Dhidha Timona
President

Dhidha Timona, President, Shaka Mobile is a telecom visionary with great insights on the African market. He is the founder of Shaka Mobile and has experience in start-up telecoms and ethnic markets. He has been focusing on the African market for the last five years with the deployment of Frontier Telco that provides tailored voice, video and data plans to Africans.

He currently serves as the President of Shaka Mobile. Timona has put together a winning solution for the Africans in the Diaspora. Shaka Mobile will be the first ethnic MVNO in the US to target the African niche market. Shaka Mobile will offer bucket voice packages to home country, cross-border MMT, domestic and home country bill pay, domestic and home country airtime top up.

Timona's education includes, Minnesota State University Moorhead Bachelors in Community Health and Minnesota State University Moorhead Masters, in Public, Human Service and Health Administration.

Chris Gabriel 
Board Memeber

Chris is ranked in the Global Telecoms Business Top 100 most influential people in the Telecoms Industry. He is the former Chief Executive Officer of Zain Africa, where he led the 15 African mobile operating companies, servicing over 42 million        active Customers and delivering revenues of cUS$4 billion. Zain Africa grew in excess of 50% under Chris’ leadership and pioneered several ground breaking initiatives, including Borderless Roaming, Cross-Border Mobile Money Transfer, Tower            Sharing and Network Outsourcing. The recipient of numerous industry accolades, Zain Africa was recently sold for US$10.7 billion. 

 Chris was formerly the Group Chief Officer ACE Strategy at the Zain Group, where he was accountable for refining and executing Zain’s Global Strategy across the 22 Zain operating companies, together with leading and managing Zain’s                  international and regional IPO’s, including the SAR7 billion IPO for Zain KSA.

 Prior to joining the Zain Group, Chris was Group Chief Financial Officer and Group Chief Information Officer at Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco Group) as well as Interim Chief Executive Officer of Umniah Mobile Company. Major            achievements during his time with the Batelco Group include record double-digit revenue and operating profit growth; acquisition of Umniah Mobile Company; successful raising of a US$485m debt facility (60% over subscribed); and the successful    implementation and execution of a group-wide organisational transformation program. 

Prior to joining the Batelco Group, Chris was the Director, Finance for SingTel Optus Business in Australia where he was a key member of the leadership team that built Optus as the second carrier. Major achievements during his time with SingTel Optus include delivering double digit revenue growth at rates three to four times market; over 30 percent improvement in delivery cycle times; over 50 percent reduction in unit operating costs; and successful integration of the Singapore Telecom and Optus global Network organisations. 

Chris has over 25 years experience in the Information Technology and Communications sectors across five continents, having developed his strategic, managerial and financial expertise through a wide variety of roles spanning Financial Management, Business Process Engineering, Customer Care and Billing, Product Development, Commercial Operations, Facilities, Strategic Programs, Information Technology, Outsourcing, IPO’s and Corporate Acquisitions. He has previously held senior executive positions with Ericsson and Unisys. 

Chris is a renowned international executive with a passion for operational excellence and over achievement in high growth start up, turn-around and emerging market environments. He is a recognised leader in team building, mentoring, human capital development and public speaking. His academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Business in Finance; CPA; MBA in Marketing; Bachelor of Law; Diploma of Corporate Management and Diploma Company Director.

Aiaze Mitha
Lead Consultant

Aiaze Mitha is a recognized international expert in mobile financial services and is the founder of Amarante Consulting.

Aiaze combines unparalleled field experience with direct involvement in over 15 projects across Africa, Asia, the Middle East & Central America. He has been successfully supporting Mobile Operators, Microfinance Institutions, International Banks and Regulators in every aspect of their mobile money projects, providing strategic guidance, regulatory advice, business model / partnership negotiation skills, technology expertise and implementation support.

Previously Aiaze directed M-Paisa for Roshan, the leading mobile operator in Afghanistan. Prior to Roshan, Aiaze was Consulting Director with Devoteam France and Devoteam Middle East, with a focus on the Telecom Industry and Financial Sector. During these years, Aiaze has developed a strong expertise in the MNO/MVNO business models.

