Digital Media Awards Africa

Since joining WAN-IFRA in 1997, Valérie has accrued more than 20 years of experience as a media journalist. Currently, she is a team member of WAN-IFRA’s Global Advisory division where she works with the Advisory Team in leading global consulting projects. She is also the Programme Lead for WAN-IFRA’s top global conferences including: World News Media Congress and our Digital Media Event Series. She has contributed to numerous research reports, including Alternative Revenue Streams for Publishers. As part of her research, Valérie interviewed numerous publishers who had found success discovering new business models – whether its through events, e-commerce, video or marketing services – Valérie has experience taking the pulse on what generates revenue for publishers.

Camilla is the project manager for VG’s sound and screen products, and is responsible, among other things, for looking after VG’s universe of smart voice assistants. She came from the position of project manager for VG’s Snapchat department, where she has been part of the team since the start in January 2017. VG’s work on Snapchat has received several international awards, including Digiday and Schibsted Journalism Awards. Camilla is behind Norway’s most-viewed Facebook video, Trump’s wig show, which has been seen by over 30 million. She has a background from TV 2 helper deg, NRK, Fredriksstad Blad and Halden Arbeiderblad. Camilla has studied journalism in Volda and human rights in New York.

Yvette is a digital strategy professional with over 7+ years in media. She brings user research experience and a commitment to experimentation to achieve commercial outcomes.

Yvette was previously Head of Audience Engagement at BusinessDay, Nigeria’s oldest business daily, where she led the digital services team and the newsroom’s digital transformation. She helped the newsroom transition into digital content production, distribution, and customer engagement.

She is currently the Head Growth for the publishing arm at Stears, a venture-backed data and information business that is committed to being the world’s most trusted provider of African data & insight.

Jane Godia has over 20 years as an editor and trainer. She worked in mainstream media and rose to the position of Deputy Managing Editor. Currently, she is in In-charge Acting as Executive Director African Gender and Media Initiative (GEM) Trust. She is Project Manager for WIN Programme in East and Central. She previously served as Coach for WIN Kenya. She has consulted a lot in media development, gender, training and coaching. She is a core expert on training in Gender Based Violence and Sexual Harassment in the work place. She holds a Masters of Arts (MA) in Gender and Development and post-graduate Diplomas in Journalism, Media studies and Gender and Development.

Mamadou Goundiam is Deputy CEO of the Jeune Afrique media group, a leading pan African events and news group, where he is in charge of transformation and operational performance. He began his career as a strategy consultant with Roland Berger and Oliver Wyman, and led a large number of projects in the media and telecom sectors across Africa, the Middle East and Europe,. He was also responsible for the African expansion of the education subsidiary of the German media & tech group Hubert Burda Media, as well as for the business strategy and sales and distribution in Africa for the telecom group Millicom. Mamadou is a graduate of EM Lyon.

Grainne Harrington is a freelance journalist based in Uganda and working across East Africa. She is the Africa Editor for Egab, and a reporter for Channel Four News. She has produced news features for Vice News and CNN, and documentaries for BBC Africa Eye and ARTE. Prior to working East Africa, she was a producer and reporter for BBC News in London, and Europe Producer for BBC News, based in Paris. She also worked as a presenter for Radio France Internationale. She has written for The Telegraph, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and The Irish Times, and is an IWMF fellow and Simon Cumbers Media Fund grantee.

Sarah is a Program Manager with the Google News Initiative team where she works with the applicants and recipients of the DNI Fund in Europe and the GNI Innovation Challenges globally. She is a regular speaker at conferences in the UK and overseas, broadcast interviewee and commentator on issues relating to media, digital journalism and community.

Cherilyn Ireton leads the World Editors Forum, the community for professional editors within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Now UK based, she worked as a journalist and editorial manager in South Africa before joining WAN-IFRA in 2012.

Lyndsey Jones is a publishing consultant, digital transformation expert, strategic advisor and coach, working with media groups in Africa and Europe either independently or via WAN-IFRA, Women in News, FT Strategies and other consultancy agencies.

