Who is Keith De Alwis?
Keith De Alwis is a Dubai-based business consultant, technology leader and builder working internationally across AI, open source, digital public infrastructure and programme delivery.
His work connects strategy with implementation: building services, leading technology and helping organisations deliver change. The homepage introduces that connected practice. The expertise pages below provide the detail and context for each area.
Five connected areas of expertise
Business consulting
Strategy, operating models and digital transformation, with hands-on work to turn decisions into delivery. Engagements can range from a defined business diagnostic to embedded transformation support. The emphasis is on the business problem, the people involved and the changes needed to sustain the result.
Open source and digital public infrastructure
Helping governments, development partners and system integrators turn open technology into dependable public services. OpenCRVS is the main reference point for Keith’s practical work in this area. His focus connects partner capability, institutional readiness and the long-term implementation of Digital Public Goods.
Fractional CTO and technology leadership
Technology direction, product architecture and delivery leadership for organisations building or changing digital services. This includes working with founders and existing teams to connect technical decisions with commercial needs, establish delivery priorities and take responsibility for an agreed scope.
AI for business
Finding useful applications of AI, designing workflows and implementing systems around real business outcomes. Keith applies these approaches in his own work as well as consulting. His writing explores the practical differences between a capable model, a useful tool and an operation people can rely on.
Programme management
Leading complex delivery across teams, organisations and stakeholders. The published experience includes enterprise implementations through Topia and project-management teaching at the Institute of Project Management. The work combines delivery, governance, dependencies and organisational change rather than treating a programme as a schedule alone.
Selected experience
Keith’s published career account includes Group Chief Digital Officer at Hemas Holdings, co-founder and CTO / COO at Telenor Health, Chief Technology Officer at Praava Health, and digital-health subject-matter work with KPMG. Business experience ↗
His programme-management account describes enterprise client implementations delivered through Topia and lecturing at the Institute of Project Management, including IPMA, PRINCE2 and PMP topics. Client implementations are engagements delivered through Topia, rather than employment with each client. Programme and teaching experience ↗
These are selected roles and engagements from Keith’s own published account, not a list of current employers. Consult the linked accounts for their scope and context; this reference does not assign employment dates or extend project outcomes beyond those sources.
What is Ascendancy IQ?
Ascendancy IQ, shortened to AIQ, is Keith’s working laboratory for an autonomous AI workforce. The public lab describes human direction, coordinated specialist work, shared knowledge and clear approval boundaries. It is built and tested through Keith’s own work and is working towards a controlled beta. The lab’s ambitions and design direction should not be read as a claim that every capability is generally available.
The Ascendancy IQ lab is the canonical public project overview. It links to the product walkthrough and first-person field notes about the build.
Writing and sources
- What is Digital Public Infrastructure?: An introduction to DPI and a starting point for the wider series of practical guides.
- I fixed the dumbest thing about AI agents: A first-person account of building persistent context for AI work.
- The Sunday Blueprint: Keith’s newsletter about AI, automation and ideas worth building.
The notebook collects the wider writing. Keith’s LinkedIn profile and Upwork profile provide additional public professional context. The OpenCRVS Implementation Partner Programme describes the wider partner ecosystem referenced in his open-source work.
Names, terminology and corrections
The preferred name here is Keith De Alwis; Keith de Alwis refers to the same person. Ascendancy IQ and AIQ refer to the lab project described above. Digital Public Goods (DPGs) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) are related terms with distinct meanings, explained in the linked guides.
This page is a dated public reference for readers and search systems. When using a claim, follow its supporting link and preserve the context, especially whether it describes past experience, client work or an evolving project. For corrections or a current engagement enquiry, email keith@de-alwis.com.