As chief digital and innovation officer for Deloitte Consulting, Valter Adão leads a diverse team of specialists that create a leading digital ecosystem to assist organisations in understanding and undergoing digital transformation, uplifting their digital experiences and becoming digital at the core, in order to remain viable and completive in a world of ever changing digital technologies.

He is a corporate entrepreneur with extensive experience in creating new businesses across a variety of industries. He works with mostly blue-chip clients in identifying high value, innovative opportunities and rapidly commercialising them into viable businesses.

Adão holds an MSc and an MBA. He has been with Deloitte for eight years and was previously the leader and founding director of Monitor Deloitte, after Deloitte’s acquisition of the Monitor Group. Adão is also the firm’s innovation leader and is a member of Deloitte’s Global Innovation Executive Committee.

As an independent advisor, Kevin Govender's key focus is strategy and innovation. His key areas of expertise include strategy, innovation, portfolio management, turnaround programmes, governance, business and IT advisory. Govender is a strategic and innovative thinker and is passionate about value creation and using technology and innovation to grow and transform organisations.

As GM: Strategy and Enterprise Architecture Transnet, Govender was responsible for strategy, enterprise architecture, research and innovation. His responsibilities included providing leadership and direction as well as developing, maintaining and leveraging the strategy and enterprise architecture across the organisation to support the company strategy and focus on business outcomes.

During his 22 years of work experience, Govender’s expertise is attributed to the various roles he has played in companies like Transnet, Ernst & Young, Discovery, Accenture, Nedcor and Unilever. He has worked in many diverse industries and consulted to various organisations. He has extensive experience in strategy, business intelligence, business advisory, management consulting, portfolio and programme management, SAP assurance and implementation, and implementing turnaround, transformational and improvement programmes.

Govender received a Bachelor of Technology in industrial engineering from the Durban University of Technology in 1998; an Executive Leadership Programme from the University of Cape Town Business School in 2008; and a post-graduate diploma (honour’s degree) in Management Practices in Business Leadership from the University of Cape Town Business School, in 2014. Govender is pursuing a master’s of management through the Wits Business School, focusing on the sharing economy; he has completed his dissertation.

Govender’s key interests include business strategy, innovation, research and disruptive technologies.

Naik is recognised as one of South Africa's leading digital and technology transformation experts. He leads a portfolio of TransUnion’s businesses in using big data and information services to help consumers and organisations make more informed decisions.

In his previous role, Lee spent almost 19 years at Accenture were he served as the Managing Director of Accenture Digital, helping organisations transform their businesses to remain competitive in an increasingly digital world. Prior to that Lee was the Managing Director of Accenture’s Technology Strategy business.

Lee is a frequent speaker and commentator and was recognised as a global top 10 technology commentator in the 2015 LinkedIn Top Voices awards. He is also a recipient of the 2015 Standard Bank Rising Stars award.

Dr Alex Rummel has been working with blue-chip companies since 1995, in Europe and SA, in the areas of financial services, retail, telco and media. He was instrumental in designing and implementing customer-facing solutions for the likes of Old Mutual, Sanlam, Investec, Vodacom and Edcon. Given his experience, he is often involved as a solution expert to assist with the design and implementation of rich, interactive and sustainable engagement services. Dr Rummel holds an MSc and PhD in computer science from the University of Bremen, in Germany, and is a regular contributor to conferences, workshops and publications in the CRM, marketing, mobility and BI space.

He is a co-founder of Grapevine Interactive, a leading cloud communication services provider in SA; a director of Slipstream Consulting, a leading BI products and services provider; and the founder of Digital Pathways, a company that assists businesses and brands with their consumer engagement strategy and loyalty services.

Herman Singh has served as group chief digital officer of MTN Group since November 2015. Singh is responsible for driving out the formulation and execution of MTN's Digital and Innovation Strategy. He joined the MTN Group from Vodacom, where he held the position of managing executive for Mobile Commerce. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Beyond Payments, the Innovation and New Business Incubator division of the Standard Bank Group. Singh has an MBA degree from the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) and a BSc in engineering from the same institution. Singh lectures at Wits and GIBS (Gordon Institute of Business Science) on their MBA and Executive Development programmes.

Brett StClair has spent the last 20 years building and growing digital businesses and products. After eight years working with Silicon Valley technology businesses, StClair is now focusing on helping traditional businesses become digital. His passions are digital disruption and sharing the lessons learned.