Olivier Arino,
Senior Advisor, ESA

Olivier Arino completed his academic education in 1990 with a PhD degree in Physics with speciality in Remote Sensing from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow with the International Geosphere Biosphere Program and the European Commission, he joined the European Space Agency in 1991.

His current position as Head of the Projects Section in the Science Applications and Future Technologies Department of the Earth Observation Programme Directorate leads him to manage the Data User Programme in close collaboration with user communities (e.g. 300+ user organisations involved) and the relevant institutional communities, such as the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation, the United Nation Environment Programme and the European Environment Agency. He initiated the GlobSeries that are considered as precursors to the climate change initiative called “Global Monitoring of the Essential Climate Variable” recently funded by the Agency’s ministers. He also worked closely with the International Environmental Conventions secretaries and users on climate change, desertification, biodiversity, wetlands and world heritage.

He has authored or co-authored 120 scientific publications in the field of albedo, fire, vegetation, agriculture, land cover, sea surface temperature, and was nominated for the best European paper in open literature in 1992. He has acted as a reviewer for the International Journal of Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Remote Sensing of the Environment and others. He is a member of international science groups in sea surface temperature, forest and land cover.

Eric Jan Bakker
Government Sales Director, Vizada

Eric Jan Bakker is Government Sales Director for Vizada, responsible for the development of business with military and government organisations in EMEA & Asia.

His customers include the French and German Ministries of Defence, for which he oversees the development and supply of mobile satellite communications services in support of missions at home and oversees.

Eric Jan has 11 years experience in the satellite sector, beginning his career with the former Station 12 mobile satellite operator based in The Hague, Netherlands. During his time there, Eric Jan was responsible for sales of mobile satellite systems to the maritime industry in most of EMEA & Asia.

He then worked as Business Development Manager for Group 4 Securicor, a global leader in security solutions, before moving on to work for Vizada. He joined the latter to head sales efforts with non-governmental organisations and United Nations accounts before taking on his current role.

Eric Jan has a Bachelors degree in Electronics from the University of Eindhoven (Netherlands).

Eric Jan’s focus for end 2009 and beyond is the expansion of Vizada’s established leading role throughout EMEA & Asia, leveraging the expertise gained with the French and German Ministries of Defence for other prospective customers in the region.

William Becker, 63, is Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), an initiative that created a comprehensive leadership plan for President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress on national energy and climate policy. The plan was delivered to the Obama Transition Team in November 2008 and was called the Gold Standard of policy guidance for the incoming President.

Bill also directs a new project called “The Future We Want” project, which is creating vivid computer animations of life in a sustainable society. The animations will be featured in an interactive exhibit and World Wide Web site that will allow the public to not only envision a positive future, but to help design it.

Before joining the University of Colorado to lead these projects, Bill served for more than a decade as the Central Regional Director for the U.S. Department of Energy. Among his many projects, he founded DOE’s Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development and led a team of U.S. experts to help Chinese officials “green” the Olympic Village for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Bill has worked with more than 150 communities on sustainable development, including the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In the 1970s, as the editor/publisher of the weekly newspaper  in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, he proposed and helped implement a pioneering project to relocate m of thuchat community from the floodplain of the Kickapoo River and build the nation's first "solar village". The project has been featured in several books and television documentaries, cited as a model of what communities worldwide must do to prevent and cope with global warming.

Bill serves on the global advisory board of Ogilvy Earth, as a senior advisor to Natural Capitalism Solutions Inc. and on a climate action task force organized by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. He is a regular contributor to several prominent blogs on energy, climate and the environment including Huffington Post, Climate Progress, SolveClimate and the Environmentalist Magazine. He speaks frequently in the United States and Europe on climate

Rob Bernard
Chief Environmental Strategist, Microsoft

Rob Bernard is the Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft and is responsible for defining and implementing the global strategy for the company’s environmental efforts.  In this role he will assess the company’s environmental impact at all levels including: working with product groups to create technology innovations in software and hardware that can help enable customers to minimize their impact on the environment, assuring responsible business practices that work to reduce the company’s direct and indirect environmental impact, and working with partners in industry, government and non-government to engage on global environmental issues. 

Bernard has held various positions during his 10 year career at Microsoft.  He’s served in roles ranging from marketing to business and technical management.  In these positions, he has worked with a variety of teams including the Windows group, MSN, and the Information Worker/Office division. As a Senior Director of Program Management in Office producing software solutions for the Office platform, Rob’s group worked on the project which became the foundation for Microsoft’s joint venture with SAP called “Duet.” As a Product Unit Manager in MSN he was responsible for growing the online shopping platform to handle millions of offers from hundreds of retail partners,  and as Product Planner for Windows Update, he was responsible for designing many of the features and user experience which were the foundation of the updating technologies in Windows.

