Michelle Opiyo has over 10 years of experience in the Network Services Provider Industry. She attained her BSc in electronic and computer engineering from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology. Michelle currently serves as a Senior Network Engineer at Workonline Communications. Prior to joining Workonline, she served in various capacities at the national research and education network of Kenya (KENET) where she operated the core network and delivered tailor-made solutions to top Universities and Research Institutions. Her core skills are in network design, implementation and operation, capacity building and community development. She is passionate about developing the African Internet connectivity landscape and opening it up to the world, as well as developing the abilities of engineers on the continent. To this end, Opiyo volunteers as a trainer for various regional technical forums and network operator groups (NOGs) where she trains and mentors engineers.
Ben is a member of the Edge Team at Facebook, with responsibility for the Edge Strategy in SSA and with the team working with ISPs and MNOs on Peering and Caching
Noah Maina is a Network Infrastructure Professional with extensive Internet & Telecommunication Industry experience spanning 15 years with expertize in TCP/IP packet-switching based network design, configuration, deployment, scaling, securing, automating and troubleshooting. Noah has been involved in the building of Internet network Infrastructure across Africa thereby helping ISP companies to achieve their ROI on Network & Systems Infrastructure investments.
From National ISP’s to Multinational Global Network Service Providers like SEACOM, Noah has played a role in the building Internet Transport Infrastructure carrying traffic from 1Gbps to 100Gbps Ethernet transport links that have fundamentally changed the digital landscape of the African continent. Noah is well known within the Internet exchange point’s community due to his role as IP Peering Coordinator at AS37100.
Noah Maina is a passionate volunteer and an expert instructor or trainer for over a decade where he has trained for various Internet communities and network operators organizations whose goal is to transfer Internet technology skills to various professional ICT engineers in Tanzania and across Africa i.e. tzNOG, AfNOG, SAFNOG, NSRC, Binary Institute (BIT), TERNET & Internet Society (ISOC)
James Byaruhanga is the General Manager- Raxio Data centre and has been at the forefront of building, operating and maintaining the 1st Tier III Carrier Neutral Data Centre in Uganda. James leads the entire team, builds the business strategy, products and solutions in the data centre.
With over 20 years of experience in ISP, Data Centre and Telco in Network Administration, Service & Infrastructure Support and Executive Management, James has comprehensive and in-depth Knowledge of Wireless, VSAT and Cable Networks, Project Management of cross-functional projects in ISP and Telco related fields as well as Strategy and Planning Expertise on Voice, Video and Data Products.
