Mr. Tim Unwin (born 1955) is Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (http://www.cto.int), Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK (http://cscuk.dfid.gov.uk), UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, and Emeritus Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London.
His recent work has concentrated mainly on information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D), focusing especially on the use of ICTs to support ITU Telecom World 2013 people with disabilities, and to empower out of school youth. In 2004 he created the ICT4D Collective (http://www.ict4d.org.uk) at Royal Holloway, University of London, which was recognised in the 2012 GoTo Think Tank Report as being the 10th top science and technology think tank in the world. Previously, from 2001-2004 he led the UK Prime Minister's Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education initiative based within the Department for International Development, and from 2007-2011 he was Director and then Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum's Partnerships for Education programme with UNESCO.
He is the author or editor of 15 books, and has written more than 200 research papers, chapters and other publications on subjects as diverse as the history of wine, the philosophy of geography and critiques of development theory.
His latest collaborative book, entitled simply ICT4D, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.
He is a Fellow of Education Impact and Honorary Professor at Lanzhou University, China.
