Speakers

Mr. Roba Megerssa Akawak is Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Service Enterprise. A lawyer by profession, Roba has been working for government organizations for over 19 years in diverse positions.

Mr. Roba Megerssa Akawak worked in the Ethiopian Maritime Affairs Authority for several years as Director of Legal Services and later as Deputy Director General. He initiated, drafted and coordinated the enactment of national legislations and ratification of international maritime convention.

Mr. Roba Megerssa Akawak has coordinated and led several maritime transport projects; actively participated in regional and international seminars and conferences representing Ethiopia in the maritime affairs.

Mr. Mahbubul Anam is the President of Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA), an apex body of Freight and Logistics Industry in Bangladesh and represented BAFFA in different International Association such as FIATA, FAPAA etc. both home and abroad. Mr. Anam got involved in Freight Forwarding business in 1989 and within a decade he developed excellent business growth and earned high reputation in the supply chain industry proving him as a visionary and dynamic leader in this field. Mr. Mahbubul Anam leads a diversified group of companies through his visionary leadership.

Mr. Anam is one of the leading personalities in the Aviation Industry in Bangladesh. He also served as a member of advisory bodies of the Government in the Airlines & Transportation fields. He represents number of International Carriers as GSSA/GSA.

Mr. Tekalegn Tufa Beyene has 15 years’ experience in the banking industry and is now the Trade Finance Director at Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. Before joining the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, he served in different positions at the Construction and Business Bank and United Bank, and as Import and Export Division Manager at Awash Bank. 

Mr. Tekalegn Tufa Beyene graduated from a MBA program in general management from St. Mary university as well as from a BA program in Finance and Development Economics from Addis Ababa University School of Commerce. His diploma he achieved in bank and finance from Addis Ababa University School of Commerce.

Mr. Warsama Mouhoumed Bouh is the Director General at Djibouti Port Community Systems. He has been managing the Port Community System from its inception through its final launch in July 2018. 

Especially, his responsibilities include working with diverse stakeholders to streamline the different processes linked to import/export through Djibouti Ports/Corridor (continual effort) and ensure the long term sustainability of the ports in terms of revenues and relevance to the needs of the logistics community.  

Cumulatively, he is also the technology director at the Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority (DPFZA) and thus is handling large scale tech projects at DPFZA. 
His expertise is in technology service management, tech project management and solution provision in the transportation and government sectors.

Mr. Bassil Eid is the secretariat head for the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations (FIATA) in the Region Africa Middle East. Additionally, he is holding roles as FIATA’s IT and International Affairs Manager. Previously Mr. Bassil Eid worked with DHL’s Freight and Express divisions. He also held posts as Manager of FIATA’s training body. As acting Advisory Body Safety Security Manager, he manages the ICAO FIATA Dangerous Goods by Air Training Program. Based in Silicon Valley, he is also advises numerous logistics startups. 

Mr. Esther holds 20 years’ experience in corporate banking and insurance. He was most recently employed as Chief Executive Officer at SACOS Insurance Group in Seychelles. Prior to this, he held senior management roles at Barclays Bank Seychelles Ltd. and Barclays Bank Uganda and was Director, Business Development at Seychelles International Business Authority (now Financial Services Authority).

He possesses a Master of Business Administration from Durham University Business School, Bachelor of Laws from University of London, Post Graduate Certificate in Education and BSc. Physics from Victoria University of Manchester and is bilingual in Englishand French.

Mr. Anteneh Alemu Gerbi is the co-founder of the freight forwarding company Pave Logistics and Trading PLC where he is currently heading the business development and marketing management departments. Amongst others, he developed the business rules and design of an innovative Logistics Enterprise Resource Program (ERP) software. Mr. Anteneh Alemu Gerbi is also a board member of the Ethiopian Freight Forwarders and Shipping Agents Association. 

Before his time at Pave Logistics started in 2015, Mr. Anteneh Alemu Gerbi worked as operation manager in a private custom clearing company and as customs officer at the Ethiopian Revenue & Customs Authority. 

Mr. Anteneh Alemu Gerbi finalized his B.A in Economics from Mekelle University in 2009 and his M.A in Marketing Management from Addis Abeba University in 2015.  

Elizabeth Getahun is the Chief Executive Officer of Panafric Global (PAG), the President of the Ethiopian Logistics Community of Practice (ELCoP), and the President of the Ethiopian Freight Forwarders and Shipping Agents Association (EFFSAA).

Kaoutar Guessous is actually Deputy general manager at TGS, a leading Moroccan freight forwarding company. In 2010, she launched a sister company – Worldwide Logistics Services – to reinforce the presence of the group in the sector. She is in charge of foreign agents and human resources with a focus on driving the change through training in both companies. Before joining the Logistic field in 1998, she was an international banker in charge of the relationship with foreign banks. Her banking experience and thirst of learning made her travel all over the world attending seminars and training forums. She holds a Master’s degree in International Trade and is a FIATA certified trainer. Last but not least, she is a member of many professional association (amongst others AFFM , WISTA, FIATA). She is AFFM vice president and AFFM chairperson of international affairs commission. 

