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Sophia Bekele

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Sophia Bekele
Sophia Bekele in San Francisco
Born
Sophia Bekele Eshete

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Alma materSan Francisco State University (BSc.)
Golden Gate University (M.B.A.)
Occupation(s)Business Women, Corporate Executive, Tech-Entrepreneur, Corporate Governance specialist, ICT Activist
Years active1990–present
Notable workEthiopian Parliament Bid, IDNs, .africa

Sophia Bekele Eshete (Amharic: ሶፍያ በቀለ; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is a woman of Ethiopian ancestry. She is a business and corporate executive, tech-entrepreneur, international policy advisor on ICT and internet issues to public/private markets, corporate governance & risk management specialist, and ICT activist.

Bekele is presently the Executive Director and Founder of DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Trust and CEO of DCA Registry Systems Kenya (Ltd). Bekele is also the founder and CEO of CBS International a California based firm and SbCommunications Network (SbCnet), based in Addis Ababa. In 2002, SbCNet was known for being successfully awarded a highly contentious bid for a government contract to build an integrated information network infrastructure for the Ethiopian Parliament. Prior to her focus on international technology issues, Bekele had maintained a successful career track record spanning over a decade of constant professional activity working for multinational Fortune 500 Companies.

Bekele has served on high-level policy advisory boards and leadership positions of various national and international, public and private organizations and has influenced the implementation of key policies. Bekele was appointed and served on various United Nations-sponsored initiatives and committees, where she represents the private sector in discussions about ICT and the economic development of Africa. She was an elected member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Council of the gNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization), which advises on global internet policy.

Bekele is well known in the Global ICT and Internet Society in her efforts to bridge the global digital divide. She has been frequently quoted in the media for her views, as well as spoken regularly on international forums and made public affairs commentary through published articles.

Early life and Family

Bekele is the daughter of Ato Bekele Eshete Wolde Michael, an Entrepreneur engaged in various business sector in Ethiopia and a founder and former Board Director of United Bank,S.C and United Insurance,S.C, one of the first private banks in Ethiopia and Sister Mulualem Beyene Engida, a medical nurse. She attended a private Catholic high school, and then traveled to the United States of America to acquire her higher education.

Higher Education

Bekele earned her Bachelor's Degree in Business Analysis and Information Systems from San Francisco State University and an MBA in the Management of Information Systems MIS from Golden Gate University. She is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Control Specialist (CCS), and Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), certifications issued to professionals who demonstrate competent knowledge & proficiency in the field of IS Audit, Security & Enterprise IT governance principles and practices.

Honorary Mentions

In 2013, Bekele was named Top “50 Trailblazers – A future made in Africa”, by the influential UK’s NewAfrican Magazine, an IC Publications group, “Collector’s Edition” which coincides with the continent’s 50th anniversary celebrations of the African Union, as those “who are realizing significant achievements in their specific field of endeavor” and features individuals who are “breaking ground, making Africa proud and propelling it into a future of great hope.”[1][2][3][4]

Also in 2013, Bekele was named as one of the “two leading ladies in Africa’s ICT sector” by "Bloomberg TV" [5][6][7][8] and enumerated in “African Women to Watch” a prime TV program, that “celebrates the most fearless, competitive and visionary African women of our time”, and explores “the women working hard to close the gender gap and shaping the continent’s social, political and economic landscape”.

In 2006, Ms. Bekele's work in Africa, noted as a representative entrepreneur, was profiled in a book published as "Africa: Continent of Economic Opportunity", By Fick, David (2006). Africa: Continent of Economic Opportunity (Paperback). STE Publishers. pp. 512 pages. ISBN 978-1-919855-59-2. Retrieved May 4, 2008.