Most recently, Bernard was General Manager for Microsoft’s Developer and Platform Evangelism team where he was responsible for Microsoft’s relationship with over 100 of the world’s largest Independent Software Vendors.  In this role, Bernard also created programs to help the company manage its relationships and approach to working with over 70,000 ISVs around the globe.  In addition, Bernard also worked on Microsoft’s project with the Clinton Foundation focused on measuring and tracking greenhouse gas emissions for the C40 cities, a tool that will be used by cities around the globe to measure and track their greenhouse gas emissions.

Paolo Bertoldi has a Doctor Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1985 at the University of Padova (Italy). He has been working with the European Commission since 1986. From 1986 to 1993 he was working in the EU nuclear fusion project, Joint Undertaking Torus (JET) in the UK. For 1993 until April 2001, he was Administrator with the European Commission, DG Energy and Transport (DG TREN, Brussels Belgium), in charge of EU regulatory and voluntary programmes for the rational use of energy in end-use equipment, buildings and industry. He was also in charge of negotiated and long term agreements with industry and tertiary sectors and the GreenLight programme. Since May 2001, he is Principal Administrator at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy), in charge of research activities on energy efficiency policy, the efficient use of electricity (ICT, data centres, digital TV) and innovative policy instruments (e.g. white certificates, financing mechanisms, emission trading). He continues to manage the GreenLight, Motor Challenge and Standby Initiative programmes.

Hugh S. Bradlow
Chief Technology Officer for Telstra

Hugh S. Bradlow is Chief Technology Officer for Telstra and is responsible for investigating the future technologies that will impact Telstra’s business.

Prior to joining Telstra in September 1995, Professor Bradlow was Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Wollongong in Australia and Professor of Electrical Engineering (Digital Systems) at the University of Cape Town.

Professor Bradlow is a graduate in electrical engineering from the University of Cape Town in 1973 and received the D.Phil. degree for research in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, an Emeritus Professor of the University of Wollongong, a Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne, and a recipient of a Centenary Medal from the Commonwealth of Australia. He was elected the joint 2009 Australian Telecommunications Ambassador of the Year.

Dr. agr. habil. Ignacio Campino was born in Santiago de Chile on April 13, 1947. He studied agricultural science at the Catholic University with a focus on ecology. After obtaining his doctorate and qualifying as a professor at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, he joined the private sector.

Following several positions involving activities within Germany and abroad, he became Head of the Central Environmental Affairs Office of Deutsche Telekom AG in 1995. Today, Dr. Campino is the Representative of the Board of Management for Sustainability and Climate Change of Deutsche Telekom.

Dr. Campino represents Deutsche Telekom in different initiatives of the business community for combating the consequences of global warming and promoting measures for climate protection at global, European and German level.
Dr. Campino is an experienced and successful specialist in sustainable development. Deutsche Telekom is since years a leading company in matters of sustainability.

He is member of the Information Society Technologies Advisory Group of the European Union and was heading the Working Group Sustainability. He is also a member of the WWF Deutschland Board of Trustees and of the UNESCO Commission’s German National Committee for the World Decade “Education for Sustainable Development.” He was also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

Paul Dickinson
Chief Executive Officer of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)

Paul Dickinson is the Chief Executive Officer of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an independent non-profit organization providing primary corporate climate change information. CDP serves as a system through which organizations and businesses disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies. CDP subsequently uses this data in order to help shape financial and policy decisions with the mission of motivating investors, corporations, and governments to prevent dangerous climate change. This goal is accelerated by CDP’s initiatives to unify corporate CEO’s, investors, and political leaders to take action against climate change. As the only global climate change reporting system, CDP is an essential resource in making effective policy decisions.

Paul Dickinson is also founder and Chair of EyeNetwork. Europe’s largest video conference booking service, and prior to founding CDP, founded and built Rufus Leonard, into a multi-million turnover corporate communications company. Paul is also an established author including Beautiful Corporations (2000 Financial Times Prentice Hall).

Leonard Donnelly is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology with 20 years International ICT industry experience.  He is the new Chairman of Ireland’s National Digital Hub Development Agency which plans to increase employment levels from 1000 digital economy professionals to 10,000 at the Hub over the next 5-7 years.

Concurrently he is Executive Chairman of LocationBridge: A new strategic advisory service for National Governments, Regions and Federation's, specialisng in the formulation of radically new Digital Economy Strategies, Telecom NGN designs, Technologies and Funding models to enable developed and developing economies to leapfrog early into a new Smart Economic era.