Aiaze holds a Master of Science from University of Quebec and a BA from Telecom Paris, France’s premier Telecommunications  ‘Grande Ecole’. He serves on various boards including Mobile Money Transfer & Mobile Money Africa, and recently chaired the global MMT conference in Dubai.

Hamish White
Chief Technical Officer

Hamish White has over 12 years experience in the telecommunications industry. He has worked on the delivery of new products, services and business units within some of the world’s leading tier 1 telecommunications companies such as O2 Telefonica, Hutchison, 3, Orange and Ericsson.  His more recent focus has been on the Virtual Network Operator (VNO) business model.

He has held key technology and commercial roles on the launch teams of four separate VNO businesses, including two mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), Tesco Mobile Ireland, the first MVNO launched in Ireland, and Injaz International Telecoms one of the first MVNOs established in the Middle East region. In this latest role, he held a senior management position and was responsible for end to end technology strategy and OSS/BSS systems delivery. Hamish also frequently authors MVNO industry reports for an international telecoms research firm. These reports focus on MVNO wholesale strategies and MVNO market opportunity analysis.

He holds a Bachelors of Commerce from University of New England and various technical/telecom accreditations.

Edward Height
Director of Program Management

Edward Height is an established business analyst focused on achieving commercial and operational results and implementing business process improvement in the telecommunications industry.  Ed has consulted on communication and telecom projects both in the US and internationally since 1998.

Prior to joining Shaka Mobile, Ed worked with two start-up mobile operators in the Middle East.  He successfully directed the launch of the first ethnic based MVNO in Oman (Apna Mobile).  Before that Ed worked with Wataniya in the Palestinian territories where he was responsible for defining and documenting the end-to-end business processes to support new product development.

Ed was Project Manager for ComCEL/Voila in Haiti and a member of the senior management team.  His accomplishments included managing a $5 million project tasked with migrating the customer base from a TDMA network to a GSM network.  While in Haiti, Ed also directed the introduction and launch of the company’s international roaming service.  In addition, he has held numerous roles with Afghan Wireless including Business Analyst (CC&B), Head of Business Processes and Procedures, Director of Customer Care, and Compliance Officer.  He was also a Senior Systems Analyst and consultant for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and a Lead Systems Analyst for AT&T.  Before moving into telecoms, Ed spent five years working for the US State Department as an IT systems manager and software developer and as an independent IT consultant.

Ed holds a BA in Management Information Systems from Texas Tech University.

Adama Traore
Chief Financial Officer

Adama has over 15 years of business experience in oil and gas exploration and production, healthcare retail, and cellular telecommunications.  Adama’s cellular telecommunication experience includes serving in a CFO capacity for 2 foreign divisions of Western Wireless Corporation, a US public company that was subsequently acquired by Alltel.  In his CFO capacity, Adama successfully led financial restructuring, revenue assurance, and supply chain redesign initiatives that saved millions of dollars to the company.

Adama’s experience includes bank debt raising, business unit disposition, SEC reporting and compliance, treasury optimization, investment due diligence, budgeting and forecasting, financial modeling, and process design.

Adama is a licensed CPA from the State of Texas.  He holds a Bachelor degree in Finance, as well as a Master in Accountancy from the University of Houston.  He is currently pursuing an Executive MBA degree from Rice University.

Justin Coetzee
Commercial Director

Justin Coetzee is a seasoned commercial executive with over 20 years sales and marketing experience in the FMCG and Telecom sectors in diverse emerging markets across Africa and the Middle East. These markets include South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique, Tanzania, Oman and the Seychelles, where he has held various senior positions and worked on permanent assignment with leading regional and global Telecom Operators.

Justin has been involved in a number of start-up operations across the continent and has been instrumental in developing consumer brands and corporate identities for network operators as well as setting up and refining distribution infrastructure and managing the operational shift from pure acquisition to customer retention, in anticipation of market maturation. Justin brings with him considerable experience in launching new and differentiated offerings to African markets and a deep understanding and passion for Africa. He was instrumental in the commercial launch of the first mobile money transfer service in Tanzania in 2008, the first pre-paid EVDO internet service in Africa and was a key member of the start up team with Glo, the largest independently owned telecommunications network in Africa and one of the fastest growing operators on the continent.

He holds business and management qualifications from Rhodes University and Henley Business School in the United Kingdom.