Career

Bekele was recruited out of college by Bank of America and started her career in IT Auditing and Information Security, a highly specialized field and highly male dominated at the time. She then moved on advancing her career in Corporate Governance and risk management to hold managerial positions with UnionBanCal Corporation and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Currently Bekele travels globally with her work and shuttles regularly between her residences in Walnut Creek, California and Africa, where she has a firm based in business and family.[9][10]

CBS International

In early 2000, Ms.Bekele broke off from her Corporate Career to focus on international technology issues and Third-World technological development using Africa as a base model. Most of Ms. Bekele's work in these years has been associated with CBS International, a company she founded and served as President and Chief Executive Officer. CBS International is a California based consulting company with focus on, technology transfer to emerging markets. Primarily, the Company provided International technology procurement, project-based capacity building, technological project management, internet/intranet systems integration and Internet related solutions. As an affiliate, Bekele set up SbCommunications Network, plc, (SbCnet) based in Addis Ababa, specializing in systems integration technology integration and support services. Through her companies, she has won international contracts for large scale projects such as the information technology infrastructure for the the Organization of African Unity (AU) General Secretariat and an integrated data networking infrastructure for the Ethiopian parliament, House of Peoples’ Representatives and House of Federation.[11] The AU project was an e-government Internet-working project initiative, sponsored by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) involving the implementation of a complex fiber-optic based information technology campus wide area network infrastructure and considered one of the largest IT projects in the Country at the time. CBS International handled technological inputs and services procurement while SbCnet provided strategic technology integration services and field management. The Parliament project was also an e-government initiative funded by a consortium of donor agencies. This project received significant local media coverage because of Bekele’s public challenge to what she considered an unfair procurement process, a challenge she ultimately won, making it a precedent setting bid reversal case on a major government contract. Bekele believes her stand helped promote transparency and accountability in the government contracting process at the time, also vindicating her and her company.[12] In this project, her company SbCnet was the Prime Contractor and handled all front-line liaison and project services delivery to the Parliament and worked closely with its foreign partners CBS International, USA, and a South African company Dimension Data Holdings.

Sophia in Kigali Rwanda 2007

Bekele later on also challenged the private sector over her views of what turned out to be the illegitimate formation of a Stock Exchange in Addis Ababa. She wrote an editorial claiming that this entity was planned without the proper rules, regulations, infrastructure and controls. To her vindication, the government eventually rejected the proposal for the share dealing group in November 2002. As a follow-up, though there was no direct link with Bekele, in April 2008 the Ethiopian government launched a commodities exchange market, aimed at boosting fair trade and stabilizing its food market.[13]

It is better for us to have a proper open stock market where market forces determine the price of a share and security instruments...and should not be left to the machinations of a Share Dealing Group...the truth of the matter is that Addis Ababa Chamber of commerce cannot be both the sponsor and the regulator (oversight) according to the by-laws of the group... Government is the only agency that could put the regulatory frameworks and principles under which a proper stock exchange or commodities exchange can exist.

-Sophia Bekele, writing a June 2002 opinion column in the "Addis Fortune",[14]

In 2004, Bekele shifted her focus back to the US to meet the challenges arising from the major corporate governance scandals in the US, such as Enron and WorldCom, therefore, repositioning the California Company to advise US based Clients in public/private markets, primarily in Corporate Governance and Risk Management areas, including Sarbanes-Oxley ACT, and corporate relations/communications programs to meet the challenges arising from the major corporate governance scandals in the US, such as Enron and WorldCom. She built clients such as Intel Corp. (Nasdaq), Genetech, BDO Sieldman LLP, Federal Reserve Bank, OnScreen Technologies, (OTC), and the like.[9]

International Domain Name (IDNs)

File:Sophia Bekele Sao Paulo.jpg
Sophia at ICANN International Meeting in Sao Paulo Brazil Dec. 2006

During her tenure at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) on the Council of the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) throughout 2005-2007, Bekele was instrumental in initiating policy dialogue over IDNs as well as developing the framework for leading a language group. She forged to form a IDN working group within ICANN and bring the global voices of the IDN to ICANN. She was nominated to chair ICANN’s IDN Working Group at gNSO. and was highly influential in drafting the IDN policy guidelines. As a result, Bekele was credited for successfully championing the inclusion of the global IDN community within this policy dialogue and championing the work of IDNs at ICANN This global IDN group, later on organized itself as the International Domain Resolution Union (IDRU) gave a testimonial to Bekele's work over IDNs.[15][16]

“On 11th December 2010 the International Domain Resolution Union gave her a citation saying “ Ms. Bekele, as a former gNSO advisor to ICANN, you have worked hard and long to champion Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). You have made the case within ICANN for a policy development process that will see IDNs in service of the world community and you have done so successfully.”

