Biographies

Dr Retha de la Harpe
Retha is currently responsible for the graduate and post graduate programmes of the IT Department in the Faculty Informatics and Design of Cape Peninsula University of Technology.  She obtained her B.Sc. (Hons) in Informatics (Cum laude) and M.Sc. at Rand Afrikaans University.  She obtained D.Tech (IT) qualification at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology during 2009.  She has many years of IT teaching experience on all levels and was actively involved in curriculum development for higher education on a National level.  She also developed electronic and distance education content.  Her main research interest is data quality implications in both business and healthcare contexts.  She is involved in many research projects and is the South African coordinator of the International research network INDEHELA (Informatics development for health in Africa) and was a NRF (National Research Fund) grant holder for a period of four years.  She is author and co-author of several research funding proposals, e.g. the SAFIPA (South Africa Finland Partnership).  The first phase of this joint project between three South African Universities, community and healthcare stakeholders has been completed where the home-based healthcare needs of three poor communities were established.  Many initiatives and linkages with other stakeholders (community, industry and other Africa countries) have evolved from these projects, e.g. the community empowerment project (Reconstructed living lab, Bridgetown civic association, etc.); MAMEE (maternal healthcare – South Africa, Mozambique and Finland).  She was pivotal in the establishment of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) masters programme.  Currently she is involved in several collaborative multi-disciplinary projects where participants interact in an incubation lab. She also supervises doctoral and master students at CPUT. She has been invited as key note speaker at international conferences and has published internationally.

Retha de la Harpe

Ephias Ruhode
Ephias is a lecturer in the Information Technology Department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in South Africa. He was educated to Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree level in Zimbabwe. He also received further training in computer technology in Japan and India. Prior to joining CPUT, Ephias worked in Zimbabwe in various capacities as Analyst Programmer, Systems Development Manager and General Manager e-Commerce. His research interest is in e-Business in general and e-Government applications in particular. In 2008, Ephias received CPUT’s university research funding to carry out his research on e-Government in Zimbabwe.

Ephias Ruhode

Roderick Lim Banda
Roderick has practiced, lectured and consulted in software architecture and enterprise architecture. He is a co-founder and co-chair of the CIO Forum which has worked closely with the Centre for CIO Research in Africa (CenCRA). He has consulted in enterprise architecture, business architecture in local and national government initiatives and has been involved in various projects across local industries. He is currently working with ICT companies in the Western Cape to assist them in gaining access to markets such as South East Asia and develop the "Hollywood Reference Model" and the "Cape Software Factory" presented at the IEEE Cape Software Engineering Colloquium and the Cape IT Initiative (CITi).

Roderick Lim Banda

Nirvesh Sooful
Nirvesh is currently Director: Strategy, SAP Services for EOH. He is a former Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the City Of Cape Town. He was the architect and driver of the City’s Smart City strategy, which the South African National Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburri, has called a “visionary transformation strategy,” which positioned Cape Town “to become one of our most technologically advanced cities” and “a frontrunner in South Africa’s National IT Strategy”. While at the City of Cape Town, Nirvesh has implemented some of the largest ICT projects in South Africa, creating billions of Rands of value for the City, in addition to delivering value and access to opportunities for some of the poorest sectors of society. These have resulted in the city winning numerous national and international awards including the Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award and the 21st-Century Achievement Award from the Computerworld Honors program. Nirvesh is very active in initiatives aimed at utilising ICT for social and economic development, and driving transformation in all aspects of South African society.Nirvesh has spoken on numerous platforms in South Africa, on the African continent and internationally.

Nirvesh Sooful

Dr Gabriella Spinelli
Gabriella is a senior lecturer at Brunel Business School, UK,  and since her PhD has been interested in the use of technologies to support communities and users groups. Gabriella’s research interests have attracted external funds from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the National Police Improvements Agency (NPIA) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).  Prior to her academic career Gabriella has worked on the design and evaluation of interactive systems for Eastman Kodak Usability lab (NY), at Domus Academy (Milan, Italy) and acted as consultant for the Appliance Studio (UK). 

Gabriella Spinelli

Francesco Bof

Francesco Bof

Dr Gabor Laszlo
Gabor currently teaches at Obuda University as assistant professor. and also manages the Information Society Research and Education Group within the same institution. He received his PhD from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. His research interests focus on open source software and its applications in the public sector. He has background in both economics and technology. As a co-author he has participated in writing publications of working progress booklets for the Hungarian Information Society Strategy and he also wrote a position paper on strategy-planning document for the National Open Source Strategy in Hungary as a co-author.

Gabor Laszlo

Dr Michael T. Lavin

Michael earned his BA at St. Anslems’s college, his MA at the college of Williams & Mary and his PhD from Tufts University. Currently Michael is the chair of the Department of Public Management, Sawyer School of Management at Suffolk University. He is on numerous faculty committees, including the Ad Hoc Committee to Restructure UPC (Chair), Long-Range Planning, Faculty Life & Salaries (Chair), Curriculum Development, Technology, Financial Aid (Chair) and Accreditation (NASPAA, AACSB).

Michael has been involved with the Cape Cod Breakfast Seminar Series as an originator and host from 2001 to present day. He is a Connectivity Council Member for the EntreCenter which is jointly sponsored by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce & Cape & Islands Community Development, Inc. from 2003 to present. He is an honorary member of Pi Alpha Alpha, National Public Administration Honor Society, a member of Pi Gamma Mu, and the National Social Science Honor Society.

Professor Lavin’s teaching, research and service interests are related to local government administration, human resource management, nonprofit management, entrepreneurship and grant writing. For the past decade, as an Assistant Dean, SSOM Cape Cod Programs, he manages Suffolk MPA, MBA and BSBA Programs offered at Cape Cod Community College.

Michael Lavin

Toni Carbo
Toni is a professor at the School of Information Sciences (SIS) and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work in the information field began in 1962 and includes extensive experience with information service producers and users (both libraries and database producers) and with research and development in the areas of information policy and the use of information.  Her teaching and research interests focus on Information Ethics and Information Policy, especially concerning e-government. She has directed international research projects related to the use of scientific and technical information, and her research on overlap in coverage of scientific literature is still considered among the seminal works in the field. Author of numerous articles, speeches, and technical reports in the information sciences, Dr. Carbo is the Editor of The International Information and Library Review (IILR) and has served on the editorial boards of several publications.

Toni Carbo

Dr. Sanjeev K.Sharma
Sanjeev is the Editor of The Indian Journal of Political Science, published by the Indian Political Science Association. Dr.Sharma has published around 50 research papers, 45 articles, 9 authored/edited/co-authored books, one monograph and 15 book reviews in different journals. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of more than a dozen national and international journals of the discipline. A widely traveled and acknowledged researcher, Dr. Sharma has, besides supervising Ph.D. and M.Phil. scholars, delivered keynote/valedictory addresses, special lectures, invited talks in various universities of country and participated in more than 200 national and international academic events.

Sanjeev K. Sharma

Professor Mohini Singh
Mohini is Professor of Information Systems in the School of Business Information Technology at RMIT University in Melbourne.  Her research areas include e-government services, e-government and citizen issues, mobile e-government services, e-business and Information technology issues. She was the Program Chair, ICEG 2008.

Mohini Singh

Professor Brian Corbitt
Brian is Professor of Information Systems and Head of School in the School of Business Information Technology at RMIT University. His research areas include e-health, e-government, e-supply chain and Green IT issues. He was the Conference Chair, ICEG 2008.

Brian Corbitt

Updated 2 September 2010