Mr. Debele Kabeta has a Master’s degree in Transformational Leadership and Change. He is the Commissioner General of the Ethiopian Customs Commission. Before his position as commissioner, he was a senior customs manager and leader at the second biggest branch office in Kaliti. Additionally, he was a director for support and follow up directorate for all customs branch offices. 

John Kalibo is the Africa Logistics Director for PVH Corp., a global fashion and lifestyle company. John has 12 years’ experience in international transportation and has spent a good part of the last 4 years working with various stakeholders in simplifying, and enhancing inland transportation in Eastern Africa. Since PVH Corp. begun sourcing in Ethiopia, John Kalibo has had the privilege of experiencing the different service attributes of multimodal and unimodal transport, along with the other broader changes being made in the Ethiopian logistics sector.  

Mr. Kamran Sadique has 22 years of experience in Garment and Textile industry. He is a business graduate from National University and completed his Master’s in Management. He started his career at Miller B.V. in 1996. He joined 786 Garments & Textiles as senior manager in 1999 – one of the oldest garment factories specialized in Halloween & Christmas Costume manufacturing. He acquired vast experience in fabric manufacturing, fabric dying/printing & product development. For his dynamism & experience he later was appointed as Executive Director of the same company. Being the part of top management, he has sound knowledge in Commercial process, Merchandising & Legal Affairs. He is also the proprietor of COZY TEX fabric manufacturer for export oriented RMG factories. He joined MBM group as Director since 2017. Now he is developing global operations strategy for the group. It includes foreign investment, production and budget analysis and execution of different project of the group. He is an expert in negotiation of complex requests for products, supplies and services from suppliers and subcontractors – in line with companies’ strategies. He also adopted industry 4.0 technology application in MBM Group manufacturing concerns.   

Mr. Berhanu Kassa is the General Manager of ET DHL JV Logistics Services. Before he served as Director Global Cargo Sales and Services at Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services. He also served as cargo manager for Ethiopian Cargo Dubai Office. 

Mr. Egana Buche Kunche has over 37 years professional experience in shipping, freight forwarding, port services (incl. cargo operation) in Assab and Djibouti Ports. 

Larry Liza is the Director of the World Customs Organization, East & Southern Africa, Regional Office for Capacity Building (WCO ESA ROCB) in-charge of implementing capacity building initiatives for 24 Member countries in the region. The focus of his service includes promoting growth in intra-regional trade, promoting fair and efficient revenue mobilization, strengthening intra-regional compliance and enforcement and enhancing integrity and professionalism in human capital. Under Customs-Business partnerships, Mr. Liza cooperates with the private sector, including logistics companies, in light of their critical role in international trade and economic development. 

Larry, who is serving on secondment from Kenya Revenue Authority, has a master’s degree in planning and Management and a Bachelor of Science degree, both from the University of Nairobi, among other qualification. He is a Kenyan born poet, published author and global champion for maternal health. 

Currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer / Executive Director of the East African Business Council (EABC), driving the Private Sector agenda.  A former Member of Parliament of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) and chaired the EALA Committee responsible for good governance and served in Committee of Trade and Investment.

A passionate pro-integration East African who has been heavily involved in the negotiation of EAC Common Market Protocol and regional economic issues since 2004. He strongly supported formation of various EAC platforms instrumental in the EAC regional integration process. These platforms include the formation of East African labor and employees’ organizations in the EAC.

A retired career customs officer, is currently an active freight forwarder and CEO of  Dock to Door Shipping Ltd, from Tema, Ghana. He works as a part-lecturer at the Regional Maritime University, Accra, and the GIFF Academy, and is the Board Chairman of St. Paul’s Secondary School, Denu, Ghana. He is a certified FIATA Trainer in International Freight Forwarding. He is a FIATA Vice President, a member of FIATA ABVT and FFVT.

Mr. Oliver Pietz is the CEO of the recently founded Joint Venture of DB Engineering & Consulting and Thelo Group South Africa. Since 2001 he is working for DB in various leading positions, especially for emerging markets like Latin-America and Russia. Oliver has a Master’s Degree in Economics of the Berlin School of Law and Economics. 

Koki Kinyanzui is currently a Business Planning Manager (Treasury) at Equity Bank Ltd. She is result-driven professional with a progressive career in Banking. She’s self-driven, innovative, analytical, a fast learner, and prides herself a true team player with good interpersonal skills.
She’s skilled at developing and executing targeted business initiatives that drive growth, achieves organization objectives, whilst enhancing bottom-line profits. Currently she is overseeing the treasuries within the 6 subsidiaries of Equity Bank.

The following achievements summarizes Koki’s professional journey that spans over 10 years:
Proactively led the Digitization of Trading and highly experienced in supporting executive level staff including the CEO and the Senior Management Teams.

Possess over 10 years’ experience in active trading and in-depth collection, analysis and integration of information.

She earned her Bachelor (B.Sc.) in Business Administration - Finance at the United States International University in Nairobi, in 2001, Masters (M.Sc.) in International Banking and Financial Services at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, in 2003 and her Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) specializing in Finance from the United States International University, Nairobi in 2018. Her research interests lie in the area of financial markets (both local and international) and financial technology ranging from theory to design to implementation.
 