Previously, he was Executive Chairman of Intune Networks, a highly disruptive ICT Networking company. In 2003, the company's R&D team solved a fundamental limitation in the use of simplified switching techniques, merged with a new ultrafast optical transport network developed by the company, to create the world’s first flat, high speed, low carbon Terabit network. Intune Networks will prove to be pivotal in delivering the technological changes that are needed to transform today’s networks from being small packet centric to mega-packet centric to cope with the wave of video traffic building in the Internet domain.

In other roles he served as Executive Chairman of Cinehub, Vice President of Network Management, Ericsson and Executive Director, Euristix Telecom Ireland.

Marc Fossier is the Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer for the France Telecom–Orange Group. He was appointed to this newly created executive position on March 2^nd, 2009.

Previously, Marc Fossier has worked over 20 years for France Telecom and has held various positions. He joined France Telecom in 1988 as Head of the Industry Division at the Directorate of Industrial Procurement and International Affairs of France Telecom and later became Chief of Staff of the Chairman and of the CEO of France Telecom, then Vice President, Head of the Payphone and Calling Cards Division. In September 2000, he was appointed at the Executive Committee as Group Executive Vice President Consumer Wireline Services and Group Vice President Public Affairs. Since 2005, he had been the Chief Technology Officer for the Group (Group CTO), in charge of technological strategy, standardization and innovation processes.

After starting his carreer in Industrial Engineering in the USA and in Microelectronics R&D, Marc Fossier served for the French Administration in charge of Industrial Development, and he became Special Advisor to the French Minister for Education, Research and Technology, from 1986 to 1988.

Mr Fossier is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Mines.

Mr Fossier is "Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite".

Laina Raveendran Greene
CEO and Lead Consultant GET-IT, Inc

Laina Raveendran Greene, is CEO and Lead Consultant GET-IT, Inc, a strategic marketing and business planning consulting company based in Silicon Valley focusing on Greening the IT and telecom industry and the use of ICT to help reduce GHG in other industries (www.getit.org). She was the co-producer of the Green Planet documentary at TELECOMTV, and has been actively involved in green related issues professionally as well as personally (lives in a solar powered home.

John D. Halamka
Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

John D. Halamka, MD, MS, is Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Chief Information Officer of Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN),  Chair of the US Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), co-Chair of the HIT Standards Committee,  and a practicing Emergency Physician.

As Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he is responsible for all clinical, financial, administrative and academic information technology serving 3000 doctors, 14000 employees and two million patients.   As Chief Information Officer of Harvard Medical School, he oversees all educational, research and administrative computing for 18000 faculty and 3000 students.    As Chairman of NEHEN he oversees clinical and administrative data exchange in Massachusetts.    As Chair of HITSP/co-Chair of the HIT Standards Committee he coordinates the process of electronic standards harmonization among stakeholders nationwide.

Stephen Harper is Global Director of Environment and Energy Policy for the Intel Corporation.  In that capacity, he manages all of Intel’s engagements with governments globally on environmental and energy issues affecting the company’s products and factories.  Mr. Harper has chaired many high tech industry environmental groups and coalitions.   He currently serves as Chairman of the International Climate Change Partnership (ICCP) and Co-Chairman of the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign (DESC).  Prior to coming to Intel he directed Amoco Petroleum’s regulatory services group and was a Senior Policy Analyst at the US Environmental Protection Agency.  Prior to EPA, he was a Vice President in the environmental policy consulting firm, ICF Consulting. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago and an MPA in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University.

Stefan Henningsson, MSC
Programme Director Climate Change, WWF Sweden Technology and innovation team member, WWF Global Climate Initiative

David W Hsieh
Vice President, Solutions Marketing, Emerging Technologies, Cisco Systems, Inc. 

Michel Jarraud
Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Mr Michel Jarraud is Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) since January 1^st, 2004.  WMO is a United Nations’ specialized agency and the authoritative voice on weather, climate and water (www.wmo.int). WMO also coordinates the activities of the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of its 188 Members.

Before joining WMO as Deputy Secretary-General in January 1995, Mr Jarraud devoted part of his career to the internationally renowned European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). He was appointed Deputy Director of the Centre in 1991 having been Director of the Operational Department since 1990.  From June 1978 to December 1985, he was a researcher in numerical weather prediction at the ECMWF. Mr Jarraud started his career with Météo-France, as a researcher (September 1976 - May 1978). He joined the French National Meteorological Service again in January 1986 as Director of the Weather Forecasting Department, until December 1989.

