Future Cities Africa Podcasts

Dr Marco Macagnano is the Smart Cities Leader at Deloitte Consulting. Marco holds over 14 years of experience leading architectural design and project delivery across most sectors. We chat about his background and role at Deloitte, Africa’s Smartest Building, What a Smart City means in an African context, how we ensure everyone benefits and not just the few, key technologies that will emerge, Africa’s biggest challenge and his vision for the future.

Justin Coetzee is Founder and CEO of GoMetro. He is a civil engineer by training, with a Masters Degree in Transportation Engineering. We chat about GoMetro’s approach, their projects in Kigali and many other African countries, how Africa can succeed, stakeholder collaboration, legislation he would change and his outlook on key technologies and the future.

Giles Pendleton is the Chief Development Officer at Attacq Limited and currently a Non-Executive Director and Chair elect of the Green Building Council of South Africa. We chat about Waterfall City South Africa's 1st Smart City, how Covid-19 is impacting projects and clients, his worst case scenario of the pandemic, smart technologies and positive vibes.

Tony Lee is a partner at Ecosis Ltd in Mauritius. He is an expert for the advocacy platform, United for Smart and Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) and for the "digital transformation of cities" working group of UN Habitat. We chat about challenges and opportunities in Mauritius, how technologies will play a critical role in the future, impacts of Covid-19, confirmed beliefs and moving in to the future.

Henning Rasmuss is a Founding Director and International Projects Director at Paragon Group - Architects. He has personally worked in 23 countries in Africa. We chat about how cities will change, impacts on Covid-19 on architecture and the built environment, continued urbanization, positive vibes, the new 'normal' and do we actually need sport?

Engineer John Tanui is the CEO of Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), a semi-autonomous government agency tasked with building Kenya's first smart techno city. We chat about the Konza Technopolis, his worst nightmare of Coivd-19, the impact of Covid-19 on them, rapid urbanisation, new opportunities and what future cities will need.

Sheldon Quarmby is Founder and CEO of Interfile, the company behind solutions like uFiling and SARS eFiling. We chat about how individual tax returns on SARS eFiling was born, Sheldon's worst nightmares of Covid-19, benefits and challenges of uFiling, digitising our cities to succeed in the future, rapid urbanisation and the future of jobs.

Aamena Desai is a senior urban designer in Arup's Cities team in Johannesburg. We chat about key African projects Arup is involved in, how Covid-19 is impacting projects and clients, lessons from African cities from international projects, technologies that will move cities forward, rapid urbanisation, her worst Covid-19 nightmare, African cities' biggest challenge, positive outlooks and her vision for future cities.

Ilya Podorvanov is Business Manager for Africa at JSC Rosinfocominvest in Moscow Russia. He is responsible for Russia-Africa cooperation for National digital programs. He is experienced in smart city solutions / smart nation solutions, e-government solutions - digital education / educational programs, international funding in G2G, B2G national digital programs. We chat about his work, experiences from Moscow, his new vision and worst nightmare for future cities.