Speakers
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Stefanie Bröring is full professor for “Technology-, Innovation management and Entrepreneurship” at the University of Bonn in Germany. Her main motivation in teaching, research and transfer is to understand the dynamics of clean technologies, interdisciplinary research and technology-bases startups to foster sustainability transitions. Prior to academia she gained a wide array of consulting and industry experience working mainly in new business development-related functions in the chemical and agricultural sector. After her studies in Lübeck, Münster and Rotterdam she obtained her PhD on “The front end of innovation in converging industries” from the University of Münster in Germany, which included a research stay at the University of Quebec at Montreal and the Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods in Quebec City, Canada. Her research focuses on the challenges of technology and innovation management in the emerging bioeconomy, industry convergence as well as technology-based ventures and entrepreneurial-ecosystems (see www.tim.uni-bonn.de).
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Professor Yashwantrao heads the Research Unit at the Mauritius Institute of Education. He has published extensively and has worked on several research projects related to physics education, technology integration and misconceptions of teachers and students in science at primary and secondary levels of education. Currently, Prof Ramma is leading research projects on the use of technology in teaching and learning of science at secondary level and on exploring teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge across various subject areas. At the international level, he is collaborating on an EU funded project - Biocrime project - which relates to the consequences of the spread of zoonoses. Prof Ramma is the Secretary of the Mauritius Academy of Science and Technology and member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, USA
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Professor Mike Watts is Professor of Education and Director for Internationalisation in the Department of Education at Brunel University London. He has long-standing expertise in the development of teachers at all phases of education – from the training of primary and secondary level teachers to university lecturers and academics in higher education. He leads the Department of Education’s STEM Education research group. He is a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellow, and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. Mike has published widely in his field of formal and informal science education and, with colleagues, has published 15 books, some 40 chapters in texts on schools, science and educational research, numerous articles in learned and academic journals. He is Editor in Chief for the Journal of Education of the Mauritius of Education, Mauritius and his latest book (co-authored with Saima Salehjee) is ‘Becoming Scientific: developing science across the life course’ (2020), Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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Dr Henri Tin Yan Li Kam Wah is Associate Professor in Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius. He joined the University of Mauritius in 1988. From 2002 to 2006, he was the Director of Quality Assurance before assuming the post of Dean of the Faculty of Science from 2006 to 2009. His areas of research and interest include coordination, environmental chemistry, forensic chemistry, chemical education, quality assurance in higher education and audit in tertiary institutions. Associate Professor Li Kam Wah has been a member of the audit and scrutiny panel for several tertiary institutions in Mauritius.
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Dr Shobha Jawaheer is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biosciences and Ocean Studies, Faculty of Science, University of Mauritius (UoM). She holds a Diplome d’Etudes Universitaires Générales (DEUG) B: Option: Chemistry-Biochemistry from Université de la Réunion; a Maîtrise de Sciences et Techniques (M.S.T.) from Université de Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI - Paris Sorbonne); and a Ph.D in Biotechnology (electrochemical biosensors) from UoM. She lectures in the field of plant diversity, plant physiology, cell biology, plant biochemistry and biotechnology. She is an active member of the Molecular Life Sciences Pole of Research Excellence at the UoM and her current research areas are in teaching and learning science, plant nutrition, carbon sequestration in mangroves, antimicrobial activity of microorganisms and synthetic compounds, and drug development
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Dr Ajeevsing Bholoa is a Senior Lecturer, Mathematics Education Department, Mauritius Institute of Education. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from Loughborough University and a Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Brighton, U.K. His research interest includes areas such statistics, mathematics education and technology integration. He is involved in several research projects either funded by the MIE or the Mauritius Research Council. Currently, he is leading a project for the development of pedagogical resources for pre-primary and primary teachers. Dr Bholoa is a member of the research team working with Worcester Polytechnics Institute (US) on the Mathematics and Sciences for Sub-Sahara Africa (MS4SSA) initiative for the promotion of project-based learning and STEM education.
