Joel Vele is an IT professional with more than 30 years’ experience in the IT field. He obtained his junior and honours degree in Computer Science from the University of the North, now known as University of Limpopo. He continued his studies and obtained his MBA degree from Potchefstroom University, now known as Northwest University. He started his IT Career at the Venda Government as a Junior Programmer and proceeded to the University of Venda where he was employed as the Systems Analyst. Since 1989 he was the Director IT Services at the University of Venda and moved to the University of Mpumalanga in 2016 as the Chief Information Officer.

He is a long standing member of the HEITSA.