Policymaking and regulation of Africa’s digital transformation

Welcome

• Cornelia Woll is President of the Hertie School and Professor of International Political Economy. Woll came to the Hertie School in 2022 from Sciences Po in Paris, where she had served in many roles since 2006, including President of the Academic Board, Professor of Political Science, Co-Director of the Max Planck Sciences Po Center. She has been a visiting professor at Goethe University Frankfurt and Harvard University. Woll holds a habilitation in political science from the University of Bremen (2013), a bi-national PhD from Sciences Po and the University of Cologne (2005), and an MA and a BA in international relations and political science from the University of Chicago.

Discussants

• Thelma Efua Quaye heads the Digital Infrastructure Program at Smart Africa. Under this role, she oversees projects that will connect every African country to at least 2 of its neighbours, make internet more affordable and meaningful to citizens and develop policies to ensure the right balance between the protection of the countries' sovereignty and harnessing the economy around data among others. Prior to this role, she worked as Chief Technical Officer at Airtel Ghana Limited, being the first female network director across the Airtel Africa group. She has worked with the ITU, UN Women and the African Union as a lead trainer in coding and soft skills for girls from across Africa. Her passion is to improve human capacity through ICT education, mentoring and coaching. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), an Executive Master of Business Administration, Strategic and Project Management from the Paris School of Management and an executive education at the prestigious INSEAD business school, France.

• Anna Sophie Herken is Member of the Board of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). She also serves as a Board / Committee member of various non-profit organisations including AllBright Foundation, International Rescue Committee (IRC) Germany and Save the Children Germany. Previously, she was Business Division Head at Allianz Asset Management GmbH and served as Member of the Board at Allianz Life (US) and CPIC Fund Management LtD (China) as well as President and Chair of the Board of Allianz Foundation for North America. As part of her international career, Anna was CFO of Hasso Plattner Capital Germany, Managing Director of the Hertie School GmbH and worked at the World Bank in Washington DC and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Londoin. She also worked for the German government in international fora such as a delegate in the context of, inter alia, UN, EC, WTO, OECD. Anna, a German- Swedish national, is a lawyer by training having studied in Germany, France and the US and also holds a MBA from the University of Cambridge. 

Moderator

• Leslie Mills, MPP candidate at the Hertie School and former member of the Student Advisory Board of the Centre for Digital Governance. Having joined the School from a career working on outreach and strategic communications in the cabinet of the Togolese Minister of Digital Economy, he maintains a keen interest in digital transformation to address developmental challenges in emerging economies. He carried out a Professional Year at GIZ working on the GIZ-Orange Strategic Alliance (Orange Digital Centres) project. Leslie studied Political Sciences at the University of Ghana and International Affairs and Strategy at Sciences Po Paris. He now contributes to research on the negotiation of Africa’s digital partnerships at the University of Oxford and is student assistant at the Centre for Digital Governance.