Digital Governance Expert

Gdańsk University of Technology Poland

Tomasz Janowski is the Head of the Department of Informatics in Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland; Invited Professor at the Department for E-Governance and Administration, Faculty of Business and Globalization, Danube University Krems, Austria; and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Government Information Quarterly, Elsevier. Previously, he was Invited Professor at Università Della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland and University of Minho, Portugal; founding Head of the United Nations University Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV), Portugal; and Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at the UNU International Institute on Software Technology (UNU-IIST), Macau, China. At UNU, he founded and directed for 12 years the digital government program, which conducted research and development activities in 61 countries around the world. Among them, he established the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV) and organized 10 ICEGOV editions in Macao, Cairo, Bogota, Beijing, Tallinn, Albany, Seoul, Guimarães, Montevideo and New Delhi. He also co-chaired the e-Government Interest Group at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); was a member of the UN expert group on e-Government Survey; and was the chief jury of the Omani and Saudi Arabian national awards in e-Government. His research interests include digital government, development informatics, sustainable digital transformation, and digital transformation for sustainability. He is an author or co-author of over 270 publications including academic publications and technical and policy reports prepared for such organizations as the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization (CTO), European Commission, International Development Research Center (IDRC), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Macao Foundation, Microsoft, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Bank, and for governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. His academic qualifications include Habilitation in Management Sciences (equivalent), Gdańsk University of Technology; PhD in Computer Science, University of Warwick; and MSc in Mathematics, University of Gdańsk.

Senior Advisor for Digital Transformation & Innovation Policies

United Nations ESCWA

Idlebi is a senior expert on Digital Transformation, Technology for Development, Innovation Policy, Knowledge Society, and Digital and Open Government. She is currently working as a regional advisor for the Arab ICT Organization (AICTO), and a consultant to the UN and other international organizations. She is also a member of the advisory board of 01Gov and board of trustees of the Syrian Computer Society. She has more than 20 years of experience with the United Nation Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) from September 2004 to January 2025. She occupied several high positions at UN-ESCWA. Her latest position was the Director of Statistics, Information Society, and Technology. Her work covered various sectors related to digital transformation, Digital and Open Government, ICT Policy, ICT Applications for Development. She also led many regional initiatives related to cyber legislation for building a knowledge society, the regional profile of information society in the Arab region, digital Arabic content and fostering open government for achieving the 2030 Development Agenda. Furthermore, she led for 5 years various activities related to Innovation policy for sustainable development and Innovation for promoting entrepreneurship among Arab youth and women. Before joining ESCWA, from 2002 to 2004, she was Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Communications and Technology (MCT) in her home country Syria. During this period, she supervised Information and Communication Technology and International Cooperation activities. She also participated in the formulation of the National ICT Strategy for Social and Economic Development. Idlebi worked at the Higher Institute of Applied Science & Technology (HIAST) in Damascus/Syria for more than 8 years as college professor, and she was the manager of cooperative projects between the European Union and HIAST. Moreover, she was a Board Member of the Syrian Computer Society (SCS) from 1997 to 2002 and she led the professional training programs at SCS and the national program for ICT training. She has an engineering degree from "Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité (Supelec)", a "Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies (DEA) from ENSIMAG and a Ph.D in computer science from Nancy 1 University in France with a specialization in Parallel Processing and Distributed Systems.

Head of Computer and Information Sciences Department

Covenant University Nigeria

Aderonke A. Oni, holds B.Sc, M.Sc and Ph.D in Management Information Systems. Her areas of research interest include business analytics, e-business and government, technology adoption, system and data modeling, design theories for information systems, and Software engineering. She is a Professor of Management Information Systems and the Head of Computer and Information Sciences Department of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state, Nigeria.

