IEEE PowerAfrica 2020

Abdullateef Aliyu has over 15 years’ experience working in the information and communication technology (ICT) /Telecommunication industry focusing on providing broadband services to the urban and rural areas in Nigeria and across West Africa; he heads the infrastructure roll-out and deployment department in Phase 3 telecom. He has keen interest on renewable energy and humanitarian projects.

He is Senior Member of IEEE and an active volunteer of the Institute for more than a decade. He Chaired the Local organizing committee for Power Africa 2019, In Abuja Nigeria.

Abdul is an Industry Ambassador, member of the IEEE Region 8 young professional Subcommittee,, member region 8 Humanitarian Subcommittee and the secretary of IEEE Nigeria Section. He was the past Chair of IEEE Young Professionals AG Nigeria Section 2013-2017. He won the IEEE MGA Young Professional Achievement award for 2019.

Abdullateef is an Alumni of the United State Telecommunication Institute (USTTI), Washington DC, USA, Member of PMI, ASQ, IEEE, NSE, NIM, and COREN.

John Hofman is a Substation & Distribution Engineer in Transmission & Distribution Services at Burns & McDonnell in Vancouver, WA. John received his BSEE in 2015 from Washington State University-Vancouver

Sainab Ninalowo is an Engineer in the Capacity Planning group at ComEd. ComEd is an energy delivery subsidiary of Exelon Corporation and one of the largest utilities in the United States, providing service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois. Prior to this, she was in the Smart Grid and Technology group which was charged with developing and implementing innovative technologies and business models for advancing the electric grid. Sainab also drives innovation and collaboration at ComEd as ComEd’s regional innovation ambassador, and sits on the new idea review board.

Sainab was the FY16 VP of Outreach for the Society of Women Engineers – Chicago Regional Section, where she oversaw the high school, elementary, scholarship, and collegiate outreach programs. Sainab graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University in 2012, and she is currently pursuing an MBA degree in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago. Sainab loves outdoor activities such as hiking, camping and photographing the life around her.

Simay Akar specialized in the solar and renewable energy industry since 2012. She worked in China and Turkey and mostly focused on international commercial activities including communications, marketing, sales, investment management, and business development. She is currently the Chief Commercial Officer at Innoses -Ruiyi (Shanghai) Renewable Energy Technology Co., Ltd. in the field of energy storage for renewable energy and electric vehicles and she is in charge of global marketing and business development initiatives. She served roles as Sales & Marketing Director at EkoRE Renewable Energy, Business Development & Marketing Director at GoodWe Solar, Head of International Marketing Department at Talesun Solar, Business Development & Sales Manager at CSUN Eurasia, Marketing Communication at Schneider Electric, and Corporate Communication at Arcelik (BEKO). She joined IEEE as a Student Member in 2007, graduated from Middle East Technical University, Ankara Turkey. Today, she is an IEEE Senior Member, IEEE VOLT Graduate (2019), Certified Soft Skills Trainer (since 2008), METU Alumni Association Energy Commission Member, and Licensed Sailor Athlete at the Turkish Sailing Federation. https://simayakar.com/

Samantha Niyoyita is a process engineer in a food processing company, AIF. She is involved in process control, new product development, technology analysis and acts as a coordinator of the energy conservation team. What drives Samantha is knowing that she uses her engineering knowledge to impact positively the lives of Africans by fighting against malnutrition.
The last springs from being an industrial technology engineer with a master’s degree in mechatronics and a bachelor’s degree in power and control from the Swiss Western University of Applied Sciences. Her experience includes projects involving energy control and automation, analysis and risk assessment in robotics. After returning to Rwanda, her interest in innovation and finding technical solutions led her to attend conferences on technology development. She is now a member of the IEEE Rwanda sub-section.

Sally Musonye is currently an Electrical Engineer at Kenya Power tasked with the supervision of design and construction of power lines up to 33kV. She also leads the last mile connectivity program aimed at increasing power access to the rural communities in Kenya. Sally graduated from the University of Nairobi with a BSC. Degree in Electrical Engineering and has received training and certification on Enterprise Risk Management.

She is a graduate member of the Engineers Board of Kenya and an active professional member of IEEE Kenya section and Power and Energy Society (PES) , Kenya.  In addition, she holds various leadership roles in IEEE including serving as the founding and past chair of IEEE Women in Engineering Kenya, former University Students’ branch chair and member of IEEE Sight Kenya committee. Currently, she volunteers as the IEEEmadC judges lead and a subcommittee YP member for IEEE Africa.

Passionate about STEM, she has devoted herself to mentoring girls to study STEM by conducting mentorship sessions various institutions ranging from primary to tertiary level. This she does through her organization AshGold Africa that seeks to inspire the “golden” experiences of the young girls to pursue science and engineering careers. The motivation behind her work is inspired by her immediate environment and network of women in tech careers who are pushing barriers in the corporate world.

Her previous speaker and panel engagements have been at IEEE WIE International Leadership Conference (USA), IEEE Global summit (Bangalore) and IEEE EASYP (Uganda). She hopes to increasingly engage the sector players to continually address the gender gaps and misconceptions in the sector to drive development across the continent.