Panel V: Innovation System, the African State and AFCFTA

Mammo Muchie (Inaugural address): Prof. Muchie is currently a DST/NRF Research Professor at the Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. He previously served as a Director of the Research Centre on Development Studies and International Relations, Department of History, International and Social Studies, Aalborg University in Denmark. Muchie was educated in USA and in Europe. He obtained his MPhil and DPhil degrees in development economics and science, technology and innovation studies from Sussex University, England under the supervision of the renowned innovation scholar, the late Freeman of the IDS/SPRU. He also studied Measurement Science in Petrograd, Russia. He has taught and researched at various universities in the USA and Europe including Cambridge University and the Middlesex University (UK); the University of Aalborg (Denmark) and Amsterdam University (Netherlands). He is a fellow of the South African Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences. He is also currently adjunct Professor at the Adama Science, Technology University, Addis Ababa University and University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He has been a Senior Research Associate at the Oxford University.

Mario Scerri (CHAIR): Mario Scerri is the Funding Chair holder of the UNESCO Chair in African Integration and Innovation located in the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation at the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa. He is the author of The Evolution of the South African System of Innovation since 1916 (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), the editor of The Emergence of Systems of Innovation in South(ern) Africa: Long Histories and Contemporary Debates (Johannesburg: MISTRA and Real African Publishers, 2016), and the co-editor of three books on the national systems of innovation in the BRICS (New Delhi: Routledge, 2013, 2014) and of the book Measuring Innovation in OECD and non-OECD Countries (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2006).

Samuel Oloruntoba: Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba is an Adjunct Research Professor at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and Faculty Associate at the African School of Governance and Policy Studies.  He was previously an Associate Professor of International Political Economy at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (now Thabo Mbeki School of Public and International Affairs), University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.  He obtained PhD in Political Science with specialization  from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He was previously a Visiting Scholar at the Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston and a Fellow of Brown International Advanced Research Institute, Brown University, Rhode Island, United States of America. Oloruntoba is the author, editor and co-editor of several books including Regionalism and Integration in Africa: EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements and Euro-Nigeria Relations, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA, 2016 and co-editor with Toyin Falola of the Palgrave Handbook of African Political Economy, 2020. Oloruntoba was the recipient of the National Research Foundation of South Africa Award as an Established Scholar in 2018.  His research interests are in Political Economy of Development in Africa, Regional Integration, Migration, Democracy and Development, Global Governance of Trade and Finance, Politics of Natural Resources Governance and EU-African Relations.

Audrey Verhaeghe: Dr Verhaeghe serves on various boards where innovation, tech start-up investment and entrepreneurship play an important role. She has co-founded the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS), The SA Innovation Summit (SAIS) and very recently ANZA Capital. She is an active angel investor. She spearheaded the commercialisation of the SA Innovation Summit as a Southern African Institution and main innovation event for the country.  Her vision is to raise multiple rounds of funds to support 10 000 enterprises over the next 10 years across Africa. SAIS and ANZA Capital developed an Investment Readiness Accelerator, a Match and Invest platform that matches Tech Start-ups with Investment, made various early stage investments and is in process to raise their first early stage fund for scalable technology entrepreneurs. Website: www.riis.co.za and www.innovationsummit.co.za and www.anza.com

Hibist Kassa: Hibist Kassa is Senior Researcher with the Institute for African Alternatives (IFAA) in Cape Town, South Africa. She is also a Research Associate at the Centre for African Studies and Chair in Land and Democracy in South Africa at the University of Cape Town. Her doctoral thesis was on a comparative study of Petty Commodity Production in mining in Ghana and South Africa. She was previously based at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of Witwatersrand. For her Mphil, in the Department of Political Science in the University of Ghana, she investigated the market restructuring of the labour regime in Ghana’s Fourth Republic (1992-2010). She has also been part of networks that advance feminist heterodox economic analysis and extractivism in the global South.

