18-19 October 2022

Neil Butcher is based in South Africa, from where he has provided policy and technical advice and support to a range of national and international clients regarding educational planning, uses of educational technology and distance education, both as a full-time employee at the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) from 1993 to 2001 and as Director of Neil Butcher & Associates since then. He has worked with various educational institutions (including UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning), assisting with transformation and research efforts that focus on effectively harnessing the potential of distance education methods, educational technology, and OER. Neil has travelled extensively through the developing world conducting research on educational policy, higher education, TVET, distance education, education management information systems, and educational technology for a range of organizations, governments, and donors. He works with OER Africa as the project’s OER Strategist and is also currently consulting to the World Bank on a range of project activities across Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Trudi van Wyk is the Chief Director: Social Inclusion and Quality in the Department of Higher Education and Training and is responsible for Social Inclusion and Equity, the National Qualifications Framework, Career Development Services, ICT in education and Open Learning. She was the Department’s representative on the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) on the 4IR and drives the implementation of the recommendations of the MTT. She is currently responsible for the National Open learning System (NOLS) for the PSET system.

She has a background in online and eLearning and was previously appointed as Education Specialist: eLearning at the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada where she worked mainly with governments and institutions at strategic and implementation levels in the Caribbean, Africa, South-East Asia and Pacific to implement Open and Distance Learning, ICT and Open Educational Resources (OER).

She has 39 years’ experience in education and training and published in the areas of Open Educational Resources; Digital Health Literacy, ICT in Education and ICT Competencies for Teachers and Lecturers.

Sipho Mampe is employed by the Northern Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism as Director: Tourism Growth. He completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree with the University of the North. He underwent a training of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation on sustainable tourism development in Belgium. Further underwent training on the South African Statistical Quality Assessment Framework (SASQAF) presented by STATSSA. During his career as a public servant in in the Tourism Directorate he was instrumental in facilitating the Northern Cape White Paper on the Development Management and Promotion of Tourism, Northern Cape marine and coastal tourism development strategies and similar policies, strategies and plans to grow the tourism industry.

Prof Ntwasa is the acting Deputy Executive Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmetal Sciences at UNISA. He completed matric at St Johns College in Mthatha and graduated in BSc Microbiology and BSc (Clinical Science and Immunology) at the University of Cape Town. Later he graduated with MPhil and Ph.D. at Cambridge University (United Kingdom). Prof Ntwasa returned to the University of Cape Town as a Research Fellow and later accepted a position as Lecturer in Biochemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand. After 17 years at Wits, when he was an associate professor in Biochemistry, he accepted a position at the University of South Africa as a Full Professor in Biochemistry. Professor Ntwasa is currently conducting research in cancer and is developing small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer.

Dr Green currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Higher Education, an organisation mandated to conduct research on higher education, monitor trends in higher education, provide advice to the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, and the apex organization for quality assurance of higher education in South Africa. He was previously the Chief-Director: Teaching, Learning and Research Development in the South African Department of Higher Education and Training, a post he held from 2010 until 31 January 2021. Prior to the position of Chief Director, Dr Green was the Director for Initial Teacher Education in the former Department of Education, a position he held from 2008 to 2010. Dr Green also has extensive experience in a range of education settings, having served as a high school teacher, as a teacher education college lecturer, and as lecturer and senior lecturer at university level.

He holds a Bachelor of Science, Higher Diploma in Education, Bachelor of Education Honours, Master of Education, all from the University of Natal/KwaZulu-Natal he earned his PhD from the University of Stellenbosch. Dr Green has published in his field of expertise and also presented a number of papers at national and international conferences.

Hendrik Louw holds a Masters in Development Sciences from the University of the Free State. He has more than twenty years work experience and most of this he gained in the private and public sector in terms of socio-economic development, investment and project management.
He has extensive local and international exposure and experience ranging from Africa, Europe, Middle East, Far East and the United States of America. His passion is and always will be socio-economic development for Africa specifically, South Africa and the Northern
Cape and developing regions globally.
His speciality entail economic potential analysis, investment facilitation and implementation.
Currently he is the Acting CEO for the Northern Cape Economic Development Agency (NCEDA). NCEDA is currently heading several of the macro projects in the province especially along the Northern Cape Industrial Corridor. The Northern Cape Industrial Corridor include the Boegoe Baai deep port harbour, Namakwa SEZ, Upington- and Kathu Industrial Park. The latest priority project assigned to his portfolio is the Northern Cape Green Hydrogen Strategy that is leading the South African Just Energy Transition intent.