Wave

Nigel Bayliff

CEO, Aqua Comms

Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Aqua Comms, is a global telecom industry veteran with more than 30 years experience as both operator & purchaser, developer & constructor of significant submarine cable systems. His unique global experience from both sides of the industry has led him to be an advisor and consultant to cable development, private equity and government clients.,

Nigel previously served as the initial CEO and board member of Huawei Marine Networks, presiding over several major, technological product advances as well as its commercial launch into the marketplace. Prior to this, he was a member of the executive team of FLAG Telecom working as director and deputy chairman for several group companies, and was responsible for the construction and operation of the FLAG Global Network, encompassing 65,000 km of submarine cable systems providing carrier-grade connectivity services to 40 countries.

Nigel serves as Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Joint Task Force that examines the gathering of disaster mitigation and climate information from the global web of undersea cable assets. In 2006 he was elected as a Fellow of the UK Institute of Engineering Technology.

Polina Bayvel

Professor of Optical Communications and Networks, UCL

Polina Bayvel is the Professor of Optical Communications and Networks at UCL, where she leads the Optical Networks Group, a world-leading research group that she founded in 1994. She is also the Director & Principal Investigator for the TRANSNET Programme, a research team at UCL in collaboration with Aston University and the University of Cambridge.

The TRANSNET research focuses on developing high-capacity, low-delay, adaptive intelligent optical networks to support traffic growth and new services for the future of digital communications infrastructure.

She was most recently celebrated for her outstanding contributions to the dynamic field of optical communications as the 2021 recipient of the Institute of Physics Thomas Young Medal and Prize, also making history by becoming the first UCL academic and the first woman ever to receive the award.

Bruce Neilson

CEO, Global Marine Systems

Bruce is currently the CEO of Global Marine Systems and has over 32 years of industry experience, having first gone to sea with BT Marine at the age of 19, just as fibre optic cables were coming online. He spent 16 years at sea, installing and repairing subsea cables, before moving ashore to undertake various operational and commercial roles across Global Marine’s various business units, both in the UK and Asia Pacific.

Funke Opeke

Founder and CEO, MainOne

Funke Opeke, is founder and CEO of MainOne, a leading Digital Infrastructure service provider that built West Africa’s first open-access submarine cable system interconnecting Nigeria; Ghana; and Portugal in 2010.

In 2015, the company launched its data center operations with MDXi – West Africa’s largest Tier III data center in Lagos, Nigeria, and now with presence in Accra and Abidjan. In 2019, she chaired the Presidential Committee to develop Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan for 2020 – 2025. MainOne was acquired by Equinix, the global digital infrastructure company as its entry point to doing business in Africa on April 1, 2022.

Peder Naerboe

Founder and Chairman, Bulk Infrastructure

Peder Naerboe is the founder of Bulk Infrastructure, a leading provider of sustainable digital infrastructure in the Nordics. His company is an industrial investor, developer and operator of industrial real estate, data centres and dark fibre networks. 

Peder’s career began as a shipbroker in 1991, later working as an investment portfolio advisor from 1998-2005. In 2006, he founded Bulk Infrastructure and quickly became one of the premiere real estate developers in Norway and holds the leading role in the logistics and industrial sectors.

In 2011 he identified the close relationship between his logistic and industrial real estate and the data center sector and the major impact Norwegian surplus renewable energy could make if made available for the growing European data center industry. This led to major investments in building data centres and new fibre infrastructure both intercontinental and within the Nordics to unlock the Nordics as a highly scalable and sustainable digital infrastructure platform. 

Peder’s strong leadership is exemplified by the incredible success of Bulk Infrastructure.

Keri Gilder

CEO, Colt

Keri Gilder is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Colt. Before joining Colt, Keri held several leadership roles at Ciena, but was most recently its Vice President and General Manager EMEA, responsible for guiding Ciena’s EMEA service provider and enterprise customers, as well as partners.

Prior to Ciena, Keri worked in multiple roles for Lucent Technologies, and she has also worked for Hughes Aircraft as a Network Engineer.

Keri is passionate about promoting Inclusion and Diversity and brings this passion to the wider industry as the Chair of the TM Forum’s Diversity & Inclusion Council and President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network.

