Prof Alison Gillwald

Prof Alison Gillwald is an Adjunct Professor at the Nelson Mandela School as well the Executive Director of Research ICT Africa. She also served as Adjunct Professor at UCT’s Graduate School of Business. Prior to this, she was Associate Professor at the Witwatersrand University’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management, where she founded the Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre in 1999 with the purposes of fast-tracking ICT policy and regulatory training in southern Africa. She did so after serving a term on the founding Council of the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA). Before joining SATRA in 1997 she established the Independent Broadcasting Authority's Policy Department and was responsible for co-ordinating the Triple Inquiry into Public Service Broadcasting, Local Content and Cross-media Control. She has consulted for the International Telecommunications Union, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and several African governments on issues from broadband and gender to indicator development and digital readiness. She was appointed to the African Ministers’ Advisory Group in 2000 and in 2002 she chaired the National Digital Advisory Body appointed by the Minister of Communication.  She was appointed Deputy Chairperson of the Ministerial Broadband Advisory Council in 2013 and has served on the board of the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Womensnet and Media Monitoring Project and publicly-listed company AVUSA. Prof Gillwald has a Masters degree in Politics from the University of Natal and a doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand. She also has a post-graduate certificate in Economics and Public Finance from the University of South Africa.