Captain William Ruto, is the General Manager Operations at Kenya Ports Authority where he provides strategic leadership to six departments. He oversees; Container Terminal Operations, Conventional Cargo Operations, Marine Operations, Inland Container Deports, Port Logistics and Safety.

He is a trained Mariner by profession scaling through the heights from cadet Ship Officer to Ship Master. He has worked on board various foreign going vessels for over 8 years. He holds a Class 1 Master Mariner from the United Kingdom (UK). He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) Strategic Management option, from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). He is an Associate Fellow Nautical Institute (AFNI) and a Member of International Harbour Master’s Association (UK). He has attended various local and international seminars and workshops on shipping, maritime, transport and logistics matters. 

Fred Seka is one of the leading indigenous freight logisticians in East Africa with an experience spanning more than 20 years. He is currently the President of the Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) and immediate past Chairman of Rwanda Freight Forwarders Association (RWAFFA) having as served vice President. He is also the Chairman of Liberal Professionals in Private Sector Federation of Rwanda (PSF) and member of the Board. He is the Managing Director and founder of Gorilla Logistics Limited, one of the fastest growing logistics companies in the East African region. He is credited for overseeing the growth of the transport and logistics industry in Rwanda. He has won several local and international awards in logistics for provision of topnotch freight forwarding services.

Abhishek is Senior Director, Transport at TradeMark East Africa. In his role he supports regional integration and trade competitiveness in East Africa by helping infrastructure agencies prepare and finance key transport and logistics facilities. Abhishek has over 18 years of experience and in this time he has worked on the entire value chain of infrastructure development, from strategy to implementation as well financing. He has worked in a number of developing countries in Asia and Africa for a variety of institutions including national and state governments, infrastructure developers, private equity companies as well as several development finance institutions. 

Mr. Thomas Sim is the Chairman of ABVT, FIATA (Advisory Body Vocational Training -International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations) which oversees FIATA National Associations’ training programs, assisting to setup and qualifying the standards of international freight forwarding & transport logistics training materials/curriculums, international trade and the eventual FIATA Validation of their national training programs since 2002. He is also the Chairman of FIATA Foundation Vocational Training (FFVT) Management Committee which manages the application and recommendation of building trainers’ capacities in numerous FIATA Members across the 4 vast regions of the world of FIATA.

Mr. Sim represented the FIATA-ABVT as a lead master-lecturer at the Training-of-the-Trainers (TOT) Programme held in numerous countries spanning the globe 

Mr. Mekonnen Abera is the Director General of the Ethiopian Maritime Affairs Authority (EMAA). He reveals more than 35 years of professional experience in the logistics sector. Before his position as director general at EMAA, he served at various positions for the Maritime and Transit Service Enterprise as data analyst, marketing research and promotion department manager, and as planning and business development department manager. Mr. Mekonnen has also been a board chairman at the Ethiopia Center for Excellence in Freight Transport and Logistics (EthioLog) and the Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Service Enterprise (ESLSE). Especially, he has played a leading role from concept development to the implementation of multimodal transport system in Ethiopia, the development of the National Logistics Strategy as well as the Blue Economy Strategy for Ethiopia.

Mr. Thomas Ruelke is the Chief Commercial Officer of DB Schenker Middle East & Africa, a leading logistics corporation with presence in more than 130 countries worldwide.

Mr. Thomas Ruelke has been active in the global logistics and supply chain industry for more than 20 years, previously working in international trade lane management in shipping and later taking charge of senior commercial roles for DB Schenker in Europe and Asia. He currently heads the group’s commercial development and market expansion activities in the Middle East and Africa and is an expert in business growth strategies and solutioning within the logistics industry. 

Ms. UWAMALIYA Rosine is a senior official with 15 years of experience in Rwanda Customs. Currently, she is the Commissioner for Customs Services Department, a position she has held since 1st July 2018. Prior to this, Rosine was in charge of Customs operations and Trade facilitation up to September 2017 when she was attached to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the Division of Trade Logistics. 

As the Commissioner for Customs Services, her goals include being responsible for the overall management of Customs Services and the performance of its functions in terms of administration and collection of Customs duties. She is a World Customs Organization (WCO) accredited Mercator program advisor and also holds a Masters Degree in Customs Administration from the University of Canberra.

Ms. Erica van Schaik graduated in Human Resource from Utrecht University. She joined Vogue and Velocity Group of companies in 2012, where she is now serving as General Manager. Vogue & Velocity Group have invested heavily in Africa, particularly in Egypt and Ethiopia. Ms. Erica van Schaik has investigated Ethiopia as an investment destination for Vogue and Velocity Group. Now, the Group has established state-of-the-art garment and manufacturing processing factories. The Group has recently taken on a new endeavor in Ethiopia setting up a unique Private Industrial Park called VIP. Ms. Erica van Schaik liaises with the government authorities and takes a strong role in diverse project implementations and overall business management.