Mr Jarraud is a scientist and a meteorologist with degrees from the prestigious French Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole de la Météorologie Nationale. He is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (USA), a member of the Société Météorologique de France, the Royal Meteorological Society (United Kingdom), the African Meteorological Society as well as an Honorary Member of the Chinese Meteorological Society and the Cuban Meteorological Society.

Mr Jarraud was born in 1952 in Châtillon-sur-Indre, France.  He is married and is the father of two children.

• Elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2006
• Extensive knowledge of the ITU gained over 25 years
• During 1991-2006 acted as Head or Deputy Head of UK Delegations to all ITU world conferences, assemblies and advisory groups
• Reputation for conciliation, co-operation and innovation
• Proposed the new Global Standards Collaboration (Sydney, 2001)
• Chaired the Reform Group on standardization prior to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2002
• Initiated many reforms in the ITU-T to speed-up the work and increase the role of the private sector
• Established the Commonwealth ITU Group in 2002 and chaired it until 2006
• Developed the process for regional preparations for ITU conferences, established and chaired first interregional group to prepare for an ITU conference (1995)
• During 1988-1992 worked in the European Commission – responsible for the projects and legislation supporting the development of the GSM and DECT technical standards
• Represented the European Commission in CEPT and the European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI)
• Has been responsible for many new initiatives in the management, structure and functioning of the ITU

Arthur Levin was the lead ITU staff member in the organization of the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society and has served as a senior policy adviser and legal counselor with the Union.  He organized and was Executive Secretary of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conferences in 2002 and 2006 and is presently Head of Standardization Policy (TSB. 

He also holds an appointment as an adjunct professor of law at the Franklin Pierce Law Center in the United States, where he teaches a course on International Telecommunications Law and the Internet.

He previously served as Legal Adviser of the OECD in Paris and as a senior attorney with regulatory agencies in the United States and with private law firms in Washington, D.C.  He has published numerous articles and books on regulatory topics.

Salah Eddine Maaoui
Director General of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU)

• Started his career in the journalism field and was Editor in Chief of the daily French language news paper “La Presse”, then becoming the Director of this news paper.

• Held several positions related to information and broadcasting , mainly, Director General of the Tunisian Radio and Television Establishment, Director General of the Tunisian External Communications Agency and member of the ( Tunisian )High Communication Council.

• He also assumed ministerial and diplomatic responsibilities as Minister of Tourism and Handicraft, Delegate Minister for Communication, and Ambassador of Tunisia in Riyadh (K.S.A).

Catalina McGregor
UK Government Deputy Champion Green ICT (United Kingdom)

Mrs McGregor has been named “one of the most significant drivers of Green ICT in the western world” by Computer Weekly.  She is Founder and Government Deputy Champion of the Chief Information Officer’s (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer’s (CTO) Green ICT Delivery Unit (GDU) of the Cabinet Office. It is this Unit that published the UK's Greening Government ICT Strategy and is today delivering pan-government CIO Roadmaps for sustainable ICT. She leads the Ministry of Defence pan-MoD Green ICT Strategy Unit and is also Co-Chair of the SOCITM Local Government Green ICT working group where Green ICT best practice and KPI's are reviewed and developed.

Mrs. McGregor serves Internationally at The United Nations Agency, ITU, as its ITU-T JCA Green ICT Liaison Officer to the OECD and European Commission. She also works with a number of International climate change and environmental groups including Global Action Plan European Leaders in IT (ELIT) and the UK WEEE Directive sub group for the re-use and resale of electronic goods.

Prior to the Cabinet Office she served two consecutive appointments to the UK Ministry of Defence: DCSA DFN and DE&S DSA where she was Chief Whitehall Advisor. Prior to the MoD she was Director, Central Government Departments for a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) initiative called The National Aggregation Board (NAB). She has a comprehensive private sector IT background and was formerly Head of e-business and e-commerce for Richemont Luxury Group holding a significant portfolio of International ICT e-business financial investments.

Luis brings fourteen years in International Telecommunications to the GeSI Board. He is currently serving as Head of Sustainable Development and Environment at Deutsche Telekom. He has served as the Deputy General Secretary of Communications International, and worked for 25 years for Marconi (now Portugal Telecom) as Department Head. He was a permanent member of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications in the European Union and "Chair" of diverse Work groups. Luis has been involved with GeSI since 2004.

Tom Phillips has degrees in Physics and Business Administration and is a Chartered Engineer with over 20 years experience in the telecoms industry.  In the 1980’s Tom led British Aerospace’s satellite communications business development activities in South East Asia.

