Speakers

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  Irina Shikhman

  Google

  Tech Lead

  See Bio
• 

  Debby Kay Dewes

  DK Editing / 1Act Productions

  Founder

  See Bio
• 

  Maia Grotepass

  Luno

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  Tlamelo Makati

  GDG Gabarone

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  Lauren Nel

  Luno

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Irina Shikhman

Google

Irina is a Tech Lead with a passion for making the workspace comfortable and less stressful. She leads the Financial Tools Engineering for Stadia. Prior to Google, she was leading a few finance-related projects for a local e-commerce company. Irina holds a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics and Physics from St.Petersburg State University - Russia. Her hobbies include Psychology, Agile methodologies, mindfulness and snowboarding.

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Debby Kay Dewes

DK Editing / 1Act Productions

I am a freelancer, a wordsmith, an entertainer, and a teacher. I have combined my qualifications in English (BA Hons), Drama (Certificate), and Teaching (PGCE-FET) into various business ventures, with my bread-and-butter being copy-editing. I love helping people reach their full potential - be it through assisting them to formulate well-written pieces or coaching them to speak more confidently. While growth might seem daunting, I believe it's worth it - especially when there's fun to be had along the way. That's why I like to share what I've learnt in my own journey with others, particularly with regard to overcoming my own fear of public speaking.

Panelists

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  Lebogang Madise

  Microsoft

  See Bio
• 

  Rebecca Franks

  Over by GoDaddy

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  Jacqueline Fouche

  Superbalist

  See Bio
• 

  Tumi Sineke

  Offerzen

  See Bio
• 

  Debbie Rogers

  Praekalt.org

  See Bio
• 

  Vimbainashe Laura Nhira

  Cellulant

  See Bio

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Lebogang Madise

Microsoft

Lebogang Madise is an Intrapreneur and advocates for Women in STEM. She works in the Azure Developer Marketing team at Microsoft as a Product Marketing Manager (PMM) for Developer Audience. As a Dev PMM, Lebogang empowers developers to build highly sought-after cloud skills, create innovative cloud applications and move on-prem workloads to the cloud. Her passion is in advancing technology for humanity. Lebogang is an ad-hoc committee member for IEEE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Region 8 (EMEA). She is the Founder of Difela Hymns, an online community that digitized African hymns to be used as resources for the application of AI and Machine Learning on African Languages.Lebogang lives by the mottos:“Teamwork makes the dream work” – John Maxwell.“UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” – Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)

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Jacqueline Fouche

Superbalist

Jacqueline makes businesses and their digital experiences more human centred by using customer research and stakeholder interviews to turn raw ideas into viable solutions. She’s most useful at the start of initiatives, leaning on her experience strategy and research strengths, but will happily tend to your entire product life cycle. Jacqueline has long worked across the experience design spectrum, be it leading large corporate teams or helping startups find their feet.Jax spends her free time working on Go Human, an initiative to help designers solve the planet emergency. She joined Superbalist in Cape Town to head up UX in 2020. She enjoys walks and making things – especially ceramics and woodwork

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Tumi Sineke

Offerzen

Having started out in sales and supporting technical implementation solutions, Tumi entered the SA tech scene by joining the startup, OfferZen. At the end of 2018, she spearheaded OfferZen Foundation with the explicit mission of helping people from underserved communities thrive in their tech careers. Foundation’s latest initiative, Project Thrive, saw over 200 people enter the tech mentoring programme within the first 6 months. Tumi hopes this will help senior developers build empathy for, and empower, junior and intermediate developers through one-on-one mentoring.In her spare time, Tumi can be found volunteering as a lead workshop facilitator and preparing speakers for TEDxCapeTown, exploring Cape Town for new spots to eat or enjoying a contemplative stroll through Newlands Forest. 

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Debbie Rogers

Praekalt.org

Debbie Rogers has held leadership roles at Praekelt.org for nine years, most recently as Managing Director. Debbie led the service design of the National Department of Health in South Africa's MomConnect program and has a focus on advancing mobile technology for health. Her advanced degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Digital Art and experience lecturing and working in the field of digital communications allows her to bring both technological problem-solving skills and creative insights to her work. Debbie is a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Digital Health Technical Advisory Group and Director and Board Chair for the African Developers Academy. 

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Vimbainashe Laura Nhira

Cellulant

A curious software development professional, with a great passion for creating technological solutions to leverage financial inclusion for marginalized communities. Skilled in agile software development, business requirements analysis and use case modelling. Experience gained working as a software engineer in the smart-tech and financial services industries focusing on developing software solutions targeting the un-banked communities through in-store credit financing, mobile money, social payments and nano-loans.