Honorable Dr. Kwaku Afriyie is the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and also a Member of Parliament of the Republic of Ghana. He is a Medical Doctor by profession and a farmer. He previously served as Minister of the Ministries of Health, Lands and Natural Resources, Western Regional Minister, and Minister of State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA).
He holds a Master of Public Health from Tulane University, New Orleans, an MB CBH from the University of Ghana Medical School, and a Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Under his leadership, Ghana has seen phenomenal attempts to modernize and commercialize scientific research and innovation through the special purpose vehicle - Ghana Innovation & Research Commercialization Center (GIRC-Center). GRIC-Center the new partnership between Government, Public Research Institutions, Academia and the Private Sector.
Under his watch, MESTI declared a Decade of innovation for Ghana - with the goal to anchor the growth of Ghana’s economy on the strategic application of Science, Technology & Innovation, and to transform the ethos of the nation into “Ghana, a Nation of Innovation”.

Prof. Nii Quaynor is a globally renowned Ghanaian scientist and engineer who pioneered Internet development, connections and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, earning the accolade - ‘The Father of Internet in Africa’.

He helped set up key organizations, including the African Network Operators Group. He also was the founding chairman of AfriNIC, the African Internet numbers registry. He was the first African to be elected to the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and served as an at-large director of ICANN for the African region from 2000 to 2003. He is the immediate past Board Chair for WACREN.

He earned a PhD in Computer Science in 1977, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Prof. Quaynor was a member of the United Nations Secretary General Advisory Group on ICT, Chair of the OAU Internet Task Force and President of the Internet Society of Ghana.
In 2007, the Internet Society awarded him the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award for his pioneering work in advancing the Internet in Africa. He was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013.

Dr Glinos (Kostas) is an independent expert in Science, Technology and Innovation policy. He has worked at the European Commission for 30 years, where he held management positions in the areas of Open Science, international R&D cooperation, research infrastructures and e-infrastructures, cyber-physical systems, future and emerging technologies and big research data.

He has also developed and managed R&D funding programmes in several research domains. In 2017-2018 he was a Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Before joining the Commission Kostas worked in the chemical industry in the USA and Belgium, lectured at the University and carried out research. He holds a PhD in engineering from the University of Massachusetts and an Advanced Professional Certificate in investment management from Drexel University.