She coaches European media groups on reader revenue models, business transformation, diversity and audience growth, as part of programmes such as WAN-IFRA’s Table Stakes Europe.

A former executive editor of the Financial Times, she is the author of ‘Going Digital: What it takes for smoother transformations’, named as one of the best business books in 2022 by the FT

Frenny Jowi is a journalist based in Nairobi and roaming the world in search of stories.
She is a multiple award-winning journalist, nominated Kenyan Reporter of The Year in the Kenya 2014 Annual Excellence in Journalism Awards.

Previously, Frenny worked for the BBC World Service in London as a broadcast journalist.  She is the co- founder and curator of Kenya Media Week, a program that promotes freedom of press and dialogues on contemporary journalism and media matters. The program has been adopted across the border as Uganda Media Week.

For 3 years, she was adjunct faculty at the Aga Khan Graduate School of Media and Communications where she taught courses in mobile journalism, digital media and public relations.  She worked for the School in Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Uganda.

Caroline is a trained journalist with 17 years experience in print and online media and she is currently Digital Editor of the Digital at Standard Group Plc.

At Standard Group, she is responsible for growing online audiences for broadcast and print brands in the Group namely: KTN Home, KTN News, Standard newspapers, Nairobian, Radio Maisha and the Standard Group online assets that include: www.standardmedia.co.ke, www.sde.co.ke – Kenya’s #1 entertainment website, www.farmers.co.ke, and Ureport.co.ke – a citizen journalism website. Caroline previously worked at Genesis, a global internet consumer company with headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine. While at Genesis, she started www.tuko.co.ke Kenya’s first viral news website that disrupted the Kenyan media landscape in 2015. I was the first Managing Editor of Tuko that started out as a “Breaking News” website.

Chris Roper is deputy CEO for the continent’s largest federation of civic technology and data journalism labs, Code for Africa (CfA).
Using over two decades of insights from building Africa’s largest online news and content portals, Chris shapes CfA’s civic engagement and scaling strategies. He also serves as director for CfA’s forensic data initiative, the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR). From 2015 – 2019, Chris’ role at CfA was underwritten by a Knight International Fellowship, with the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ)

Prior to joining CfA, Chris was editor-in-chief of Africa’s first newspaper to establish an internet presence, the Mail & Guardian. Before M&G, Chris was editor-in-chief of Africa’s largest online publisher, 24.com, where he managed the merger of MWEB and News24 editorial content into the biggest digital content offering in Africa.

Chris has taught journalism courses at the Universities of Pretoria, and the Polytechnic of Namibia. Chris has served as a judge on, among others, the SA Bookmark Digital Awards, the British Council Future of News competition, the NuMedia Plum Awards, the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Awards, and the PICA Awards. He frequently consults to publishing houses in his capacity as a Code for Africa strategist.

Dean is Director of Insights and Editor-in-Chief of WAN-IFRA, he is responsible for coordinating all activities related to the organisation’s array of multimedia publications. He has more than 25 years’ experience working in the news publishing industry, much of that time spent researching, analysing, identifying and ultimately reporting about global media developments.

Donavine Smith, WAN-IFRA’s Membership Communication & Co-ordination Manager has a mandate to craft and facilitate exceptional member experiences for Members and Partners. Her vision is to streamline and redefine engagements and communication for better value and growth in WAN-IFRA engagement and membership.

At WAN-IFRA, Donavine started at Women In News (WIN) as the Advisory Strategy and Innovation Consultant, Trainer and Coach. Her particular achievement was in Media Digital Maturity and Transformation implementation – some may be familiar with the WIN Stability Tracker, and the WIN Digital Maturity Rapid Diagnostic Tracker which she co-facilitated. In addition, Donavine also collaborated on and presented the Digital ABC course. Finally, she was the technical lead on the business process automation and data migration project – to streamline Business Intelligence and MREL Reporting to funding partners.

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Caroline Southey is the Founding Editor of The Conversation Africa. Previously Caroline was editor of the Financial Mail in South Africa. Prior to that she worked for the Financial Times in London and Brussels in various roles over 17 years including as World Desk Editor and as a foreign correspondent covering European Union agriculture and social policy.