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James van der Westhuizen is the founder and managing partner of KnowHouse. Founded 20 years ago out of a passion work differently with the challenge of learning and change in organizations. James’s Formal education has been in Psychology and Humanities. He has been a Human Resources Manager (SA Ports Authority), Interim Organisational Development Manager (MTN), Business Consultant (QData, Brainware) and for the last 20 Years the Managing Member of KnowHouse cc. James is a global consultant and facilitator working across the African continent, the Middle East, Europe & Asia. Serves as faculty on multiple business school programs and coach to leaders and executives of many blue-chip companies. James is one of very few global master facilitators & accreditation partners of ExperiencePoint & IDEO for the ExperienceInnovation range of learning tools and methodologies.
KnowHouse: As the name indicates KnowHouse is all about spaces for learning, conversation and reflection. The African master accreditation partner of four of the world’s most innovative learning solutions providers KnowHouse is committed to interactive and compelling learning.
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Drishtysingh Ramdenee holds a PhD in aeroelasticity from Quebec and is specialized in the field of energy. Drishty worked on several projects pertaining to renewable energies and thermodynamics and headed the Quebec’s institute of industrial maintenance till mid-2016.
Drishty directed one of Quebec’s first Industry 4.0 initiative which regrouped some 10 companies, universities and research centres. Drishty joined the Board of Investment, now Economic Development Board, in July 2016 and is presently head of the Bio Economy department and oversees the portfolio of seafood and aquaculture, port development and port services, deep ocean water applications, renewable energy, lifesciences, healthcare and Biotechnology, Innovation and the Agro Industry. Drishty was also instrumental in incepting and driving forward the Sandbox, Innovation Box, Artificial Intelligence, Fintech and Nutraceutical initiatives.
Ravin Rampersad is currently the CEO of SME Mauritius. He has spent most of his career in senior management positions in private sector Organisations both locally and abroad and been a Director on their Boards.
Ravin Rampersad holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration, one in Marketing and Innovation, is a Chartered Manager, a Chartered Marketer and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, UK.
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Mr Beergaunot has been dealing with the administration and protection of industrial property rights as far back as 1992 so that he reckon 28 years of service in this specific field, out of which almost 15 years spent as Head of the Industrial Property Office. He has also been closely associated with the preparation and adoption of the current legislations governing industrial property in Mauritius as well as the new legal framework that was adopted by the National Assembly in July 2019.
Marc Blumenthal is the Executive Director of the Social Ventures Foundation. Prior to this position he innovated a wide variety of technology startups in Publishing (as a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania), Education (designing experiential educational programs that engaged over 2 million students in the USA), Plasma Fusion (working with MIT), Satellite communication (working with the scientist that developed the communications for the Voyager 2 Satellite) and Medical Devices (working with the Ex Team Physician for the World Champion NE Patriots and Boston Red Sox)
As part of the Social Ventures Foundation, he created a seed stage pipeline for social ventures that provides solutions to major poverty reduction problems by engaging the next generation of social entrepreneurs from colleges and Universities worldwide in the development of the next generation of social ventures that lift the livelihoods of the poor. This pipeline is call EPIC (EndPoverty Innovation Challenge)
https://www.epicsocialventures.com/lab To demonstrate a "showcase" social venture for this pipeline he tackled the impact of food insecurity, which is vitamin deficiency, and developed a sustainable business model called V'ice Haiti which employs the poor to deliver vitamin supplementation to the poor at a price the poor can afford. https://www.vicehaiti.com/
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Dr. Yousouf Ismaël is currently the Secretary- General of The Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI). He held several positions of responsibility in both private and public sectors namely: banking and finance, agro-business and utilities.
He has served on the boards of several key institutions in the country including Central Water Authority, the Central Electricity Board and MCCI.
He is currently board member of Mauritius Investment Cooperation (MIC), Mauritius Standards Bureau (MSB), MCCI Business School (MCCI BS)and CEO of GS1 (Mauritius) Ltd.
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Michal was in the teaching profession before being headhunted to join one of the leading incubators in South Africa. He has personally interviewed, worked with, mentored over 6000 entrepreneurs from idea stage to established businesses. He has run his own businesses and was a guest speaker around SMME development for many corporates across numerous industries.
