Karel Matthee is a technology enthusiast who thrives on challenges and part-time data scientist. He is the leader of the Trust and Security research group at CSIR Meraka Institute in Pretoria. The team is researching the privacy and security requirements to enable POPI-compliant exchange of personal health information between participants in a Health Information Exchange. He also participates in the DST initiative to develop a Cybersecurity Research, Development and Innovation Programme for South Africa.
With 26 years of experience in the ICT profession, his passion is conceptualising new innovations, developing technology demonstrators and implementing full-scale deployments. Most recently, Karel was part of the CSIR Broadband for All team who developed and commercialised a wireless mesh network solution which was licensed to Parsec Holdings (Pty) Ltd. He was also part of the CSIR team who established an ISP which was sold and became part of MWeb. In the early 1990s he was part of the Eskom team who designed and deployed pre-paid electricity sales systems. He has done consulting to government and industry.
Karel is a registered Natural Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and an Exco member of the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa (IITPSA), formerly the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) and also a past chair of the Gauteng Chapter. He holds a BSc (Honours) degree in Numerical Mathematics from Stellenbosch University and a BCom degree (Information Systems and Accounting) from UNISA.
Karel is an avid long distance runner. He has six Comrades Marathon medals.
