Reevana Balmahoon is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center. She leads research and development in artificial intelligence and extended reality at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Balmahoon has previously worked in positions to lead innovation across Africa for Vodafone’s subsidiary, Vodacom, and was a senior manager in strategic analytics. Her experience also includes serving as a technology specialist and advisor at WomHub, a global social enterprise. Balmahoon has expertise in developing new technologies, leading cross-functional teams, influencing policy frameworks, shaping strategic partnerships, securing and managing technology investments, and delivering solutions to drive business growth.

As a recognized speaker and board member, she has delivered keynote addresses at prominent engineering stages, including the World Engineering Education Forum, the Global Engineering Dean’s Council, and Cambridge University. At the Atlantic Council, she is also a 2022 Millennium Leadership fellow and 2024 Executive Leadership Intensive fellow. Balmahoon is also a limited partner at a venture capital fund that invests in female focused businesses.

Balmahoon has a PhD in engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, and a professional artificial intelligence certificate from Stanford University. She has volunteered at various community initiatives (including over ten years of mentoring for science, technology, engineering, and math capacity development and wellbeing meditation course facilitation). Balmahoon has a passion for all things technology and is committed to engineering sustainable societies for the future.