International Domain Resolution Union (IDRU) Global IDN Group.[15]

.africa

File:Bekele with President Abdoulaye Wade.jpg
Sophia Bekele with President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal exhibiting the "Yes2dotAfrica " Campaign at the ICANN's 42nd Intl Public Meeting , Dakar Oct. 2011

In 2006 Bekele turned her focus to .africa – a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) for the Africa geographic name that she also championed during her appointment at ICANN.[17][18][19][20][21][22] The project has been introduced and will be delegated for operation under ICANN’s new gTLD program.

Bekele started the DotAfrica initiative following the important experiences gained from her ICT Service delivery in Africa and the work as gNSO advisor to ICANN, a policy advisory body which advises on global internet policy and the policy development work on new generic Top Level Domain name. Bekele made a clear case for a DotAfrica (.africa) gTLD for Africa within ICANN and also the global Internet Community on behalf of the global African and Pan-African constituency.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29] She soon led the .africa initiative with DotConnectAfrica introducing it to the Pan-African inter-governmental organizations – the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa UNECA and the African Union Commission (AUC) and received endorsement for DCA.[30][31][32][33][34][35] Other entities that also gave endorsement for DCA include the IDRU group and the Corporate Council for Africa.[36][37] Bekele then launched a global promotional campaign establishing DCA as lead and spearheading the .africa project under a Yes2dotAfrica Campaign.[38][39] Bekele received ample media coverage for her work on .africa including honorary mention by The New African Magazine as one of Top 50 African Trailblazers for a successful Six Year "yes2dotaAfrica global Campaign [3] and Bloomberg TV covering her .africa work. Enterprise Technology Magazine called her "Sophia Bekele: Champion of .africa initiative" [40] recognized her "Brains behind .africa". CIO East Africa calling her views "controversial" on who should run gTLDs', saying "Sophia Bekele has been in the news if not for promoting DotConnectAfrica’s bid for the DotAfrica geographical gTLD for the past three years, then in a controversial statement about the same":

Governments have a role to play, especially regarding the establishment of an enabling and supportive environment for ICT initiatives to thrive. However, there is a role for everybody, and global Internet governance is currently based on a multi-stakeholder modeled by ICANN. Governments already have their two-code country-level top-level domains (cc TLDs), but they also have a role to endorse geographical gTLDs. The problem is that this power to endorse is often interpreted and extended to include overall sovereignty over the new gTLD. We believe this should not be the case since it is monopolistic and anti-competitive coupled with problems of lack of transparency and accountability...

-Sophia Bekele, in an interview on 09 March 2012, for the main story of CIO East Africa,[41]

Ms. Bekele currently oversees the .africa new gTLD initiative of DotConnectAfrica Trust. As Executive Director of DCA Trust & CEO of DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Limited (Kenya),[42][43] she has led a multi-national team of experts to prepare and submit an application for the DotAfrica (.AFRICA) generic Top-Level Domain. DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) has already submitted an application in May 2012 for the .africa (pronounced as ‘DotAfrica’) geographic name string to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a U.S.-based non-profit organization that is overseeing the global Internet expansion project to introduce new generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs) under the new gTLD Program.[44][45]

Board and Public Service

With the registered successes in ICT project delivery in Africa, Ms. Bekele was invited to serve as an adviser on various UN led initiatives and advisory committees. In 2002, Ms. Bekele was appointed by H.E. K.Y. Amoako, then Executive Secretary and UN under Secretary General of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), to serve on the Advisory Technical Committee (ATAC), an expert UNICT Task-force sponsored by UNECA. The ATAC formulated policy and recommendation and provided technical guidance and direction on the implementation strategy especially how to bridge the digital divide between the developed countries and Africa. In her tenure at ATAC, Bekele co-authored the ‘Common Position for Africa’s Digital Inclusion’ which was developed in response to the ECA Conference of Minister’s Resolution 812 (XXXI).[46][47] The ‘Common Position’ was a blueprint that reflected Africa’s ICT position which was communicated to various global forums such as the G8 DOT Force, ECOSOC, the UN Task Force, World Economic Forum, NEPAD initiatives, etc. In 2003, Bekele was elected to serve as the East African Representative to the African Regional Network (ARN). Following such, in 2009, she has also served on the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (UNGAID), an initiative started by the former United Nations Secretary-General, and chaired by the Chairmanship of Intel’s CEO Craig Barret, and also in 2009, she served as an expert adviser to the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN/ITU) where she was representing the private sector in discussions about Public Private Parterships, e-government and MDG implementation.[48] She has since used these identifying frameworks for other ICT projects and Internet-Centered activities that are geared towards building a 21st-century e-enabled information and knowledge driven society in Africa.

