Justin has been in the Telecommunications industry for over 25 years and as such, has an in-depth understanding and knowledge of the industry. He is currently the General Manager for Fixed Mobile Convergence at MTN Business, a position he recently assumed.

In this role, Justin is primarily responsible for commercialising and productizing MTN Business’s cloud-based unified communication and collaboration solutions and their go-to-market positioning From selecting and forging partnerships with appropriate technology and solutions providers to building and implementing relevant product, services & solutions platforms that will meet the markets’ needs, Justin plays a key role in the company considering his expertise in Voice Over IP (VoIP) and telecommunications .

This expertise comes from his experience in the cellular space, having worked for Nashua Mobile previously, and being responsible for building several telecommunications related businesses over the past 8 years

Justin holds a National Diploma in Telecommunications from The Pretoria Technikon as well as various Marketing certificates.

Rapelang Rabana, epitomises the new global generation of ingenious business intellectuals, who are able to influence how the future world works. Rapelang was selected as an Endeavour ‘high-impact’ Entrepreneur in 2007, a global non-profit organisation that identifies and supports innovative, high-growth entrepreneurs in emerging markets. In 2010, Rapelang was the youngest Grand Juror selected among industry experts across the world, for the United Nations’ World Summit Awards for M-Content that assessed over 400 mobile content applications from 100 UN member states. She has also been appointed as an Ambassador for the United Nations’ World Youth Summit Awards that recognize outstanding youth-led initiatives using innovative technology to address the Millenium Development Goals.

Rapelang as co-founder and CEO of SA based, software development organisation, Yeigo, oversaw the company’s integration into the TelFree Group of companies in 2008. Now as Global Head of R&D, she and her colleagues in Cape Town continue to ensure that the telecommunications pioneer remains at the forefront of alternative communications through highly innovative software applications across the telecommunications spectrum.

Rapelang graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor in Business Science Degree (Computer Science Honours) from the University of Cape Town. She is a Board Member for the Ubuntu Africa, an NGO providing lifesaving health and support services exclusively for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. She has fetish for the beautiful Cape winelands, great cuisine, stimulating conversation, learning, reading and consuming all that is the Internet.

After joining Dimension Data in 2000, Wayne Speechly was instrumental in preparing the internal training and development educational strategy for the Dimension Data group. He then transferred to Dimension Data Networking where he held the role as account manager to many of Dimension Data’s senior enterprise clients.

In 2003, Wayne joined Internet Solutions as an Account Manager and held senior positions looking after blue chip clients during his tenure. Wayne worked for Investec Bank in 2006/2007 after having studied his MBA at Wits Business School but moved to Unison as General Manager for Voice Consulting briefly before returning to Internet Solutions later in 2007 again to look after blue chip clients.

In 2009, Wayne took the role as General Manager for Voice Solutions and has been responsible for the strategic and day to day operational functioning of the business. Internet Solutions’ Voice offering is currently considered to be in the top 2 alternative voice operators in the South African market. Wayne has also completed his management advancement programme.

John Holdsworth is the chairman of ECN, a leading provider of IP based next generation network services. ECN was founded in January 2005 by John with the specific aim of exploiting the impending liberalisation of the South African telecommunications market.

ECN was recently sold to Reunert in June 2011. Reunert is a leading technology company listed on the JSE. Holdsworth is an accomplished technology executive and entrepreneur with more than 25 years experience in the information communication and technology sector.

Prior to establishing ECN, John was also the founder and CEO of PayM8, a leading provider of mobile commerce solutions on the African continent.

Jed studied at York University and has spent the last 18 years in the IT industry. Working as the CIO for Amvia, Jed helped pioneer the voicemail, network fax and unified messaging industry in South Africa in the 90s, including delivering SA’s first contact centre using VOIP over ATM.

When changes in the telecoms sector in SA made hosting possible, Jed co-founded 1Stream in 2007, a dedicated hosted contact centre company. 1Stream specialize in providing on-demand contact centre technology to overseas companies based in South Africa.

Jed’s experience in the contact centre industry includes:

• Cloud based call centres
• Multimedia contact centres.
• Design – Build – Operate – Transfer of contact centres.
• Multi-country managed services.
• The first hosted call centre platform in SA.

Felix Honigwachs is the Product Manager for Unified Communications at Microsoft S.A. Before joining Microsoft he worked for several blue-chip firms and recent role headed the product management division for Siemens.

Felix is passionate about the opportunity Unified Communications brings to customers in order to save cost and increase productivity.

Rael Lissoos, whilst lecturing economics, founded his first company Channel Campus, and through a series of strategic alliances & mergers, this company created interactive video-based educational material, as well as South Africa’s first educational website – learn.co.za.

He then went on to co-found Learnthings (learnthings.co.uk) a joint venture with the UK Guardian Media Group. After years in content creation, he shifted his focus to educational content delivery in under-serviced areas. During installations at remote schools, he realized there was a serious problem in communication systems in under-serviced areas due to infrastructure and price.

VoIP servers were therefore included in wireless deployments to facilitate communication. This led to the formation of Dabba Telecommunications. Dabba currently deploys voice and data solutions in rural and low income urban areas throughout South Africa; and has developed a unique business model that allows for local community ownership.

Jaco has been involved in the South African communications industry for over 14 years. In 2004 Jaco started VoxTelecom and, with his team, pioneered ECS operator interconnect and voice over IP termination solutions for the enterprise market in South Africa.

In 2007 Jaco founded PerfectWorx Consulting, a niche technical consulting company with a specific focus and passion in the area of IP capable next-generation telecommunications solutions. PerfectWorx has built solutions and consults to numerous operators competing in the in South African voice arena.

Jaco serves as non-executive director on the board of listed telecommunications company, Telemasters Ltd.

Pieter Grootes has an Economics background and came to ICASA from National Treasury where he held the position of Senior Economist and worked on projects advising on state assistance for industrial development. He holds a Masters degree in Economics and has lectured at tertiary level. He joined ICASA in 2008 as Senior Manager in the Markets & Competition division and was appointed General Manager in October 2010. His strategic responsibilities include overseeing the development of competition in the converging value chain of postal, broadcasting and electronic communications services, while his day-by-day responsibilities include overseeing numbering administration, interconnection and electronic communications facilities leasing.