Counsellors

Mr. Corjan BAST – Counsellor North America
Mr. Bast seeks opportunities to build a network of contributing and strategic partners for Close the Gap by communicating and promoting its mission, which strongly aligns with his own personal goals. He is a Global Product Manager for ITpreneurs, a learning content and instructor provider for IT best practices training. He works closely with IT vendors and executives to discuss how to best leverage innovative learning solutions. In addition, he collaborates with industry professionals to publish articles and deliver presentations on the latest trends in the IT Governance arena.  Mr. Bast resides in Tampa, Florida.

Mr. Remko DALKMANN – Counsellor for Andes Region Latin-America
Mr. Dalkmann is a publicity professional moving to Ecuador in 2011. He is interested in using his presence in Ecuador for Close the Gap in order to assess potential synergies with ICT Development projects in the Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia region.

Mrs. Anne HERMAN – Counsellor for Africa
Mrs. Herman has a background in institutional & public policy development and has worked for 20 years as a parliamentary advisor (Belgium), specialised in international issues. She was involved with Close the Gap right from the start and coordinated one of the first school projects in Mali. As an international expert in development (2001 >), she has conducted numerous monitoring and evaluation missions within a large variety of projects, funded by international donors. Mrs. Herman contributes extensive field knowledge of development problems and policies, especially in Africa.

Mr. Jean-François SOUPIZET - Principal Counsellor
Mr. Soupizet, a graduate from the French National Statistics and Economic Administration School (ENSAE), is doctor of economics of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and member of Futuribles International, a French think tank in Paris. He has mainly devoted his career to information and communication technology (ICT) in the field of development. Mr. Soupizet occupied various positions in the French Co-operation, the United Nations and during the last 20 years in the European Commission, notably as Head of the international relations for the Information Society Directorate General. He contributed, in particular, to the Community positions for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS Geneva, December 2003; Tunis, November 2005). Mr. Soupizet published “la Fracture numérique Nord Sud”, Paris Economica 2005, and edited “Nord et Sud Numériques”, in “les Cahiers du numérique”, Hermes Science Europe, Paris 2002. Mr. Soupizet is well positioned to support Close the Gap in its strategic objectives.

Mr. Rafael TORRES – Counsellor for Central America
Mr. Torres has a background in Electricity and Engineering. As a native from the Dominican Republic, he is very well placed to assess needs in ITC4Development in Central American and Caribbean Region.

Mrs. Nel WAGNER – Counsellor for Africa
Mrs. Wagner became interested in the ICT issues through a PC donation from KPN to a school network in Africa. She was involved in the founding of the “1 million PCs for Africa Campaign” for Schoolnet Africa. Mrs. Wagner showed a very strong commitment to link Close the Gap to World Links Zimbabwe and other service partners in Uganda, Nigeria and Suriname.