GDL Virtual Session, 23 March 2017
With Imran Simmins (introduction), Nicolai Podagl (moderator), Elizabeth Maloba (speaker), Tatiana Gos (speaker) and Dr. Ashley Green (speaker).
Further Videos
Imran is a South African diplomat in the process of completing his MA in International Relations and World Order through the University of Leicester online, with a focus on the impact that Technology is having on International Relations. He is currently an official in South Africa's Foreign Ministry, covering issues related to South Africa's position on science and technology in a multilateral organisation such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).
Prior to this, he served as First Secretary (Political) at the Embassy of South Africa in Berlin, Germany, from 2014 to 2017; as Desk Officer for the National Office for Coordination of Peace Missions, as well as on the USA Political Bilateral Desk. His first diplomatic posting were as First Secreatry (Political) at the South African Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, from June 2007 to July 2011, where he dealt with a range of issues from serving on the secretariat of the South African Mediation Team to dealing with the land issues in Zimbabwe as it affected South Africa.
Throughout his teenage years he took up various leadership positions as a student activist in organisations that stood up against apartheid and any other forms of injustice. To this day, he holds and maintains these values.
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Read more about Imran in this blog article.
Nicolai Pogadl is a project manager at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University, and a researcher at the Digital Mass Atrocity Prevention Lab.
His professional focus is on projects at the intersection of digital technology, conflict analysis, atrocity prevention and human rights. In the context of his work he has conducted a research project at the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Berkman-Klein Center, participated in several conflict and atrocity prevention hackathons, and advised two teams at a “Hacking for Diplomacy” course at Stanford University.
Nicolai studied International Affairs in St. Gallen, Switzerland, where he was also involved with the St. Gallen Symposium as an IT project leader. Before embarking on his studies he enjoyed working in several social institutions, including a hospice in the United Kingdom and a kindergarten for children with disabilities in Germany.
Elizabeth has twenty years’ experience in addressing complex challenges. She works in cross-sectoral, trans-professional, multi-stakeholder settings, providing support in problem solving and decision making processes and facilitating learning and the exchange of ideas and information. She has extensive experience in international cooperation, development cooperation, and private sector development.
Elizabeth is active in cross-cultural groups, from grassroots level to global platforms, assisting in the professional development of leaders and the formation of, teams, policies, strategies, plans, and business models that contribute to addressing development challenges. She brings skills in capacity building, knowledge management, facilitation, conflict resolution and management, as well as experience as an entrepreneur gained through a wide variety of assignments. She lives in Nairobi, works across the world, and speaks English, Swahili, German and French.
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Find out more about her engagement here and in this interview. Furthermore, Elizabeth reflected on inclusion here.
