Samuel Bartels is a lawyer who specialises in Information Privacy, Telecommunications, Media, and Technology law. He has extensive experience and insights on Regulatory compliance and Government stakeholder management and public policy strategies and is currently the Senior Manager for Regulatory and Government Affairs at MTN Ghana where he also pioneered the office of Data Protection Officer; having previously worked with Vodafone Ghana as a Regulatory and Government Affairs Specialist. He also lectures on technology and telecoms regulation at the Ghana Technology University College (GTUC).

He combines privacy advocacy and public policy on various issues including best practices for deployment of technologies, with championing freedom of expression. He has been part of discussions to shape Ghana’s strategy for the adoption of AI and other new technologies and is also passionate about leveraging digital literacy to address internet safety. In March 2023 Samuel hosted a session on optimal pricing of spectrum at the Mobile Technology for Development conference. In October 2023, he addressed an ITU Workshop on challenges posed by counterfeit and tampered Telecommunication/ICT devices and software in October 2023.

Sam holds a master’s degree in law from the Center for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) of Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in the UK. He is a certified member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and the International Compliance Association (ICA).