Keri has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with an emphasis in Management Information Systems (MIS) from New Mexico State University.

Keri lives in London with her husband and two children and is based at Colt’s head office in London.

Claire Wanjiku

Senior Network Architect, WIOCC

Claire W. Wanjiku works to connect Africa, with 8 years of experience managing cross-functional teams in designing and building submarine and terrestrial network infrastructure. She started as an intern and through the great mentorship programs and growth opportunities provided, she grew to be a Project Manager, Network Architect and currently, a Senior Network Architect at WIOCC.

With a passion for developing solutions, she has played a pivotal role in delivering projects like 2Africa, Equiano, national terrestrial networks in Nigeria and South Africa as well as delivery of services to cloud operators in the telecom industry. Claire has an MBA degree from Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University, Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication Engineering and has PRINCE2 and ITIL certifications.

Martijn Blanken

CEO, EXA Infrastructure

Martijn is the Chief Executive Officer of EXA Infrastructure. With extensive experience in CEO and executive leadership roles, he has built a successful track record of delivering growth in complex international environments. Before joining EXA Martijn served as Senior Advisor to Digital Infrastructure investors, and led the acquisition of EXA by I Squared Capital. Martijn was previously the Group Managing Director of Telstra Enterprise and served on the Executive Committee of Telstra Corporation.

During his tenure at Telstra, he also was the CEO of Telstra Global, which under his leadership transformed into the leading service provider in Asia Pacific. Prior to his time at Telstra, he was the SVP for Asia Pacific at Openwave Systems and has also held several executive positions at KPN Royal Dutch Telecom. Martijn has lived and worked extensively across Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas, and holds an MBA from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Isabelle Paradis

President, HOT TELECOM

Isabelle is President and Founder of HOT TELECOM, one of the most innovative and creative telecom research and consulting companies in the industry. HOT TELECOM has been supporting operators and vendors on a global basis for over 19 years, more particularly on the subjects of International and wholesale. More recently, Isabelle has been working with many of the world’s telecom service providers to help them define their transformation strategy and has written multiple articles and speaks at conferences on this topic.

She is also passionate about encouraging the involvement of women in technology and science and conducts multiple panels and interviews with leading women globally. She is a member of the Youth and Women Entrepreneurship ESBN taskforce, which is a working group created by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific (ESCAP) to promote the active engagement of the business sector in addressing the issues of sustainable and social inclusiveness in business.

She is also the founder of the Inclusion hub, which aims to encourage the participation of young people in the telecom industry.

Isabelle holds a Bachelor degree in Engineering, an MBA in Finance and has over 29 years experience working globally.

Leigh Frame

Chief Operating Officer, Xtera

Leigh is Chief Operating Officer for Xtera, one of the world’s leading suppliers of subsea cable systems.  In addition to his executive role, he is directly responsible for sales and marketing, R&D and engineering.  Xtera offers one of the most advanced high fibre-count undersea repeaters which includes command and control supervisory, and the Engineering function works hard to maintain this lead.

Prior to joining Xtera in 2018, Leigh was COO of ASN, rounding off a 30-year career in France and the UK with that company.  In parallel, he was a board member of the Apollo Submarine Cable System, which operates two trans-Atlantic cables.

Leigh has considerable experience working alongside SPVs and other cable system developers and has also held roles in turnkey project management, and prior to that, as head of the marine department.

He has a degree in Economics from Leeds University and has previously worked in the defence and computer industries.

Jayne Stowell

Senior Strategic Negotiator - Global Network Acquisition Group, Google

Jayne is a Senior Strategic Negotiator in Google’s Global Network Acquisition Group.  Her focus is development, deployment and management of new submarine cable systems.  Jayne has led various submarine cable initiatives in most parts of the world: North-South America,  trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific, intra-Asia, intra-Europe and Europe/Middle East/India and has served as chairman of many consortium owned submarine cables.