Professor

Ahmadu Bello University Nigeria

Junaidu is an accomplished and seasoned academic and professional with extensive local and international experience in diverse areas of Computing. He is a Professor of Computer Science and received his training at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria; Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London; and St. Andrews University, Scotland. He worked at St Andres University, Scotland (part-time), at Universiti Telekom Malaysia for one year, at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for nine years, and at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria since 2008. He supervised several undergraduate and postgraduate students at these universities. He was a major resource person in many developmental and academic programs at the places he worked. At King Fahd University, he co-led the design, development and delivery of the first successful online courses in that university, around 2002, led curriculum development efforts and won the KFUPM's prize of Instructional Technology Award in 2004. At ABU Zaria he held the positions of Head of Department, Dean, Chairman of Complex of 6 years, and ICT Director for over ten years. He served on several committees and was the mentor of many students' groups that competed and won prizes, including a regional HULT PRIZE competition. He led a team of over twenty-five personnel that developed and still maintain over a dozen suites of software applications used in ABU and other universities across Nigeria today. He received many awards and distinctions including Best Graduating Student of Diploma in Mathematics Education, Best Second Year Student and Best Graduating B.Sc. Computer Science Student, ABU Vice Chancellor's Merit Award in 2014, scholarship award by the ODASSS (Overseas Development Association Shared Scholarship Scheme) for M.Sc. study to University of London and Nigerian Government Scholarship award for Ph.D. study to St. Andrews University, Scotland. He also won other merit awads at KFUPM as well as students' awards at ABU Zaria. Junaidu is a Life Member of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery), a Member of IEEE, CPN (Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria) and NCS (Nigeria Computer Society)..

Dean

University for Development Studies Ghana

Ibrahim Osman Adam is Dean of the School of Business and Professor of Management Information Systems at the University for Development Studies. His research interests center on digital technologies within business and innovation. He focuses specifically on e-commerce, e-government, social media, and broader digital transformations, and dedicates a significant portion of his research to understanding the intricate connections within the ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development) value chain. Adam examines ICT readiness, access, use, and impact across diverse business and societal contexts. His academic credentials include a PhD in Information Systems from the University of Ghana Business School, and dual master's degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Henley Business School, University of Reading. Furthermore, he is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana)..

Senior Lecturer

Federal University Oye-Ekiti Nigeria

Ekele Alih is a Senior Lecturer in Statistics at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria, with over two decades of experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses. He holds an HND, B.Sc., PGD, M.Sc., and PhD in Statistics. His research spans multivariate methods—particularly clustering and classification—probability distributions for modeling outliers and extreme events, regression, density estimation, statistical quality control, and health statistics. Alih's current focus lies in Bayesian hierarchical models for adaptive platform trials, including methodologies for incorporating real-world evidence and observational data to augment clinical trials. His mission is to advance biostatistical tools for flexible classification and robust prediction in settings marked by uncertainty. Proficient in R programming, he develops bespoke implementations of statistical models. His work reflects a blend of theoretical innovation and applied relevance, aligning with efforts to measure and enhance decision outcomes with a methodological depth and interdisciplinary perspective to evaluating success metrics.

Distinguished Professor

Federal University Oye-Ekiti Nigeria

EProf. Harekrishna Misra, PhD in Information Systems, is currently Distinguished Professor at School of Management, BML Munjal University, Haryana, India. He was earlier with Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), a School of Tribhuvan Sahakari University (A University of national importance of GoI), as Professor, IT & Systems, and served as its chair professor at Verghese Kurien Centre of Excellence. He was chair person, iSTED, DST, GoI, that works for science and technology-oriented entrepreneurship. He is Member, Expert Advisory Committee to draft the National Cooperation Policy under the chairmanship of Shri Suresh Prabhu. He is member, governing body of national council of cooperative training (NCCT), GoI. He is member of the BoG of Sahaj Retail limited, dealing with e-Governance service deliveries in India. He closely works in the area of rural e-Governance and measurements for readiness of connected services.

Founder of Data Science Nigeria and Co-Founder of EqualyzAI

Data Science Nigeria/EqualyzAI Nigeria

Olubayo Adekanmbi is a globally recognised artificial intelligence expert and innovation strategist, widely acknowledged as a leading voice in Africa's AI-for-development landscape. With over 24 years of executive and technical experience, he leads transformative work as Founder of Data Science Nigeria and Co-Founder of EqualyzAI, where he champions inclusive, agentic AI tailored for emerging markets. He holds a PhD from the University of London, with further executive training at Columbia, INSEAD and ETH Zurich. His AI innovations have earned international accolades from UNESCO and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Adekanmbi previously led data, analytics and innovation as a C-level executive at MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa UK - Africa's two largest telecommunications companies - serving more than 300 million users across over 30 countries. A key contributor to Nigeria's National AI Policy, he actively engages with global tech leaders such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and GSMA. He is also a published scholar and highly ranked data scientist dedicated to advancing Africa's AI talent, innovation and policy ecosystem.