Michal was part of a team that successfully developed and executed B-BBEE (economic empowerment) strategies for multinational and listed companies in South Africa. As Head of Incubation for the oldest technology hub in Africa, he worked in clusters of innovations such as Fintech, EdTech, BioTech etc., having launched some of Africa’s first dedicated entrepreneurial development programmes in some of the clusters.
Michal joined the board of the WHEAT Trust in 2017, an organisation dedicated to upskilling and uplifting disadvantaged women, through skills and entrepreneurial development.
He was appointed as the CEO of the Mauritius Africa Fintech Hub in 2018, to position the country as the global Fintech Hub for Africa.
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Paul holds a MSc in Management from Kedge Business School, Bordeaux, France. He started his professional journey at PwC Mauritius in the Deals department in 2010. Afterwards, in 2014, he worked in a Family Office specialized in retail, property, FMCG, and logistics across Mauritius and East Africa. In 2016, Paul launched Madora, a chain of Beauty stores in Kenya. Paul is CEO and co-founder of Fundkiss.
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Mr Rajcoomar Auckloo is the Director of the Human Resource Development Council since June 2009. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK 2000) and Fellow, Mauritius Institute of Directors (FMIoD). Mr Auckloo holds a Master of Business Administration with specialisation in Finance, an MSc Information Technology, Certificate in Business Studies, a BSc (Hons) Accounting and a Diploma in Accountancy from the University of Mauritius. He has completed his MPhil and is in the process of completing his PhD in Human Resource Development at the University of Mauritius. Mr Auckloo joined the HRDC in 2005 as Manager - Corporate. He started his rich career as Officer/ Executive Officer at the National Transport Authority before he was promoted to Road Transport Inspector. He worked as Accounting Technician/Senior Accounting Technician, and was subsequently appointed Financial & Management Analyst, Senior Financial & Management Analyst at the Ministry of Finance, where he worked for 10 years. In 2000, Mr Auckloo was seconded for duty, as Programme Coordinator/Financial Controller, to be responsible for two IFAD (a UN Agency) funded projects, namely the Community Development & Micro Enterprise / Micro Finance Development Programme. He is presently a member of the Board of the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development (MITD) and also the treasurer of the Board of the World - International Federation of Training & Development Organisations (IFTDO) grouping around 1500 training and development organisations across the globe. Mr Auckloo was the Chairman of the IFTDO Board for period 2017/2018. He is also presently a member of the Senate of the University of Mauritius.
November 2020
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Amrita Craig, Marketer at the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, has a rich career of some 10 years in destination marketing. Mrs Craig is a holder of a Masters of Science Degree in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A. She has worked for AT&T and Intelsat in USA. She is responsible for promoting the destination in Africa. She works in close collaboration with the CEO of Vanilla Islands to drive cruise tourism growth in the Indian Ocean Region.
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Mohamed Khan is the former MD of the City Banking College in the UK, who successfully established and managed the exponential growth of the financial training institution for academic and professional qualifications in London. He was a founding member of Accountancy Tutors/ Emile Woolfe (now Kaplan). He is a self-starter with significant achievements and over 34 years of outstanding training experience in Banking, Legal, Accountancy and Management disciplines in over 15 countries. His alumni boasts a Prime Minister (Antigua), Governors of Central Banks, The African Business Woman of the year 2014 and numerous Captains of Industry throughout the world. He has proven credentials in establishing professional training institutions amidst the fiercely competitive London market, building strong linkages with over 6 different UK Universities. He is currently the Chief Executive of The Financial Services Institute. Mohamed now needs little introduction in the Financial Services sector in Mauritius and he is highly rated as an exceptional trainer who has mastered the art of knowledge transfer through engaging teacher moments and unique story telling skills
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Viswajithsing Tuhobol joined the Financial Reporting Council in January 2009 as Manager. His main responsibility was to establish and implement the systems of monitoring the annual reports of public interest entities and the practice reviews of licensed auditors and audit firms.
From April 2015, he has been appointed as Officer-in-Charge of the Financial Reporting Council.