Her submarine cable origins began with MFS Communications (later MCI WorldCom) and Level 3 Communications where she was Senior Vice President responsible for its global submarine cable businesses.  Jayne is a member of the board of both International Cable Protection Committee (where she also chairs the Security Working Group) and SubOptic Ltd., the two global submarine cable education and industry consultative associations.  Jayne also holds a MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Mohamed Nasr

Deputy Minister for Global Information Infrastructure at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt

Mohamed Nasr is the Deputy Minister for Global Information Infrastructure (GII) at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in Egypt since June 2020.

His responsibilities include supporting MCIT plan for maximizing the State’s returns of the global ICT infrastructure and investments in the telecommunication companies operating in Egypt, as well as supporting MCIT different strategies for developing and securing the ICT Infrastructure and improving the quality of the services rendered to citizens. This is in addition to maintaining Egypt’s strategic position as a safe corridor for subsea cable systems and maximizing its regional and international role in globally through supporting the extension of the global network to the neighboring countries, development of data center industry and cloud computing.

Nasr has more than 21 years’ work experience in telecommunication, with focus on development and operating of Subsea cable systems, global telecommunication networks and the Internet connectivity.

He was the Head of Subsea Cable Infrastructure at PCCW Global, the international operating division of Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) till May 2020. Prior to that, he rose through the ranks at Telecom Egypt (TE) to become the Head of the International Business Unit, in 2014, before joining PCCW Global in 2016.

Nasr is non-executive board member of different entities including Telecom Egypt, Vodafone Egypt, and Post for Investment (PFI).

Rebecca Nottingham

Head of Subsea Fibre Optic Cables Policy within the Telecoms Security and Resilience arm of the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Rebecca Nottingham is the Head of Subsea Fibre Optic Cables Policy within the Telecoms Security and Resilience arm of the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

With a decade’s experience in the Civil Service, Rebecca has held a range of defence, resilience and security-facing roles across government in the Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office, and most recently DCMS.

She was first involved in telecoms work representing MOD in a Cabinet Office-led review of the telecoms sector in 2013, and has since held a range of policy and leadership roles within the Civil Service, including delivery management of the Defence Cyber Protection Partnership, design and launch of its NATO counterpart, and operational policy work.

Building on her Masters degrees in International Peace and Security and in Defence Studies, Rebecca has specific expertise in assimilating complex policy, strategy and legal issues into government policy and delivery, particularly in resilience and security fields. Rebecca has chaired and served on several cross-government committees and specializes in emergent policy areas, including writing the UK’s first defensive space strategy.

Martin Letrilliart

Digital Infrastructure Investment Associate, D9

Martin Letrilliart is an Investment Associate at Digital 9 Infrastructure (D9), which he joined shortly after its March 2021 IPO. D9 is a digital infrastructure focused investment trust that has raised c.US$ 1.5 billion since its IPO, and invests into subsea & terrestrial fibre, data centres and wireless infrastructure. Its ambition is to build a global platform thereby closing the digital divide and creating greener, more sustainable connectivity. Martin is particularly focused on the fund’s connectivity-led data centre strategy.

Kaneesha Banker

Youth Attraction & Recruitment Lead, Vodafone Group

Kaneesha Banker leads Youth Attraction & Recruitment for Vodafone Group. Having started her career through Vodafone’s Internship programme and then the Graduate scheme, she has now come full circle where she is recruiting future talent to meet the business’s needs including graduates, interns and apprentices.

In the last 4.5 years, she has essayed a number of roles in teams including Diversity & Inclusion, HR work streams for Mergers and Acquisitions, and Onboarding and Employee Experience. Initially having graduated with a degree in International Relations, Kaneesha decided to shift gears to HR after completing her internship with Vodafone Group and was also able to gain a CIPD qualification during her graduate scheme.

Chris Sturgeon

CEO, Red Penguin

Chris is founder and Chief Executive of Red Penguin, providing experience-based consultant engineering services and expert support across the submarine cable business.  A Master Mariner with over 40 years in the marine industry, 35 of which have been within the submarine cable and energy sectors.  Chris’ experience benefits from 10 years in command of cable ships and managing marine operations, together with extensive work in the development and delivery of cable projects.