Lisa Short: A preeminent innovator, systemic change digital analyst, strategist and design ecosystem thinker with vast international experience founding and managing multiple cross-jurisdictional companies and significant cutting-edge digital technology, value chain improvement projects, across different segments, and global markets including UK, APAC, Africa, Singapore, Europe, and UAE. Invited to analyse and resolve some of the most pressing complex and difficult socio-economic challenges, Lisa brings to the table exceptional acumen to design, develop and deploy 'end-to-end' digital technology led, commercially astute and impact driven innovation, and solutions crucial for global economic development, using agile project and product management. Lisa is renowned. and has a track record for engaging and converging the best people, businesses, and stakeholders [public and private] internationally to get the job done. Challenging the state of play and disrupting the norm whilst pragmatically embracing high level uncertainty, threat opportunity risks and the rapidly advancing potential of frontier technology like blockchain keeps Lisa at the forefront of pioneering effective positive change and sustainable exponential growth in productled, commercially opportunistic, digital transformation. Lisa's nexus is people; democratised value chains; relationship driven economics; digital trust, SDG impact; sustainable at-scale growth; improved resilient businesses and internationally diversified markets, underpinned by targeted education, data-protection and fit for purpose frontier digital technology including blockchain, DLT and IoT. Augmented by a highly respected international academic and research contribution, this bold, multi-dimensional and courageous approach spotlights perfectly the many applauded, and successful initiatives Lisa has founded, established, and leads globally.

Marcelo Amaral: Marcelo Amaral holds a B.Sc. in economics and an M.Sc. and D.Sc. in industrial engineering

from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He did postdoctoral studies at the University of

São Paulo (USP) and was a visiting scholar at North Carolina State University. Marcelo is a

specialist in project management-oriented to technology innovation, certified by the International

Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP). He worked from 1999 and 2006 in organizations

like the Electric Energy Research Center (CEPEL), Rio de Janeiro State Federation of Industries

(FIRJAN), and Centre for Mineral Technology (CETEM). Marcelo was an entrepreneur, founder,

and part-owner of several companies. Since 2006, he has been a professor in the Department of

Administration of the Institute of Human and Social Sciences (ICHS), a unit of Fluminense

Federal University (UFF). Marcelo integrates the Master Program in Administration (PPGA) and

Doctoral Program in Law, Institutions, and Business (PPGDIN). In two periods (2011-2015 and

2017-2019), he was Dean of ICHS/UFF. As a researcher, Marcelo has 25 years of experience as

a member and coordinator of R&D&I projects. Since 2008, he has headed the Triple Helix

Research Group (www.triple-helix.uff.br) and has published more than 80 academic works. He

has also been a reviewer and member of several scientific and editorial committees. Currently,

he is vice-president of Triple Helix Association, associate editor of the International Journal of

Innovation Science, and editor-in-chief of the Review of Administration, Society, and Innovation

(RASI) and the Triple Helix Journal. His research interests are in the field of innovation

management, particularly on issues like business strategy; entrepreneurship; project

management; industrial property rights; economic development; science, technology and

innovation policies; incubators and technological parks; knowledge and technology transfer; and

Triple, Quadruple and Quintuple Helix models.

Liaqat Ali Azam: Liaqat serves as Chief Executive Officer of “Leading Like Mandela”

and Chief Operating Officer of the Thembekile Mandela Foundation .

A Strategist, Consultant & Leadership Coach, Liaqat’s commitment to the

development of South Africa and the African continent coupled with his leadership

competencies, specialist skills and expertise has resulted in him working with senior thought

leaders, engaging with heads of state, consulting and advising at ministerial and parliamentary

level. Liaqat serves on both regional and international advisory committees, think tanks and on

NGOs focusing upon transformation, leadership development and governance, sustainable development, indigenous knowledge and human rights. Liaqat contributes to the development of the abovementioned sectors through continual research, speaking at universities, local and international conferences, television and radio

interviews. Highlights of some of his public addresses include having presented a TEDx talk on leadership and governance, delivering a eulogy and tribute to Nelson Mandela at his home in Houghton

Launching of “Leading Like Mandela” with dignitaries including HE Deputy Secretary 

General of the United Nations