Prior to joining the Financial Reporting Council, he was a Senior Financial and Management Analyst at the Management Audit Bureau. In that role he worked on a variety of consultancy and financial advisory assignments ranging from organisational structure to pricing of controlled products by government (including petroleum products, LPG, Cement and Iron bars, etc).
Viswajithsing is a Fellow of the ACCA. He also holds an MBA in Human Resource Management from the University of Mauritius.
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Mr. Aveenash Appadoo joined the civil service in 2001 and currently holds the substantive post of Head Planning and Research Unit at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare. He has worked as Social Facilitator at the Trust Fund for Social Integration of Vulnerable Groups. Since 2016 he is a fellow of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) through the CONFINTEA fellowship programme which seeks to build capacities of government officials in the field of adult learning and education
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Dr. Rishi DOMUN, is Principal Analyst at the Ministry of Industry, SME's and Cooperatives. He currently serves in the Research Section of the Ministry. He has over 30 years’ experience in the field of industrial development. He has experienced the full evolution of the EPZ sector starting from the production of basic garments to the exports of world renowned brands and to the diversification of the manufacturing sector into new sectors like fish canning, high precision engineering and medical devices. He was the first to ring the alarm bell on industrial pollution in Mauritius as far back as the 1980’s with a paper on Industrial Pollution. For the last 10 years he has been doing some research on Business Excellence.
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Profile: Experienced professional in economic development issues at policy level, especially pertaining to regional issues. Strong team leader with ability to work in fast paced multidisciplinary environment and in pressure situations.
- Language competency: Fluent in English and French
- Education
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- Faculty of Managements Studies - University of Delhi (India), 1995, MBA (Professional) (Commonwealth scholar)
- Panjab University (India), 1991, BA (Hons) Economics with Mathematics
- Applied Business Computers (India),1991, Diploma in Computer Software & Data Processing.
- Other skills
- Lecturing in Management, Marketing and Economics
- Implementation of major Project at Government level
- Employment
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- November 1995 – Date - Assistant Secretary, Ag Principal Assistant Secretary and Deputy Permanent Secretary in Top Administrative Cadre Various Ministries.
- In addition, lecturing on a part time basis, at the University of Mauritius, Open University of Mauritius, and University of Technology at Undergraduate level as well as postgraduate levels, since 1995
- International Exposure
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- December 1998 – March 2000
- Executive Managing Director (EMD), Namibia Wildlife Resorts Ltd, Republic of Namibia
- February 1997 – January 1999
- Assistant Tourism-sector Coordinator, SADC Tourism Coordinating Unit, Mauritius
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He is a Master Mariner Class 1 - issued by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
He has sailed for 22 years on different types of ship –Tanker, Bulk Carriers, Reefer l, General Cargo, Passenger, Container, Fishing vessel in different capacity. He is an Associate of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects Northumberland London UK, Member of the Advisory Board for Maritime Management Programs at MCEM, and Individual Member of the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA).
He also lectures at several institutions of higher learning.
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Erik Von Uexkull is the World Bank's Country Representative and Senior Economist for Mauritius and Seychelles, with residence in Mauritius. His previous positions at the World Bank include Senior Economist with the Investment Policy and Promotion team and Country Economist for Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Erik also worked for the International Labour Organization and the International Monetary Fund on topics related to trade, employment, and development, and as a lecturer on Development Policy at Dresden University of Technology. He holds an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
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Dr Ramola Ramtohul is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Gender Studies in the Department of Social Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Mauritius. Her research interests and publications are in the areas of gender politics, citizenship and diversity, women’s rights and citizenship, privatisation in the African higher education sector and high net worth migration and citizenship. She is currently co-editor of Journal of Contemporary African Studies and Island Studies Journal and book reviews editor of Small States & Territories. She is also a member of the Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Executive Committee.
