Dr Martin Koyabe
Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors
Dr Martin Koyabe has over 30 years of experience working on ICT and Digital deployment, innovation, research and development, policy, regulation, and legislation. He is currently Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at the National Cybersecurity Agency (NCSA) of Kenya and former Senior Advisor at the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) Africa. He is founding partner at Africa Cyber Expertise (ACE) – a pan-African consortium of senior cybersecurity, cybercrime, digital governance and ICT policy specialists; founder of DataConnect (Kenya) and MWK Consult (UK) a tech-startup on AI and Emerging Tech operating in Africa.
He has been involved in leading a number of key Cyber initiatives and projects in Africa, including implementation of the Africa Agenda on Cyber Capacity Building (AA-CCB) with AUDA-NEPAD, UN Technology Bank/GFCE partnership for AI capacity building for 33 LDCs in Africa, KPMG-GFCE Technical Assistance (World Bank Funded) Project for Togo aimed at Enhancing Regional Cooperation for Cyber Resilience through the Centre for Coordination and Research in Cybersecurity (ACCRC); African Union (AU)-CSIRT/CERT Project (LuxDev Funded) to Secure Africa’s digital Infrastructure, GFCE-AUDA_NEPAD Coordination Committee on Cyber Capacity Building (CCB) in Africa, and the AU-GFCE Collaboration Project (Bill & Melinda Gates Funded) to Enhance Cyber Capacity Building (CCB) and Cyber Resilience across all 55 Africa Union member states.
Prior to joining the GFCE, he was the Head of Technical Support & Consultancy (TSC) Division at the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) in the UK for seven 7 years. He was responsible for managing the delivery of ICT technical support and development assistance to The Commonwealth (which consists of 56 member countries) and beyond. Before joining the CTO, he worked as a Senior Researcher & Technical Lead with British Telecommunications (BT) for 10 years. While at BT he worked on various major projects including BT 21st Century Next Generation Network, developing ICT security solutions, policy, and strategies for BT’s lines of business, including cutting-edge research on Future Internet Architecture, and pioneered development of a Global Best Practice framework for mitigating Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) on the Internet.
Martin has been involved in various ICT projects mainly in Europe, the US, the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, and extensively in Kenya and Africa. He is also a technical expert for the European Commission (EC), World Bank, UN, ITU, GIZ, UNTBLDC and the GFCE. He has led and delivered a number of national strategies in Cybersecurity, Broadband, Universal Service Funds, Telecommunication Regulation, and Digital Transformation for a number of organisations in various countries, especially in Africa. He is one of the global experts who worked with the ITU, World Bank and other partners to develop the 3rd Edition of National Cybersecurity Development Guide. He is also a member of Africa Cyber Defence Forum (ACDF) Committee of Experts (CoE) Working Group and expert for UN AI Governance Initiative.
He has a PhD in Communications Engineering and holds several patents. He is an alumni of Egerton University (KE), Nairobi University (KE), Bristol University (UK), University of Aberdeen (UK), Cambridge University, Judge Business School (UK), and Harvard Kennedy School (USA)
Dr Martin Koyabe has over 30 years of experience working on ICT and Digital deployment, innovation, research and development, policy, regulation, and legislation. He is currently Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors at the National Cybersecurity Agency (NCSA) of Kenya and former Senior Advisor at the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) Africa. He is founding partner at Africa Cyber Expertise (ACE) – a pan-African consortium of senior cybersecurity, cybercrime, digital governance and ICT policy specialists; founder of DataConnect (Kenya) and MWK Consult (UK) a tech-startup on AI and Emerging Tech operating in Africa.
He has been involved in leading a number of key Cyber initiatives and projects in Africa, including implementation of the Africa Agenda on Cyber Capacity Building (AA-CCB) with AUDA-NEPAD, UN Technology Bank/GFCE partnership for AI capacity building for 33 LDCs in Africa, KPMG-GFCE Technical Assistance (World Bank Funded) Project for Togo aimed at Enhancing Regional Cooperation for Cyber Resilience through the Centre for Coordination and Research in Cybersecurity (ACCRC); African Union (AU)-CSIRT/CERT Project (LuxDev Funded) to Secure Africa’s digital Infrastructure, GFCE-AUDA_NEPAD Coordination Committee on Cyber Capacity Building (CCB) in Africa, and the AU-GFCE Collaboration Project (Bill & Melinda Gates Funded) to Enhance Cyber Capacity Building (CCB) and Cyber Resilience across all 55 Africa Union member states.
Prior to joining the GFCE, he was the Head of Technical Support & Consultancy (TSC) Division at the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) in the UK for seven 7 years. He was responsible for managing the delivery of ICT technical support and development assistance to The Commonwealth (which consists of 56 member countries) and beyond. Before joining the CTO, he worked as a Senior Researcher & Technical Lead with British Telecommunications (BT) for 10 years. While at BT he worked on various major projects including BT 21st Century Next Generation Network, developing ICT security solutions, policy, and strategies for BT’s lines of business, including cutting-edge research on Future Internet Architecture, and pioneered development of a Global Best Practice framework for mitigating Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) on the Internet.
Martin has been involved in various ICT projects mainly in Europe, the US, the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, and extensively in Kenya and Africa. He is also a technical expert for the European Commission (EC), World Bank, UN, ITU, GIZ, UNTBLDC and the GFCE. He has led and delivered a number of national strategies in Cybersecurity, Broadband, Universal Service Funds, Telecommunication Regulation, and Digital Transformation for a number of organisations in various countries, especially in Africa. He is one of the global experts who worked with the ITU, World Bank and other partners to develop the 3rd Edition of National Cybersecurity Development Guide. He is also a member of Africa Cyber Defence Forum (ACDF) Committee of Experts (CoE) Working Group and expert for UN AI Governance Initiative.
He has a PhD in Communications Engineering and holds several patents. He is an alumni of Egerton University (KE), Nairobi University (KE), Bristol University (UK), University of Aberdeen (UK), Cambridge University, Judge Business School (UK), and Harvard Kennedy School (USA)