emmy-award winners. A member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, she has also served as a judge for the digital Emmys. Catherine has a degree in physics from Reed College and a masters from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, where she broke the original story of new media on location at MIT.
Chris Georgiev, Co-founder of Imagga & Head of Business Development, Asia Pacific, is based in Seoul, South Korea, which serves as an outpost for Imagga's operations in the region. He is holding a M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Sofia Technical University and is currently finishing M.Sc. specializing in Technology Entrepreneurship at Sofia University. Chris has experience in software development, product and software marketing, business development and sales. Chris Georgiev is a board member of the StartUP Foundation, the first entrepreneurial organization in Bulgaria with over 200 startup events in the last 10 years.
Christian Bolorinos grew up living between Madrid, Spain and California, USA. He studied Graphic Design in New York City, and worked as a web and motion graphics designer for 7 years both as a freelancer and as an employee. During this time he worked for a design firm in Portland, freelanced for several small businesses, and started his own business with a friend in Texas selling Yaupon Tea, a novelty health food that was gaining popularity in the southern US.
In 2019, Christian returned to Madrid to study Customer Experience and Innovation at IE Business School. During this time he launched another start-up with two friends and competed in the Venture Lab start up incubator.
After graduating from IE Christian spent the next few years working in both communications and product design for a variety of companies around Europe in FinTech and eLearning, including Ria Money Transfer in Madrid, Swissborg in Zurich, 5Mins in London and ServiceClub in Barcelona.
Christian's passion is traveling and learning about different cultures. He joined the ICNM & WSA teams in September 2023.
Job Titles:
- Chief Digital Officer
- Member of the Emeritus Board
Christian has been active in various European committees on digital transformation for over 20 years and has developed national digital strategies for more than 10 countries worldwide. In his roles as spokesperson for the Digital Austria platform and Executive Secretary for eGovernment at the Austrian Federal Chancellery, he led the country from 13th place to first place in the EU eGovernment rankings within three years. The basis for this was the intensive collaboration in the design of interfaces and common standards between the federal government, federal states and local authorities.
Christian Rupp has been on the board of the National E-Government Competence Centre (NEGZ) since 2019 and has been Chairman of the Innovation Mine for Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration and Embassy of the EU Master AI4Gov since 2021.
The German digital newspaper Tagesspiegel recently called him "Mr Digitalisation". As chief strategist for e-government, he currently leads the OZG consulting teams at Prosoz for the State Ministry for Digital Affairs in Bavaria and numerous municipalities throughout Germany, among others.
Christian joined the WSA right in the beginning in 2003 and served on the Board of Directors for more than 20 years.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Director Emeritus for Relationship With ISOC Senior Partner, Institute of Scientific Simulation & Trustee Emeritus, Internet Society
Cid Torquato holds a degree in Law from the University of Sao Paulo, with specialization in International Affairs. He acted as Executive Director of the Brazilian Chamber of e-Commerce, which he co-founded in 2001. Prior to that, he worked for the Federal e-Government Committee of Brazil, at the Ministry of Planning, where managed the main public Internet portals. Previously, he held positions as Regional New Business Executive for Lowe & Partners, Latin America, and as Corporate Communications and Marketing Director for StarMedia Network. As a consultant, specialized in digital economy, worked with national and international institutions, such as SEBRAE, APEX, Softex, BIRD, IADB, Unctad, MERCOSUL and others, besides editing three books of articles, collaborating as source and columnist for various publications, presenting radio programs at Eldorado and CBN, as well as participating as speaker in events in Brazil and abroad. Currently, Torquato works as Institutional Relations Coordinator at the Sao Paulo State Secretariat for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and blogs at www.torquato.org.
Dr. Christelle Scharff is a pioneer in the mobile ecosystem in Senegal. She established MobileSenegal Hub (http://mobilesenegal.org), an initiative that has been building capacity in mobile application development in Senegal since 2008 and trained more than 400 mobile developers. MobileSenegal organized the first mobile competition in Senegal in 2009. Dr. Scharff is one of the founders of Mobile Monday Dakar that organizes events for the wide mobile community in Dakar, Senegal. She was the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship award and spent 2012-2013 teaching at the University Cheikh Anta Diop and pursuing research in mobile learning. She is also the founder of SenMobile (http://senmobile.com), a startup established in Senegal that specializes in mobile solutions for developing markets in education, health, sport and financial awareness. Dr. Scharff is an associate professor and the chair of the Computer Science Department at Pace University in New York City where her research focuses on global software engineering and mobile for development.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Director of Online Distance Learning Program, Cairo Regional Center for Training on Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping in Africa - CCCPA - Cairo
Job Titles:
- Council Member
- Member of the Emeritus Board
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director - General for Communication and Information, UNESCO
"Local content is indispensable for the use of information and communication technologies for sustainable development. With the recognition of innovative, digital solutions to development challenges, the World Summit Awards (WSA) encourages women and men's creativity, helps to share applications globally and stimulates young entrepreneurs to find local solutions. I congratulate all finalists, who contributed with their innovations to peace and sustainable development."
