Conference Chair:

Sanjay Dharwadker
Sanjay Dharwadker is currently Regional Manager Sagem Security South Africa, and has been involved with biometrics and smart card projects in the region for about 5 years. He has also been an independent consultant, with assignments in Africa and South-east Asia, including an Asian Development Bank Consultancy for the Government of Viet Nam.

Mr. Dharwadker has helped pioneer many of India's large ID biometrics and smart card projects, such as: the driving licence, vehicle registration, health, food security, social security, farmer, fishermen and dairy cards. Besides, India, he also advises many national governments on biometrics and smart cards in the public domain.

In India, Mr. Dharwadker successfully headed the business development function at Smart Chip Ltd. - a Sagem Orga associate company. Mr. Dharwadker has also consulted for World Bank projects, UN, European Commission and bilateral missions. He was also associated with India‚s large IT initiatives under the National Technology Missions for rural development and child immunization.

Mr. Sanjay Dharwadker is a post-graduate in Pure Mathematics from BITS, Pilani, one of India's premier science & technology universities.

Dr Nick van der Merwe
Dr. Nick van der Merwe is currently Director: Technology & Business Development at Ideco Technologies. Nick has been with Ideco since February 2004 and has been mainly involved with biometrics based projects in the public sector.

Nick has been convenor of the South African technical workgroup on biometrics, StanSA SC71Q (Biometrics), since its inception in August 2002, and has been head of the South African delegation to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC37 workgroup meetings and plenaries ever since.

In December 2004 he was appointed as Manager: Technology and R&D, in August 2006 he became Group Technology Manager and in January 2008 he was appointed as Director: Technology & Business Development.

Nick was closely involved with the Back Record Conversion (BRC) project for the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS) for the Department of Home Affairs, a project that was successfully completed by Ideco in September 2006, months ahead of schedule.

Commissioner Piet du Toit
Petrus du Toit joined the South African Police Service in 1976. During his career, he has served in a number of positions in various fields such as patrolling, charge office duties, complaints, fingerprint expert duties, management, work study, general administration and the command of various units.

Piet holds a BA degree from University of Pretoria, a B JURIS degree from Unisa and a National Diploma Police Administration from Technikon RSA. He is also a fully qualified work study officer and police administrator.

Piet was appointed as the Head of the Criminal Record Centre in 1997 and in 2005 was appointed as the Divisional Commissioner: Criminal Record and Forensic Science Services with responsibilities including the Forensic Science Laboratory, Criminal Record Centre and Technology and Technical Management.

Michelle Kinnane
Michelle Kinnane is a professional public servant, and has worked primarily in the IT environment for nearly 30 years. During her career, she has worked in a diverse variety of business areas including health, community services, printing and publishing, information management, enterprise systems and supply chain management.

Michelle moved to the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service in 2003. Her current role is National Manager, Strategic Development (Passengers) which includes implementing the SmartGate Automated Border Processing (ABP) Program at major international airports.

Dr. Matthews Mtumbuka
Dr Mtumbuka is an electronic engineer specializing in Information & Communication Technology (ICT). He is currently member of the Executive Committee of the Malawi Switch Centre (MALSWITCH), where he works as Head of Technical Services (HTS). As HTS, Matthews overseas technical strategy, projects and operations in what is the premier provider of technology solutions for the banking and financial industry in Malawi.

Prior to joining MALSWITCH in March 2009, Matthews worked for Shell UK Ltd for three years. He held ICT Portfolio management roles with geographical scope of up to eight countries in Europe. Previously, he worked as a researcher in the Oxford Communications Research Group, under supervision of Professor David Edwards, for three years. He holds a PhD in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford. He also has a BSc (Eng.), with Distinction, from the University of Malawi. He is a member of the British Computer Society (BCS), and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). He is also a certified IT Business Analyst. Matthews has served as a reviewer and referee for several technical journals including IEEE and has produced more than ten technical publications.

In his spare time, Matthews enjoys current affairs, Malawian music and volleyball. Matthews is also a skilled and experienced public speaker having trained with Toastmasters International for more than five years. He emerged best public speaker in Scotland twice and went all the way to the Grand Finals of Impromptu Speaking where he emerged third best speaker in UK and Ireland in 2007.

Steve Fitzpatrick
Steve Fitzpatrick is the Operational Director of iNathi Technologies (Pty) Ltd. He has been involved in Software Development, Business Applications, Strategy Development, Business Re-engineering, Change Management and Governance in both Private and Public institutions.

Steve has also been involved in the development of Primary Healthcare Solutions over the past 6 years. He has been successful in the implementation at 7 Primary Healthcare facilities (clinics) using Biometrics and Smartcard Technology to identify patients successfully.

This usage of Biometrics has ensured that accurate patient records are shared across various clinics so that health workers can make informed and responsible decisions based on accurate patient information.

Gary Chalmers
40 years old, born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gary was the founder of Training Connection, a company specialising in technical training, specifically in the Microsoft field.

In October 1997, Gary sold his share of Training Connection into the holding company Connection Group, and accepted a contract to become the International Marketing and Sales Director for CompTIA USA.

Completing this 8-month contract, Gary returned to South Africa, bought back Training Connection, re-launched as Torque-IT, and was involved in running the company until his resignation in 2007, when he joined the Richmark Group to serve as CEO of iPulse Systems.

Gary has an excellent overall knowledge of the ICT market both locally and abroad, and an extensive technical background across a broad field of topics. He is a professional speaker who brings energy and enthusiasm to the room and always leaves the audience educated and amused.

Basia Nasiorowska
Ms Basia Nasiorowska is the founder of Interoptic Networks CC, which offers innovative, state-of-the-art solutions for applications utilizing biometric identification and recognition technologies such as Facial, Fingerprint, Iris and other.

Basia is the creator of Biometric Facial Recognition Twins Project that started in 2004. The project is a world first to test computerized Biometric Facial Recognition Systems concerning their capabilities in verifying and identifying Twin Children's faces over a long period of time (minimum5 years).

She is a member of StanSA SC 71J /WG1, the South African Standards Working Group on Biometrics, which is represented in ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 37 Biometrics.

She is also involved in the work of StanSA TC 71 Information Technology which follows the work of ISO/IEC JTC 1 /SC 17 and SC 31.

Basia's interest in Biometric Technologies has turned into a passion that allowed her to gain experience and expertise which she shares with her customers in providing them with the best Biometric solutions according to their needs.