He has worked extensively across different industry sectors on a range of infrastructure projects, cross sector collaborations and best practice initiatives to identify and control risk, to assist in the resolution of disputes and to maintain the high standards necessary to achieve safe and high-quality operations at sea. Chris is an experienced marine warranty surveyor and provides expert services to the insurance market and legal counsel.

Nikki Popoola

Director, Sales – West Africa, WIOCC

As Director, Sales – West Africa, Nikki focuses on extending WIOCC’s footprint across West Africa. Nikki has been in the telecoms industry for over 20 years and joined WIOCC in 2016 after eight years with Tata Communications where she sold a wide range of Data services across numerous countries in Africa. Nikki also held managerial roles at Gateway Communications, where she established multiple interconnects across Africa.

Nikki’s career in telecoms began in Cable & Wireless selling services into sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East initially via satellite up until submarine cables became available in 2001. Nikki is passionate about Africa and feels privileged to have seen and taken part in the technological advances that have occurred over the years. She lives in an Oxfordshire village and loves going on country walks with her daughter and her two dogs.

Gary Waterworth

Network Investment EMEA, META

After a 10 year apprenticeship with Standard Telephone and Cables designing, manufacturing, installing and repairing subsea systems worldwide, Gary was fortunate to be part of the creation of ASN.

Gary led teams developing and manufacturing the first submarine optical amplifiers and associated wet plant, before spending the next 20 years as part of ASN’s customer facing team, involving all types of submarine cable projects and marine maintenance around the globe.

Gary served on the ICPC Executive Committee prior to joining Meta’s Network Investment Team, leading strategic investments in multiple subsea cable projects in the feasibility, procurement, construction and operational phases of their development.

Nicole Starosielski

Associate Professor, New York University

Nicole Starosielski, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, is author or co-editor of over thirty articles and five books on media, infrastructure, and environments, including The Undersea Network (2015). She is currently a Principal Investigator on the SubOptic Foundation’s Sustainable Subsea Networks research project.

Ed McCormack

Trustee SubOptic Foundation

Ed has forty-five years’ experience in international business, the majority of those in the wider subsea networks business.  He was one of the early employees of FLAG Telecom and later joined Ciena as it entered the subsea system upgrade business.  In that period, Ciena expanded its terrestrial network business into the submarine segment and introduced technology and innovation which continue to benefit the industry today.

He has held a variety of executive roles and non-executive directorships in the wider network industry. Today, he continues to serve as a senior advisor to Ciena.  In addition, he is a non-executive director of Aqua Comms an Irish multinational network provider.   He also serves as an Operating Partner to its parent – Digital 9 Infrastructure. 

Sheela Kosaraju

Vice President, Ciena

Sheela is responsible for managing all of Ciena’s legal matters and for providing strategic business support in EMEA, APAC, and CALA as International General Counsel. She is also involved in Ciena’s corporate
development initiatives, contributing to the Company’s business strategy through M&A and other strategic transactions globally. In addition, Sheela manages global employment, investigations, and litigation.

Prior to joining Ciena, she was Vice President and General Counsel of two technology start-up companies, HomeCom Communications in Atlanta, GA and Closedloop Solutions in Redwood City, CA and a Vice President, Associate General Counsel of a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company, Cendant Corporation.

Sheela is still a member of the adjunct faculty of Johns Hopkins University and taught a class in Computer Law and Ethics from 2007-2016. She is a member of the Maryland and Georgia State Bars and received a Juris Doctor degree from Wake Forest University and Bachelor of Science degrees in both Mechanical Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

John Tibbles

Advisor to the SubOptic Foundation

John Tibbles is a consultant specialising in submarine cable matters and related telecoms matters. He headed the cable and global network development teams at Cable and Wireless from 1993-98 and Worldcom/Verizon from  1998 -2003 managing  some of the largest global networks. 

He was a board member and chairman of Southern Cross, AJC and Gemini and as MC member and Chair on contemporary consortium system development . From 2004-2010 he  headed  Business Development Europe for Hong Kong based Telstra: PCCW JV ‘Reach’ and until 2012 for Telstra International.

Since retiring he has  advised on numerous subsea cable projects and advised  major law firms on the implications of structural changes to the subsea industry as well as being an expert witness and dispute moderator on cable and international telecom issues. He has regularly contributed articles to trade media and spoken /moderated at major industry events. He is an advisor to the SubOptic Foundation.

