Alison Gilwald

Alison Gillwald, PhD, is the Executive Director of Research ICT Africa (RIA)and holds an adjunct professorship at the Management of Infrastructure Reform and Regulation Programme at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, where she convenes an ICT policy and regulatory executive training programme for regulators, policy-makers and parliamentarians and runs the doctoral programme for ICT.  RIA is a Cape Town-based think-tank which hosts an Africa-wide ICT policy and regulatory research network established a decade ago with the purpose of developing the data and analysis necessary for evidence-based ICT policy and effective regulation on the continent. The research and indicators produced by the network provides some of the only nationally representative ICT data on the continent. It is widely referenced by UN organisations included, the ITU and UNCTAD. Dr Gillwald was appointed by then President Mandela on the advice of Parliament in 1997 to serve on the founding Council of the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA). Prior to that she set up the policy department at the first Independent Broadcasting Authority established in 1994. She also served on the first South African National Digital Advisory Body, which reported on digital migration in 2001; the board of the public broadcaster; the South African Broadcasting Corporation; and is currently deputy chairperson of the SA National Broadband Advisory Council. In 2014 she led the expert team that advised the Ministry of Communication and drafted South Africa’s Broadband Plan: SA Connect. She also served on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) President’s Strategy Panel on Multistakeholder Innovation. She is deputy chairperson of the South African Broadband Advisory Council and sits on the boards of the Tertiary Education Networks (TENET) and the Western Cape Digital Foundation.