Fernando A. Lagraña, Executive Manager, ITU Telecom

After having completed studies in computer science and telecommunications at the Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse III) and the National Institute for Telecommunications (Evry, France), Fernando joined France Telecom in 1982 where he occupied different posts of increasing responsibility until directing the Supervision Centre of the Cable TV Network in Paris from 1986 to 1988. He then joined Siemens France S.A. as ISDN and Protocol Analysis Engineer in the Test and Measurement Equipment Division.

In 1990, he joined the International Telecommunication Union as Engineer-Editor in charge of French standards (Recommendations) within the CCITT Secretariat (now known as TSB). As one of the founding members of the TELEDOC group (which designed the first web-based on-line system to access documents and ITU standards), he served as the TSB consultant on Electronic Document Handling (EDH) from 1992 to 1994.

From 1995 to 2000, he served as Vice-President of Telecom in charge of the Forum Division. From 2001 to 2003, he managed the Promotion, Publication and Web Department within the Radiocommunication Bureau.

Since early 2004, Fernando has been appointed back to ITU Telecom, which he leads as Executive Manager. End 2004, he was also appointed by the Secretary-General of ITU to manage all operations for the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society.

Fernando Lagraña received a double Master of Arts in Information Resources Management (1994) as well a Masters in Business Administration (1996) from the Webster University (Saint Louis, Missouri, USA). He was born in Bayonne (France) on the 31st of December, 1957.