The AfricaCom Awards are independently scrutinised and awarded by our panel of leading authorities in African telecoms:

Tawanda Chihota, Group Editor, Comm
Tawanda Chihota is the group editor of a Dubai-based telecoms information platform called Comm., which is an operator strategy led publishing and information service focused on telecoms trends in emerging markets. Prior to assuming this position, Tawanda was senior editor of a publication called The Provider, and before this editor of CommsMEA, one of the leading business-to-business publications in the Middle East and Africa region.

William Hearmon, Chairman, African 3G Forum
William Hearmon (Bill) is the Chairman of the African 3G Forum, a trade association for operators in Africa. He went to work for Siemens in Johannesburg and Munich over five-years, and then to Motorola for fifteen years reaching the position of Director of Sales for Greater Africa for Cellular Networks. Bill is an MBA graduate from the University of Cape Town, a Fellow of the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers and is the CEO of a number of his own companies based in Botswana and South Africa.

Thecla Mbongue, Research Analyst, Informa Telecoms & Media
Thecla Mbongue is a Research Analyst within Informa Telecoms & Media's data team, covering Africa and the Middle East with a special research focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. She joined Informa in October 2003, after having worked as a Researcher for Data Research Services Group in Paris.

Vitalis Olunga, Chairman, GSM Africa
Vitalis Olunga has been the Chairman GSM Africa for the last 6 years and 8 years as Head of Regulatory & Public Policy at Safaricom Ltd Kenya, and was Head of International & Wholesale Services at Safaricom.  He now runs his own consultancy.  He has 28 years experience in telecommunication industry, expert knowledge in satellite communications engineering, microwave radio, and cellular mobile telephony, and has held various engineering and management levels at former Kenya Posts & Telecommunications Corporation and Telkom Kenya Limited.

Matthew Reed, Senior Analyst & Editor, Middle East & Africa Wireless Analyst, ITM
Matthew Reed is a Senior Analyst and Editor of both the Middle East & Africa Wireless Analyst (MEAWA) newsletter and Informa's Mobile Middle East & Africa Intelligence Centre (IC). He is based in Dubai, travels frequently in the region and is regularly quoted in the international and regional business press.

Brahima Sanou, Head of the Regional Office for Africa, ITU
Eng. Brahima Sanou is the Regional Representative, and Head of the Regional Office for Africa, of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).  He has a great deal of experience in the international telecommunication environment. He sat in the Board of Governor of INTELSAT as a Governor representing 15 African countries, and he was Councilor for Burkina Faso at the ITU Council for 9 years just before joining the ITU.

Michèle Scanlon, Co-Founder & Principal Analyst, Indian Atlantic
Michèle Scanlon is Co-Founder & Principal Analyst at Indian Atlantic, an emerging market telco & payment consultancy based in South Africa. She was previously Founder & Principal Consultant at Green Giraffe.  Michèle has been covering global telecoms emerging markets for 13 years with a special focus on prepaid mobile commercial strategies with a more recent focus on new prepaid applications including mobile financial services, prepaid electricity, prepaid WiMAX, as well as infrastructure OPEX strategies for African operators.

Guy Zibi, Founder and Principal Consultant, AfricaNext Investment Research
Guy Zibi is Founder and Principal Consultant with AfricaNext Investment Research, an independent consultancy focused on telco economics and due diligence analysis in the African TMT space. Guy has more than a decade of experience in researching and analyzing the business of technology in both developed and developing economies.  Prior to his position with AfricaNext Research, Guy was Director of Pyramid Research's Communications Media and Technology (CMT) practice.