Connet IT Systems t/a Connect Mobile – Chief Commercial Officer

Michiel has been involved in the telecommunication sector since 2011 in various roles and with Waspa since 2014. Throughout the years he has learned various skills from Sales to Operations. He started at Nashua Mobile but got involved with Waspa when he was appointed as a Senior Manager at Connet IT Systems t/a Connect Mobile in 2014. His responsibilities in the company have changed over the years but he is currently the Chief Commercial Officer. He has been part of management and executive committees at various companies since 2013 and his passion for this industry grows every year.

Michiel has also formed part of the WASPA Board since 2019 and headed up the Wholesale portfolio which is now the Mobile Messaging portfolio.

Lianda handles Key account management and business development at Digital Virgo.

Through a consultative and motivational approach to collaboration and co-operation, Lianda has formed extensive trust relationships with critical stakeholders in the industry.

Lianda brings strong decision making and negotiating skills to the Board, along with  a natural ability to creatively solve problems.

Conrad has been at Simfy Africa since inception, when Simfy Africa officially launched in South Africa in August 2012.

Since then Simfy Africa has begun to re-write their streaming platform using a Micro Services based architecture which will allow adaptation to changes in the market more easily in the future. This is particularly relevant with Simfy Africa’s focus to expand further into the Middle Eastern and African regions.

Conrad has also been at eXactmobile since 2000. eXactmobile is one of WASPA’s founding members and has a long-standing reputable relationship within the association. He has over two decades experience within the mobile and business development markets. This has given him a global insight into telecommunications, advertising, technical developments, and mobile VAS.

Conrad was employed by one of the then strongest mobile (cellular) handset groups in South Africa in the mid ’90s. Nokia South Africa gave him a platform to be part of the mobile industry in its infancy. He quickly developed his entrepreneurial interests and saw the growth of mobile content to subscriptions services and corporate interactive services. Within his current portfolio, he has been privileged to be part of a team that launched the first music streaming service in Africa.

Jacqui has over 17 years industry experience, while currently holding the position of CEO at one of SA’s top aggregation companies, she has held various titles across several sectors within the MVAS ecosystem. While her main focus is Direct Carrier Billing solutions, she has experience in the creation of digital content/service offerings, marketing and acquisitions as well as other WASP solutions. As part of her duties, she has had the sole responsibility of ensuring industry compliance with the various regulatory bodies within the industry for over 14 years. Jacqui and the Worldplay team have been responsible for scooping a number of industry accolades, including but not limited to “Best WASP” and “Best Digital Services”.

Jacqui has previously held the position of WASPA Treasurer for the period 2016 – 2017, she has also been part of the many WASPA groups throughout the years and continues to be an active WASPA member.

With over 25 years’ experience, James is a result orientated, commercially astute management professional with demonstrated success, leading global businesses and delivering projects by bringing together diverse cross functional teams

Having started his career in PR, followed by Commercial Marketing roles with Formula 1 and Football (both the English Premier League and Portuguese Primeira Liga) James spent the last 23 years in the telecoms/mobile digital industry working in fields covering TV, Casino’s, Sportsbook and for the past 13 years in the digital content OTT Sector where he sits on the Global Group Board and serve as Chief Executive for the groups African and Middle Eastern subsidiaries with responsibility for rolling out the OTT services across the territories.

As a long-standing liaison to numerous regulatory bodies covering 5 continents, James has been on the board of the South African VAS regulatory association, WASPA since 2013. He also served on the EMEA Board from 2014 – 2018 at the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), a global trade body and chaired the African Steering Committee which drove their strategic focus within the region.

Outside of the industry, James sits on the boards to various differing business entities and from 2021 -2023 served on the board and held the position of Chairman at his local Golf Club.

Anthony matriculated from Maritzburg College, and graduated from University of Natal with a BCom, LLB and a Master of Laws Degree in Commercial Law.

During 2010 and 2011, Anthony worked as “In-House” Legal Counsel for Integrat where he gained experience in the industry.  Anthony was nominated in an independent capacity and was elected to the Management Committee in May 2013; and in the latter part of 2013 was appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Management Committee.

Anthony is a practising Attorney who is not affiliated to any WASP, thus making him an independent member of the Board with extensive experience in the industry.

Clickatell – Deputy CISO

Casper de Villiers is the Deputy CISO at Clickatell.
After completing his studies in Retail Business Management at the Cape University of Technology in 1994, Casper focused on skills development among youths and in the corporate sector. With charisma as natural impetus, the following five years provided Casper with a strong foundation for entrepreneurship and leadership.

In 2000 Casper became a co-founder of Clickatell, a global mobile messaging entity pioneering corporate short message services (SMS) within the online realm. Casper was initially responsible for all financial and operations duties, but soon moved to core operations management. In more recent years, Casper started focusing on compliance and governance management.

Casper fulfilled roles of Chairman, Deputy-Chair, Treasurer and Chair of finance working group during his years of involvement with WASPA. His official WASPA duties will focus on clarifying/defining financial processes and maintaining sound financial protocol. His personal goals are to revise the financial processes and controls and to focus on improvement of compliance and governance within the Finance realm.