Mamello Thinyane is the Optus Chair of Cybersecurity and Data Science and an Associate Professor in the STEM unit at the University of South Australia. He has over 15 years experience working with governments, industry, academia, and civil society organizations on digital development projects in Africa and Asia. He previously served as the Senior Research Advisor and Principal Research Fellow at the United Nations University institute in Macau, a Director of the Telkom Centre of Excellence in ICT for Development and an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, and a Visiting Researcher at the Australian Centre for Cyber Security at the University of New South Wales– Australian Defence Force Academy.