Associates
Tayarisha will work with a network of trans-disciplinary, cross-institutional associates who will participate directly in the activities of the Centre in various capacities.
She is the Director and Senior Lecturer at the Learning Information Networking Knowledge (LINK) Centre. She specialises in matters of digital innovation and digital transformation in African economies and societies.
She is the Principal Researcher at Research ICT Africa, where she Directs the AI4D Africa Just AI Centre. She is also the Principal Investigator at the Global Index on Responsible AI and Director at Africa Just AI Policy Centre.
He is a Director of the African Leadership Institute, a Member of the Board of President Pedro Pires Leadership Institute, and the Jose Maria Neves Foundation for Governance. He is also the co-founder of Bonako (games and digital tech company), Muska (music tech startup) as well as the Africa Innovation Summit (AIS).
He is the Wits BCX Chair in Digital Business, based at the Wits Business School. He is one of the foremost ICT industry leaders in South Africa, with over 30 years of top-level management experience in Telecommunications, IT, technology R&D, and systems engineering, both in South Africa and abroad.
She is an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Co-Author, of The Tech That Comes Next, and Founder, of ANB Advisory Group LLC. She is a leading public interest technologist who has spent her career working at the intersection of technology, policy, and society.
Prof. Turgay Celik
He is the Director of the Wits Institute of Data Science (WIDS) a world-leading interdisciplinary institute focusing on research, innovation, and training in data science. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Access, IET Electronics Letters, IEEE JSTARS, Springer SIVP Journal, and BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making.
He is a seasoned banker who has worked across multiple areas in Banking, including his current role in Strategy at Absa, where he has played a pivotal role in formulating the Group’s technology strategy roadmap, aligned with the Absa Group's refreshed strategy.
She is the Africa lead at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Private International Law (Germany), specialised in decolonial comparative law. A legal scholar by training, she focuses her recent works on the role that norms play in the production and evolution of anticipatory systems using lessons learned from decolonial studies and pluralist legal contexts as evidence of complexity.
He is the Director for innovation and digital policy at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). In this role, he has led the development of a new program supporting Africa’s digital transformation through informed policy for accelerated innovation and technology upgrading.
He is Professor in Media Studies at Wits University and Associate Research Fellow in the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the University of Oxford. He is the author of “The Politics of Technology in Africa” and “China, Africa, and the Future of the Internet”.
He is specialist in digital application, digital communities, and platforms professional having worked with Google, YouTube, and Meta (Facebook) across multiple regions around the world. He is a digital channels senior manager at MTN and teaches/facilitates Digital Transformation online courses with Stellenbosch Business School Executive Education.
He is a former postdoc fellow at the Tayarisha. His research primarily focuses on governance and media, particularly in areas of democracy and politics, digitalisation in the public sector, protests, and citizen participation.
He is co-leading Tayarisha’s work in Futures Literacy and Anticipatory Governance. He is a Visiting Adjunct Professor at the WSG. For over forty years Riel Miller has been pioneering advances in the theory & practice of using the future. He has designed & implemented hundreds of projects worldwide, using the future in order to change what people see and do.
She is an Associate Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Policy in the Schar School of Policy and Government and Department of Computer Science (joint) at George Mason University. Her broad interests include bias mitigation in artificial intelligence (AI), critical quantitative and computational methods, and racial equity in innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E).
He has over 25 years of international experience in academia and industry. A highly credentialed professor, he previously taught at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and at the French South African Institute of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa. His research centers upon the intersection of business and technology - particularly business models for next-generation digital networks, such as 5G and 6G.
He is a Senior Research Manager at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa. He is currently leading projects on digital policy and platforms, and on evidence-informed policy making. Between 2012 and 2016 he managed open innovation and open data work at The Innovation Hub, an agency of the Gauteng Provincial Government.
Associate Prof. Mzukisi "Mzu" Qobo
He is South Africa's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation. Mzu is a Visiting Professor and former Head of School at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand. He is an expert on political economy, strategy, and geopolitics. He has a growing interest in themes related to digital governance, innovation, and the impact of shifts in energy technologies on society.
He is a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is the Director of the Robotics, Autonomous Intelligence, and Learning (RAIL) laboratory, and the Director of the National E-Science Postgraduate Teaching and Training Platform (NEPTTP). He is also a founder and co-organiser of the Deep Learning Indaba.
She/they is a South African Feminist writer and interdisciplinary scholar. is a PhD Candidate in Information Systems at the University of Cape Town. She is a doctoral candidate in the Information Systems Department at the University of Cape Town and is interested in the intersections of society and digital technology. She has organised two SICSS locations.
He is an Associate Professor of Innovation Policy and Management at the Wits Business School. His teaching and research interests include comparative innovation systems, energy innovation, technopreneurship, nanotechnology innovation, and philosophical paradigms in scientific research.
Prof. Colin ThakurHe is Director and Head: Enterprise Development Unit and e-Skills and the CoLab Director at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). He is also the Research Chair in Digitilisation for the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (InSeta).
He is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB); a pan-Africa innovation enabler that works at the forefront of accelerating the application of innovation and social capital for a better society.
He is Pro-vice chancellor in the VC's Office and Principle of the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits.
She founded the first Impact Hub in Africa to promote social innovation on the continent and was the founding Chief Executive Officer of Wits University’s Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, aiming to create world-leading African digital entrepreneurs. She aims to advance African leadership for inclusive and sustainable change.
Dr Craig Wing
He is a Futurist, Global speaker, Imagineer, Entrepreneur. His expertise include emergent futures thinking, scenario planning, disruptive technologies, emergent business models, company culture and new world of work.