Elaine Reed

Senior Manager – Submarine Engineering, Vodafone Group

Elaine Reed leads the Submarine Engineering team at Vodafone Group ensuring technical and operational best practice in the deployment, operations and decommissioning of submarine cable systems for which Vodafone have responsibility.

Elaine joined Vodafone in April 2021, having spent the previous 30 years in BT, where she was Head of Subsea Centre of Excellence. She has extensive experience in the industry at both commercial and technical level, having chaired consortium Procurement Groups and Technical Working Groups, primarily in the Atlantic and European regions, and delivering systems of varying levels of complexity. She enjoys leading teams of engineering professionals and is a champion for encouraging new talent into the industry.

Elaine spent 8 years of her career in various data centre roles that included deployment of new data centre technologies and energy efficiency projects.

Elaine holds a BEng in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Queens University Belfast, is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Engineering & Technology and a STEM Ambassador.

Salvador Jimenez-Sanchez

Operations & QHSE Assistant, Red Penguin

Salvador joined Red Penguin in July 2021 following his degree in Marine Biology (BSc) at the University of Portsmouth, UK, as the QHSE & Operations Assistant, attending and now leading internal audits. He works with the operations team responding to a range of live challenges, from QHSE support to assisting with logistics for the offshore team. 

More recently Salvador has applied his knowledge as Red Penguin’s Marine Environmental Consultant working with the projects and GIS team, on benthic assessments to support our client’s efforts to minimizing any potential environmental impact from their operations.  Salvador has supplied 3D models and visual designs to the company and clients, such as submarine cable crossing models, incorporating his previous experience competing in national RIBA opportunities.

Dr. Mike Clare

Principal researcher in Ocean Biogeosciences, National Oceanography Centre

Frankie Targett

Network Engineering - Graduate, Vodafone Group

I’m Frankie! I am currently a technology graduate at Vodafone having graduated in Engineering Physics from Aberystwyth University in 2020. I have spent the last year and a half in roles within Submarine and Transmission Engineering with an emphasis on network architecture and deployment. As a Transmission Engineer I help manage and design the optical network for Vodafone, supporting work for new and existing routes within the international infrastructure.

Within my time in submarine networks I have supported the successful delivery of subsea cable projects, the implementation and design of terminal equipment and have had a focus on the future of submarine engineering. Within my first 4 months I was able to attend two shore ends and definitely caught the subsea bug!

Guillermo Iglesias

International Business Development Manager – Antel Uruguay

Guillermo Iglesias is a long time executive of Antel, the Uruguayan full telecommunication services operator; and partner to several subsea cables and landings connecting the US with the Southern Cone LATAM region.

Experienced with a demonstrated history of almost 20 years working in the telecommunications industry. Skilled in sales, fixed and mobile communications, and international wholesale business management.

Currently he is Antel´s representative on the Executive Committees of the Monet and Tannat Submarine Systems (submarine regional consortiums); and responsible of global commercial and infrastructure agreements of Antel.

Guillermo has a Master in Business Administration from the IE Business School (Madrid-Spain), with an emphasis in e-Business (B2C and B2B) and digital business processes transformation.

Alice Shelton

Senior Consultant, Global Submarine Sales team, Ciena

Alice joined Ciena in 2018 as Senior Consultant in the Global Submarine Sales team.  She also serves on the Executive Committee of the SubOptic Association.

Alice started her career in submarine systems as a design engineer at STC Submarine Systems on the historic Greenwich site in the UK.  For five years Alice worked in Paris as Technical Project Manager for the development of the ASN 1620LM SLTE.  Returning to Greenwich in 2010, Alice joined the ASN Sales and Marketing team as Technical Area Manager for EMEAI.

Alice is a Physics graduate from Durham University, a chartered engineer and was elected a Fellow of the UK Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) in 2000.

Sean Doran

Senior Leader - Optical & subsea platforms, BT Networks

Sean Doran is the senior leader of the optical and subsea platforms in BT networks. He has over 40 years’ experience in telecommunications industry. His current role manages the team of professionals responsible for the design & management of BT optical & subsea core networks in the UK and across the globe.

