UbuntuNet Alliance, the Regional Research
and Education Network for Eastern and Southern Africa, on 5th March announced
the appointment of Dr Pascal Hoba as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
the Alliance with effect from 1st January 2015. Dr Hoba succeeds Eng. Dr
Francis (Tusu) Tusubira who retired on 28 February 2015 after
successfully leading the Alliance since 2007.Unlike his predecessor, The new UbuntuNet CEO will be based in Lilongwe and this has send waves of excitement the Malawi research and education community igniting hope for the connecting of the country to the high speed, UbuntuNet network, funded by the EU ander AfricaConnect project.
Dr Hoba is coming from the Association of African Universities (AAU) in Accra, Ghana where he has been Director of Knowledge Management Information and Communications since 2005. In his role at the AAU, Dr Hoba was also Coordinator of the Europe-Africa quality Connect project and the Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD) programme. He is credited for initiating the Open Access process with the DATAD programme as a regional repository center.
“Becoming CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance presents a privilege to serve the NREN community which I personally contributed to as first Project Coordinator at the AAU in charge of the RENU (Research Education Networking Unit).” Under this responsibility I organised for AAU, the parallel event at WSIS summit in November 2005 which officially launched UbuntuNet Alliance,” says Dr Hoba.
“It is also a huge responsibility for me. Indeed, there is a positive legacy left by the former CEO and it is my responsibility now to take the Alliance to next level which means consolidating the achievements, bring new services and resources and building a strong regional organisation that supports the NRENs and all organisations that promote education and research networking. With humility, innovation, determination and, of course, hard work, and with the collaboration of the community, I am sure we shall surely write another story of the UbuntuNet Alliance,” says Dr Hoba.
With over 15 years experience in Higher Education, Dr Hoba has served on a number of Africa-wide initiatives and boards such as the ICT Advisory Committee of the Pan African/Indian e-Network Project at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa; and the Executive Committee of the Pan-African Leadership Institute for Library Management based in Alexandria in Egypt. What better person to take the Alliance to the next level of being the hub of innovation in ICT and research for propelling Africa to the realisation of its development goals.
He has authored several scientific papers on strategic information and edited a number of books including: The Contribution of Higher Education to National Educational Systems: Current Challenges for Africa published in 2007; Agents in Development, African Higher Education Networks and Policy Entrepreneurship.
The new UbuntuNet Alliance CEO graduated in business law from Law school of Aix en Provence, France he also holds a Masters Degree and PhD in Scientific and Technical Information from the University of Marseilles in France where he also worked as Lecturer in Information Communication from between 1999 and 2005. His long successful career in communications has also seen him to international development agency ADEA/IIEP/UNESCO as Programme Officer in Paris, France. Dr Hoba presents the dawn of a new era in service provision and efficiency in UbuntuNet Alliance.
Great news indeed for the the education sector and all ICT players in Sub-Saharan Africa!