Job Titles:
- Fromer Deputy Director - General, UNESCO
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- President of the African Academy of Languages President of WSIS Preparatory Committee for Geneva Phase
Job Titles:
- Editorial and Content Quality Ensurance
Job Titles:
- Global Youth Engagement Facilitator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
Job Titles:
- Head
- Professor of Technology and Innovation
Job Titles:
- Digital Community Engagement
Job Titles:
- Head Digital Transformation in Africa
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Executive Director
Job Titles:
- Web Support & Database Administration
Job Titles:
- President of the Emeritus Board
"The difficult employment situation of many young women and men has become one of the most important challenges of our times. Estimates show that in the next 15 years, 600 million jobs will need to be created for young people worldwide.
It is imperative that we empower young people as the demand for new skills increases in an era of rapid technological progress driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. More than one-third of the skills relevant for today's socio-economic development are anticipated to change by 2020. Our young people must be equipped with new skills to prepare them for the future of work and skills. They need to be provided with possibilities for continuous learning, and an enabling environment for innovative ideas to be converted into concrete practical solutions on the ground. It is encouraging that many young people today are already contributing to inclusive and sustainable development, by turning their innovative ideas into new businesses that also benefit the society at large.
The World Summit Awards (WSA) initiative provides a platform to showcase the potential of youth, their innovative solutions and their entrepreneurial spirit, ultimately bringing about social change. These new innovative business models will become more important than ever, as we find ways to tap into the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to create win-win situations for our young people, and in particular for those who live and work in developing countries. UNIDO commends the WSA for providing visibility to these talented young entrepreneurs and stands ready to support young people worldwide to realize their full innovative potentials."
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- President
Job Titles:
- SPECIAL AMBASSADOR for KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Chief Researcher
Job Titles:
- SPECIAL AMBASSADOR for TELCO RELATIONS in DEVELOPING COUNTRIES / AFRICA Chief Officer Corporate Affairs
Job Titles:
- Chief Digital Officer
- Member of the Emeritus Board
Job Titles:
- Advisor to the Prime Minister of Serbia
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Chief Digital Officer ( CDO ) and Head of the Directorate "Transformation of the Economy"
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Co - Founder / MyChef
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Founder
- Member of the Emeritus Board
Mário Franco made studies in Philosophy. His background is linked to the associative movement in different areas from youth to development and environment. Later on he dedicated to public policy, focusing on Information and communication technologies.
From 1995 he has been involved in eInclusion projects and programs at national and international level. From 1996 to 2004, he was Chairman of the Foundation for the Promotion of Information Technology (FDTI). In 2008, he assumed the post of President of FCM - Foundation for Mobile Communications. Mario led a team who developed and managed the e.escola Program, which allowed the access to a mobile computer and Internet to 1.3 million people in Portugal, considered one of the most successful initiatives in this field. In 2012, he founded the Millennium@EDU, a multi-stakeholder initiative led by the private sector including some of the largest multinationals involved in education and technology that are willing to provide their contribution for the achievement of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.
Job Titles:
- Executive Manager
- Member of the WSA Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Director Emeritus for Development of WSA in North America Region Chair, Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund Global CEO, Noank Media Inc
Job Titles:
- Minister of ICT and Innovation / Rwanda
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Chairperson of the Board
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- President
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- CEO / Consultant / Sri Lanka
Job Titles:
- President of Dataprev
- Social Protection Management Information Systems Expert
Rodrigo Assumpção is the president of Dataprev, IT company focused on the social area of the Government of Brazil, since December 2008.
Previously, he held the post of Deputy Secretary of Logistics and Information Technology, in the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management of the Brazilian government, for which was appointed in 2003. Ahead of Dataprev, he received for three consecutive years the Professional Award for Information Technology, granted by the Editorial Forum.
Hewas director at the Florestan Fernandes Institute and at the Sampa.org, NGOslocated in Sao Paulo; an educator in Cajamar Institute; and the e-Government coordinator of the Municipality of Santo Andre, in the Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo. He holds a degree in History and a Masters degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Sao Paulo (USP), with a dissertation on digital division.
Job Titles:
- Dean & Executive Secretary, IACA and Former UN Assistant Secretary General
Job Titles:
- Member of the Emeritus Board
- Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist
Job Titles:
- Principal Liaison Officer for Hong Kong