In those 40 years he has gained the full end to end experience including network modelling, technology selection , technology introduction, design, planning, infrastructure & bandwidth acquisitions and network operations.

 A keen advocate of agile ways of working, he has led the team to adopt agile methods. Integrating the terrestrial and subsea work-stack providing good visibility of what the team is delivering linking to other parts of the business and opening up opportunities for multi skilling across the team.

Helen Elphick

Sustainability Lead for the Marine Department of The Crown Estate

Helen Elphick is an experienced marine environmental professional who is passionate about the sustainable management of marine ecosystems. She has developed a broad understanding of marine ecosystems and the social and environmental pressures facing the marine environment, through her work with a wide range of marine sectors over the last 20 years.

 Helen is currently the Sustainability Lead for the Marine Department of The Crown Estate, which leases a range of activities on the seabed and coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. She has recently started a new role to improve the sustainability of activities the organisation is responsible for, and identify opportunities for the seabed to contribute further to the UK’s net zero and nature recovery ambitions.

James Francis

Cable Route Engineer, ASN

With an interest in geology and Earth’s natural processes I attended Keele University to study for a BSc in Geoscience, with geology, geophysics, geochemistry, GIS, and hydrography. Finding a greater interest in geophysics I then stayed at Keele to complete my MSc in Geoscience Research, specialising in geophysics and its applications.

Throughout my life I’ve had a passion for the marine world, growing up around all types of boats, both sailing and powered, eventually working on tugs & workboats on the River Thames at 18 years old. I acquired my vessel master’s ticket and was employed as a skipper on these vessels during the holidays in my university years, and for a spell afterwards.
My career then moved ashore, and in 2019 I started at Alcatel Submarine Networks Ltd (ASN) in Greenwich, working as a Cable Route Engineer in the ASN Marine Operations Department. This role oversees all the planning, hydrographic surveying and cable engineering of our fibre optic cable supply contracts, leading to the cable manufacturing at ASN’s factory in Calais, and ultimately the cable installation by ASN’s fleet of cableships.

My passion, interest and background in earth sciences and the marine industry have helped maximise my capability and enjoyment in my role. I’ve already worked on numerous projects and travelled all over the world.

Maja Summers

Senior Submarine Commercial Manager at Vodafone

Maja Summers is a Senior Submarine Commercial Manager at Vodafone. Maja’s previous roles include Sales & Marketing Director and Director of Operations at Apollo SCS and Head of Submarine Engineering Department at Cable & Wireless. Maja has over 20 years of experience in subsea industry at both technical, operational and commercial level working on the design and implementation of submarine cable systems.

She is the Programme Chair for SubOptic Conference 2023 .

Maja has a PhD from South Bank University, London and BEng in Electronic Engineering from University of Belgrade, Serbia, and is a Fellow of the IET.  Maja was also Visiting Professor in in the Principles of Engineering Design, University of Surrey.

Alex Overstall

Technical Business Developer at Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Alex Overstall is Technical Business Developer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) having joined in early 2022, sitting within the Backbone Subsea team, leading the development and deployment of submarine cable systems.

Alex has spent the last 9 years within the wider submarine industry starting his career project managing a variety of geophysical survey operations, specializing in cable route surveys.

Thereafter, Alex joined Alcatel Submarine Networks firstly in Sales & Marketing focusing on managing marine aspects of bids and subsequently project managing repairs within the APMA region before moving to managing the marine installation of new submarine cable builds.

Alex holds a Bachelor degree in Geography with Geology from the University of Southampton.

Ben Plimmer

Fiber Program Manager, Submarine Cables, META

Ben is a graduate hire into the Meta Subsea program management team following the completion of a four-year integrated master’s degree in Systems and Control Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

He has experience from manufacturing internships in civil aerospace and nuclear sectors undertaken during his time at university. Ben was recruited as part of the remote intern class of 2020, which culminated in being offered a position to return to Meta on a full-time basis.

Since starting work as an employee of Meta in July of 2021, he has been part of the 2Africa project team and has taken up a technical working group chair role on another project.