John Matogo

IBM, Kenya

John Matogo is the Corporate Social Responsibility Leader for Africa & the Middle East at IBM. He joined IBM in Sept 2014 bringing with him vast experience from the academic community and innovation ecosystem in Africa. His role involves leading IBM’s social impact programmes in Middle East and Africa. These social impact programs include initiatives around skilling learners at various levels, volunteerism and sustainability. This involves working with various partners such as academia, government, non-profit organisations and private sector players.

John has been instrumental in forging collaborations for IBM with numerous institutions of higher education and ministries of education in the MEA region. The outcome of which resulted having over 3000 certifications and over 50000 trained students and faculty members on the new and emerging technologies including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, Internet of Things, data science, cyber security and many more.

Prior to joining IBM, John was the founding Manager of @iBizAfrica, the business innovation centre at Strathmore University and a faculty member in the Faculty of Information Technology at the same institution, teaching software engineering and computing courses. He was instrumental in coordinating the first ever e-readiness survey of over 50 universities in East Africa while working with KENET. He is interested in the application of technology in educational environments and developing digital skills among young professionals. His research interests include ICTs in education, ICT4D, Free & Open source software and Innovation & entrepreneurship.

His contribution to the local technology community was recognized at the iHub Tech Community Award ceremony on 8th March 2015.

He is a Senior IEEE member and an active volunteer with IEEE in Region 8 (EMEA region) and is a member and immediate former chair of the Action for Industry sub-committee in Region 8. He served as Chair for the IEEE Kenya Section 2014-2015. John is a former board member of AfriLabs (2012-2015), which is the umbrella body for innovation hubs on the African continent. He previously served as a Council member of the Free and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA).