Ethiopia's Silicon Valley Gets New CEO

October 31 , 2020

Feven Dagnchew, the chief executive officer of ICT Park, has resigned from her post after serving for three years. Surafeal Shemiles, currently the director of the information technology department at the Industrial Park Development Corporation (IPDC), assumed the post as an acting CEO. Feven had been heading the nation's first ICT park after it was moved under the IPDC. Feven has a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering from Haramaya University and two master's degrees from Addis Abeba Institute of Technology and Leadstar University in energy technology and business administration, respectively. Before joining the Park, she worked at the Science & Technology Information Centre as an assistant analyst and as a junior energy consultant at GIZ. Surafeal has been working as the director of the information technology department at the IPDC, a department which was recently decentralised from the planning department in the Corporation. The new acting CEO still serves as the director of the information technology department. Surafeal completed his bachelor's degree in computer science at Haramaya University and later went on to study project management at St. Mary's College three years back. Before joining the Corporation, he worked at Ethio telecom for close to a decade in different capacities from programmer to project manager. ICT Park, which is located close to Bole Lemi Industrial Park, is considered Ethiopia's Silicon Valley, and it is currently a home of many private operators such as ZTW, Techno Mobile and Security Innovation Network, among others.