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Bhavish with more than 20 years of executive experience in global financial services, focusing on inclusion, diversity and innovation. Bhavish brings more than 20 years’ experience working in senior management positions across Australia, Europe, India and the U.S. Bhavish holds a PhD in Economics and Finance with specialization in International Taxation and Foreign Direct Investment. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) UK and also a holder of a Master of Finance, Bachelor of Business (Economics and Finance), a Diploma of Business (Banking and Finance) and a Diploma in Blockchain. Bhavish served on the boards of FinCare, Fany Mae Advisory Board, Nirvan Finance and Aegys Financials. As a Board Member of Aegys Financials Bhavish pioneered online lending over a decade ago, establishing personal loans as a mainstream affordable credit product for consumers looking for an alternative to high-interest credit cards. His efforts to lower costs, improve user experience and transparency, and help consumers access more responsible credit products have set a standard for online lending. Bhavish brings extensive knowledge of digital payments and is currently working on a mobile-centric consumer banking platform that helps its users to control their finances and provides them with insurance and targeted loans. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of Mauritius. He was previously Financial Consultant at Divine Whitefield Consultant and was the Director (Taxation) at Moore Stephens and also served as the Finance Manager of the State Informatics Ltd.
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Dr Rajendra Parsad GUNPUTH is a Professor of Law at the University of Mauritius, and is actually the substantive Dean of the Faculty of Law & Management. He holds a double PhD (Law) from the l’Université Paris V- René Descartes (France) in Public Law and l’Université de la Réunion in Private Law both with the highest distinctions (First Class). He holds a HDR from l’Université de la Réunion, a PGCE in Higher Education from the University of Mauritius and a Post-Doctorate from l’Université Paris X- Nanterre (France) in Public Law. He has authored more than 130 articles which have been published worldwide and several treaties on Mauritian Law and various books and manuals on Law (Labour Law, Media Law & Ethics, Constitutional and Administrative Law, International Humanitarian Law, Droit des Biens, Contract & Tort). He has participated in various Moot Competitions worldwide (India, Réunion, South Africa, Comoros Island and Madagascar) as Member of the Jury, and has presented a large number of research papers worldwide as well (Dubai, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia) with the Best Award Paper on Surrogacy (Beppu, Japan, 2014). He has been Head of the Law Department at the University of Mauritius and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law and Management. He has lectured at the Gujarat National Law University as a Visiting Professor and other universities (l’Université de la Réunion, University of Pretoria and University of New Delhi) as well. He is Editor-in- Chief of Just Africa (University of Limpopo, South Africa) and members of various Editorial Board and research peer-reviewed journals. He is member of various national committees on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. He supervises PhD students. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Xiangtan, China (Centre for African Laws and Society)
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Full name : Bahadur Goonesh Kumar
Institution : University of Mauritius
Full Mailing Address : Royal Road Mont Ida, 41230
Office Phone : 4681545
Primary Email : g.bahadur@uom.ac.mu
Dr Goonesh Kumar Bahadur holds a PhD in Functional Fibrous Materials, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius since 2017. In 2010, he moved to the Centre for Innovative Lifelong Learning (CILL), University of Mauritius where he is currently the Officer in Charge since 2017. He has been teaching on programmes like Diploma/ BSc (Hons) in Web and Multimedia Development, BSc (Hons) Educational and Instructional Technologies, MSc Educational Technologies and MA Educational Technologies programmes, which are fully online programmes. Dr Bahadur has also carried out research and published in different fields related to Educational Technologies, E-Learning, Multimedia and Textiles.
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Mrs Rubina Devi Rampersad is a trained Educational Technologist working at the University of Mauritius, with more than 24 years of experience in Distance and Online Education and Professional Development. She is actively involved in the design of Distance Education and Online programmes, short courses, commissioned programmes and MOOCs.
She holds the following qualifications: MSc Educational Technologies and Knowledge Society (UoM); Maîtrise en Formation à Distance (UQAM, Canada); Mauritius); Masters in English Literature (UNSW, Sydney).
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Hemlata Ramsohok Jomadar has over 18 years of experience in the public sector. She is the Lead Research, Advisory and Knowledge Management Officer at the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council, where she is involved in the design and implementation of polies, programmes and projects geared towards productivity improvement in the both the public and private sector and civil society organisations. Hemlata holds a B.A in Economics, Psychology and Sociology from the University of Bangalore and M.S.C in Applied Economics with specialisation in Economic Policy and Development from the University of Mauritius.