Ex-NASA IT guru is new NCA boss

President Nana Akufo-Addo has appointed Mr Joseph Anokye as the Director General of the National Communications Authority (NCA).

This was contained in letter signed by the president’s representative, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, which was released on Tuesday, January 24.

The letter asked the former NASA IT expert to confirm his acceptance of the appointment at the earliest opportunity.

“By copy of this letter, the Deputy Directors-General of the NCA are requested to facilitate the handing over process and the early settlement into your new position,” the letter further indicated.

Profile of Mr Joseph Anokye

Mr Anokye, according to his profile on LinkedIn, is a Telecommunications Service Manager who worked at NASA, and was responsible for Integrated Services Network and Information Technology and Services.

He managed a team of highly technical network engineers who administered NASA’s Global Mission Telecommunication Wide Area Network (WAN).

They plan, configure, install, and manage the robust secure traffic engineered MPLS Backbone that transport data, voice, and video from and to space shuttles, the International Space Station, the Deep Space Network, and numerous satellites as well as other “Man” and “Unmanned” spacecraft.

As a telecommunications engineering service manager at NASA GSFC, he worked collaboratively in many Telecommunications Planning exercises worldwide with Telecom and Network engineers from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), German Space Operations Centre (GSOC), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO - Dongara) and many other national space programs like the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in California.

His experience spanned 18 years 6 months, from September 1997-February 2016, at Goddard Space Flight Centre, Greenbelt, Maryland as a Telecommunications Service Manager - Mission Routed Data Network (NASA Integrated Services Network).

He is a product of the University of Maryland from where he holds an MBA.