Dr Sibongiseni Tunzelana
Big Data Analytics strategist and digital innovator at multi award winning FlavaLite Innovations (F.L.I.) global
She completed her PhD in Information Systems at University of Cape Town in collaboration with Ryerson University, Canada. She is a Chief Data and Analytics Officer (CDAO) at F.L.I. Global. She is a Member of Digital Analytics Association (DAA) and Women in Analytics chapter in 2023. She is a recipient of the diversity and anti-racism scholarship from DAA in 2023. Dr Tunzelana is gazetted as a Commissioner in the South African Presidential Commission on the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The Commission is chaired by the current South African President. It forms an Advisory panel to the South African President on 4IR-related strategies. She developed the world’s first multi-award winning business process model in big data analytics. It was tested in Canada, United States of America, Finland, Philippines, United Kingdom, and South Africa. She supervises DBA and PhD Candidates at no cost. She works in Computing Systems and Information Systems. She gives back to under-served PhD Candidates. She was an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Information Systems (IS) department at the University of Cape Town.
Dr Tunzelana was a Panelist at the 1st intergovernmental negotiation of the recommendation on ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2020. She was also invited to the 2020 United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Youth Bootcamp for robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. She presented a technical presentation on the State of Art of the 4th Industrial Revolution at the African Union (AU) African Coordination Group on Digital Sequence Information (DSI) in 2019. She was in the Academic Advisory Committee for South Africa, Sweden University Forum (SASUF) for big data analytics, cyber security, new technologies and digital technologies. She is the 2019 South African Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA) Distinguished Young Woman Researcher: Research and Innovation. She is one of the 2019 Mail & Guardian Women Changing South Africa in Science, Technology, Engineering and Innovation (STEMI). She is also a 2019 Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Mentor.
She is among Winners of South Africa’s 50 most Inspirational Women in Technology and Innovation for 2017, as chosen by Inspiring Fifty Campaign, with Kingdom of Netherlands and #CoCreateSA.nl. She is the first and former CIO of V&A Waterfront. She was hosted by Institute of Directors and Scottish Business Network sharing insights on Big Data Analytics and opportunities in Aerospace, Maritime and Defense sectors in South Africa at the 2018 Scottish International Week.
She participated in a program by Innovation Hub and Maxum. This was in collaboration with University of Maryland in USA for Women in ICT. She visited the Analytics Team at Google Incorporated in Silicon Valley, San Francisco. Her goal was to research Google Analytics strategies. In 2008, she focused on leveraging the power of data. Her aim was to make communications decisions and improve strategies. Leveraging the power of data increased the overall impact of clients’ work. She was invited again at Google Incorporated to learn analyzing data from multiple sources and platforms in 2009. She was featured in Destiny Magazine 2014 Power 40. She and her Team implemented Innovative Digital Analytics. They delivered innovative services for African and global companies. These included PruHealth (UK), Santam, South African National Defense Force, ARMSCOR, Rand & Bullion, Cape Town Activa, and Standard Bank. She was a Programmer for Increase Network Solutions in Holland in 1999.
F.L.I. Global 