Lucienne Abrahams (PhD) is Honorary Associate Professor at the LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She conducts research on digital innovation and how digital technologies and processes influence change. Studies include digital research infrastructure and research virtualization for African universities; studies in digital governance; digital skills gap analysis; digital strategy; scaling up innovation in tech hubs; and open access in scholarly publishing (Open AIR research partnership). Luci convened the MA and PhD programmes in Interdisciplinary Digital Knowledge Economy Studies; and supervised postgraduate research over a 20-year period. She lectured on short courses in communications sector reform and regulation; disruptive technologies, digital operations, and leadership; and research methods for cybersecurity professional practice.

Kennedy Chinedu Okafor (PhD) is Professor and Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is a Senior Member, IEEE, USA; and was a senior teaching researcher with the Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri-Nigeria. Kennedy is a World Bank Faculty at the AFRICA Center of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED), University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Nigeria. In 2017, Kennedy received the prestigious Vice-Chancellor Award as the overall best graduating PhD candidate from the Faculty of Engineering, UNN. He is a Senior Research Associate with the University of Johannesburg and a visiting Fellow at Imperial College London. Kennedy is an expert in  smart cyber physical systems, and network security within a mechatronics sub-specialty.