In 2005, Ms. Bekele was elected member of the ICANN's Council of the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization), by the NomCom, under the then Chairmanship of Dr. Vinton Cerf. GNSO is a group that advises the ICANN Board on global public policies that guide the development of the Internet, including the new gTLD policy [49][50] and processes affecting .asia, .com, .net, .org and the policy development work on new gTLD (generic Top Level Domain names). In this position, Ms. Bekele is to be the first African to serve and hold a seat on gNSO.[15][51] During her term at ICANN, she championed the IDN Policy Dialog for the international community.[16] Concurrently, Bekele initiated the first African-run Registry for a .africa TLD, and run a successful 6-year “Yes2dotAfrica” global awareness campaign.[9][21][29]

In 2007 Ms. Bekele was elected and served for two tenures as Alumni Board member of Golden Gate University. In 2008, Bekele co-founded the Internet Society Chapter (ISOC) San Francisco Bay, and was elected to serve as its Executive Board Member[52] Bekele was a former Board Member of ISACA (Information Systems and Control Association) , and a current steering committee member of the World Affairs Council, Contra Costa, California. Over the years, Bekele has also served as International Ambassador to various Rotary Clubs where she has earned recognition of a Paul Harris Fellow for her contributions.[9][53]

Other work and ventures

Bekele has spoken in many international conferences, lectures and forums throughout her career on a range of subjects including, Corporate Governance, Internet policy, technology for Development, Africa and global economy, Entrepreneurship and Start-ups, IT Audit and online security. To mention but few, Bekele has spoken at Yale University, USA on "Africa: Economic Development Through Technology" [54] How to build a Top Level Domain Community in Munich, Germany.[55] "Public Private Partnership" sponsored by UNDESA and ITU World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) forum in Geneva. "Internet Governance-The Policy Divide" at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.;[56] "How to build successful startups" United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on ICT in New York on ICT, International Telecommunication Union (ITU's) “ConnectAfrica” Heads of State submit in Kigali Rwanda,[57]"How to build successful start-ups- Featuring people that have made great impact" Stanford Women in Business in California, alongside founders and executives of Pandora, YouTube, Gmail, and Yahoo where the work of her company, CBS International was credited for "bringing powerful advanced information technology to the developing world with long-standing initiatives to bring the internet to Africa".[9] Rebranding Africa with African Leadership Retreat in South Africa[58]

Bekele and her professional works in Africa have been featured and presented in various popular TV shows in Africa, such as K24's Capital Talk:, a leading TV station in Kenya, featuring "Movers and Shakers of Africa",[59] Senegal's Africa 7 TV Channel "Women in Charge" [60] and Nation Television (NTV) on "doing Business in Africa"[61] as well as Bloomberg TV Africa "African Women to Watch"

Ms. Bekele is involved in public affairs commentary and continues to write articles various subjects that is of current events that have been published in different newspapers, journals and Internet web sites [62][63]

References

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  58. ^ J.L. Economist (Sep 15 2010). "Rebranding Africa Can "Africa" get a make-over?". Business Journal. Retrieved Jan 17 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  59. ^ K24 TV (Mar 8 2011). "Capital Talk, Movers and Shakers of Africa". TV Interview. Retrieved Nov 16 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  60. ^ Africa 7 TV (Dec 21 2011). "Africa 7's Zara DERIBE in a conversation with Sophia Bekele on DotAfrica and being a Woman-In-Charge". TV Interview. Retrieved Feb 17 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  61. ^ NTV TV (Mar 3 2011). "Nations TV calls Sophia Bekele on business in Africa + the new Domain for Africa". TV Interview. Retrieved 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  62. ^ SophiaBekele.com Editor (Feb 15 2012). "Sophia Bekele Writing". Website. Retrieved Feb 18 2014. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  63. ^ SophiaBekele.com Editor (Feb 15 2012). "Sophia Bekele TV Interviews". Website. Retrieved Feb 17 2013. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)

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