Carla Sofia Fernandes Sanderson

Carla Sofia Fernandes Sanderson is a South African digital infrastructure marketing and communications executive and current AFRINIC Board Director for Seat 5, Southern Africa. AFRINIC candidate materials identify her as Head of Marketing at Teraco – A Digital Realty Company, where she has worked since 2010 and sits close to the brand, communications, research, and stakeholder-engagement functions of Africa's most visible carrier-neutral data-centre platform. Her public profile also connects her to NAPAfrica, the not-for-profit neutral Internet Exchange Point located within Teraco data-centre facilities in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. Her AFRINIC relevance comes from the combination of formal board authority, Southern African digital infrastructure exposure, interconnection-community work, and experience translating technical infrastructure ecosystems into public, member, and market-facing narratives.

Object Position

Carla Sofia Fernandes Sanderson is a South African digital infrastructure marketing executive and current AFRINIC Board Director for Seat 5, Southern Africa. AFRINIC lists her as current Director for South Africa, Southern Africa, with a three-year term.

AFRINIC candidate materials identify her nationality as South African, country of residence as South Africa, organisation or affiliation as Teraco Data Environments (Pty) Ltd, and position as Head of Marketing. No reliable public source reviewed for this profile confirms her date of birth or age, so age is not stated.

Her public identity is built around three connected roles: senior marketing and communications leader at Teraco, community-building lead around NAPAfrica, and Southern African representative on AFRINIC's board. This is a different profile from a network engineer, regulator, lawyer, or academic governance specialist. Her value sits in ecosystem positioning, stakeholder engagement, public communication, and the digital infrastructure market context around African interconnection.

Operating Role / Decision Role

Sanderson's current AFRINIC decision role is her Seat 5 board position for Southern Africa. The AFRINIC board oversees the African Network Information Centre, the Regional Internet Registry responsible for IPv4, IPv6, and AS number resources across Africa and parts of the Indian Ocean region.

Her main professional role outside AFRINIC is Head of Marketing at Teraco – A Digital Realty Company. AFRINIC candidate materials state that she has served in that role since 2010, leading the full marketing function and serving on the executive team. The executive CV states that her responsibilities include marketing, communications, brand, research, PR strategy, market research, competitive intelligence, digital marketing, SEO, stakeholder engagement, executive communication, events, thought leadership, team leadership, and cross-functional collaboration.

Her NAPAfrica role is central to her Internet infrastructure profile. AFRINIC candidate materials state that she leads marketing and community-building initiatives for NAPAfrica. NAPAfrica's own public website describes it as a not-for-profit neutral Internet Exchange Point located within Teraco data-centre facilities in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg.

Her earlier career is also marketing and technology-sector oriented. AFRINIC candidate materials list senior marketing roles at TransUnion Africa, EOH, and Wonderware Southern Africa, giving her a broader background in IT services, automation, enterprise solutions, telecommunications, and technology markets. Secondary business profiles report education references to the University of the Witwatersrand, University of Johannesburg, and University of Cape Town; those education details are treated as secondary-source information because the main AFRINIC candidate materials do not provide a full verified education chronology.

Control Surface

Sanderson's control surface combines AFRINIC board authority with visibility into the African interconnection and data-centre ecosystem.

At AFRINIC, her formal control surface is the Seat 5 board role for Southern Africa. This places her within board-level governance during AFRINIC's post-2025 recovery period, when the institution is trying to restore normal governance, member trust, and public credibility after years without a functioning board.

At Teraco, her control surface is not technical command of facilities or direct control over network operations. It is strategic communications, brand, market positioning, stakeholder engagement, and executive-level messaging for a major carrier-neutral data-centre platform. Teraco's public company materials describe the business as a leading carrier-neutral colocation provider and network-dense data-centre platform in Africa.

At NAPAfrica, the control surface is community-facing. NAPAfrica is an Internet Exchange Point environment where networks, content providers, cloud platforms, enterprises, and service providers connect. Marketing and community-building in that setting is not generic advertising; it involves building visibility, trust, participation, event presence, and shared understanding around interconnection.

Impact Mechanism

Sanderson's impact comes from placing a communications and ecosystem-building executive from the Southern African interconnection market within AFRINIC's board. AFRINIC's recovery depends not only on legal closure and internal governance, but also on whether members and the broader community see the institution as credible, accessible, and professionally run.

Her public candidate materials focus on strategic governance, accountability, operational integrity, reputation, inclusive infrastructure growth, fair access to Internet number resources, community engagement, transparent communication, and diversity of skills and perspectives within the board. These priorities fit her professional background. She is not presented as a resource-policy technician or a registry engineer; she is presented as someone who understands infrastructure-market ecosystems and how institutions communicate with stakeholders.

The Teraco/NAPAfrica background is relevant because Southern Africa is one of the continent's most developed interconnection environments. A director with exposure to data-centre ecosystems, NAPAfrica community-building, cloud/content/enterprise connectivity narratives, and neutral infrastructure positioning can help AFRINIC reconnect with members who evaluate the registry through reliability, transparency, and ecosystem confidence.

Category Boundary

Sanderson should not be described only as a marketing executive in a generic corporate sense. The better classification is digital infrastructure marketing executive and RIR board director. Her marketing work is tied to carrier-neutral data centres, interconnection, NAPAfrica, cloud and network ecosystems, and African digital infrastructure development.

She should also not be treated as a network operator, policy lawyer, regulator, or cybersecurity operator. The public record reviewed for this profile does not show her personally operating networks, managing IP address resources, drafting registry policy, or controlling telecom infrastructure. Her AFRINIC relevance comes through board authority, Southern African infrastructure ecosystem experience, stakeholder communications, community-building, and public trust work.