Richard Bell

Richard Bell is a seasoned ICT entrepreneur who is currently helping Amazon Web Services expand their Infrastructure in the Middle East & Africa.  More broadly he is recognized as a subject matter expert in the technology, telecoms and renewable energy sectors in Africa, and leverages his knowledge through selected board appointments.  He is currently a Non-Executive Director of The East Africa Maritime System (TEAMS) the undersea fibre optic cable linking Kenya to the Middle East.

Between 2007 and 2017 Richard was Co-Founder and Director of Wananchi Group which is a multi-media infrastructure company across 7 countries in Eastern Africa.  Under their Zuku brand they were the first to deploy large scale Fibre-to-the-Home infrastructure in Africa.  From 2005 to 2007 Richard was a Director and Investor in African Lakes Plc (the owners of Africa Online and UUNet Africa).  Previously in 2002 he was Founder of Kenya Data Networks (now Liquid Telecom Kenya Ltd) which was the first data infrastructure company in Kenya, and, he was one of the early Internet Pioneers in Africa when he Founded the ISP/Swift Global in Kenya and Uganda in 1995.

Richard has been actively involved in the development of ICT in Africa.  He was Chairman of the Kenya Capital Markets Authority Task Force on ICT Impact/venture investing in East Africa and was appointed by His Excellency, President Kibaki as a founding Director of the Kenya ICT Board.  He was founding Chairman of the Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC), founding Chairman of the Telecommunications Service Providers’ Association of Kenya (TESPOK), founding Chairman of the Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP), and, a founding Director of the Africa Network Information Centre (AfriNIC).

His early career was as a commissioned officer in The Royal Marine Commandos where he specialized in Mountain & Arctic Warfare.

Richard holds a BSc (Hons) from the University of St Andrews, Scotland & is a Sloan Fellow (MSc) of the London Business School, England. He is a Kenya Citizen is an enthusiastic amateur aviator, bush pilot, and, conservationist.