In 1990, he helped start mobile operator Orange, where he led the company’s UK licence application, and then joined PA Consulting Group’s London Practice, where he worked for global clients on strategy and market analysis assignments.

In 1995, Tom joined Cable & Wireless as Strategy Director and was later appointed Group Director, Public Policy, responsible for Cable & Wireless’s relationships with governments, regulators and policy influencers, across their 55 country footprint.

Tom joined the GSM Association in March 2004, as Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, where he leads the public policy agenda with governments, on behalf of the Association’s 700+ operator members, who in turn deliver service to over 2.5 billion mobile users, world-wide.

Jean Réveillon took up the position of EBU Secretary General on 1 February 2004. Following certain changes to the EBU statutes, Jean Réveillon became EBU Director General, effective 5 July 2007. 

Prior to this, Jean Réveillon was Deputy Director-General and Director of broadcasting at France 3 as of December 1999.

From 1992 to 1998, Jean Réveillon was Director of sport at France 2 and France 3. From 1990 to 1992, he was Director of France 3 Nord/Pas-de-Calais/Picardie and from 1984 to 1990 Director of development at La Voix du Nord. From 1967 to 1984, Jean Réveillon worked as a sports journalist, deputy head and then head of sports services at La Voix du Nord (regional daily) and editor-in-chief of La Voix des Sports.

He is the author of two books: "Le Dakar, une aventure, un rêve" (1984 - Presse de la Cité) and "Le désert au coeur" (1989 - Olivier Orban). Jean Réveillon is a knight of the Légion d'Honneur (2005) and of the Ordre National du Mérite, winner of the Prix Henri Desgranges awarded by the Académie des Sports (1998), holder of the Medal of Honour of the Senate (1997) and the Trophée Lumière du Communiquant Nord/Pas-de-Calais (1999).
 

George Rittenhouse
Vice-President of Bell Labs Research, Alcatel-Lucent

Gee Rittenhouse is Vice President of Bell Labs Research, overseeing all research centers and activities for Alcatel-Lucent.  In this role he has overall responsibility for technology creation and delivery into the broader company. Prior to this he headed the Bell Labs' Technology Integration Group, with the primary mission of taking Bell Labs research assets and innovations and driving them, through development activities and project management, into Alcatel-Lucent products and services.  In this position Gee was closely connected with all of Alcatel-Lucent's business divisions, interlocking their needs and strategies with Bell Labs' research activities, priorities, and innovations areas.  Before that Gee was Vice President, Bell Labs Wireless Research. 

Gee received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1986.  Then in 1993 he received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He joined Bell Laboratories as a member of technical staff in 1993 where he worked on high-speed circuits using X-ray lithography for optical networking applications.  In 2002 he received the Bell Labs Fellow Award.  He has numerous publications and patents in the areas of communications and circuits.

Stephan Scholz
Chief Technology Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks

Stephan Scholz is the Chief Technology Officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. Since the foundation of Nokia Siemens Networks in 2007 he is responsible in this capacity for all research projects, future technology developments, standardization activities, IPR-strategy as well as company-wide platform developments. 

He joined Siemens in 1990 after graduating from the Technische Universität München and the Max Planck Institute for High Energy Physics.
In Siemens Communications he was heading the Carrier Development worldwide being responsible for all carrier products including softswitches, gateways and next generation applications like IPTV, and their respective network management.

Previous to this, he was Senior Vice President of Wireline Networks Carrier Convergence, Vice President of Product Management at Siemens’ Wireline Networks Carrier Switching Division, and held various sales, marketing and business management positions at Siemens Information Communication Networks, in the United States from 1997 to 1999.

Björn Stigson
President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

Björn Stigson has extensive experience in international business. He began his career as a financial analyst with the Swedish Kockums Group. From 1971-82 he held various positions in finance, operations and marketing with ESAB, the international supplier of equipment for welding. In 1983-91 he was President and CEO of the Fläkt Group, a company listed on the Stockholm stock exchange and the world leader in environmental control technology. Following the acquisition of Fläkt by ABB, in 1991 he became Executive Vice President and a member of ABB Asea Brown Boveri’s Executive Management Group. In 1995 he was appointed President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a coalition of some 200 leading international corporations.         

Dr Hamadoun Touré was elected Secretary-General at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in November 2006 and took office on 1 January 2007.

He served as Director BDT from 1998 until 2006.

Born on 3 September 1953, Hamadoun Touré holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad (LEIS, USSR) and Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow (MTUCI, Russia).

Dr Touré is committed to make ITU an innovative, forward looking organization adapted to meeting the challenges created by the new ICT environment and to spearhead the Union towards implementing the resolutions of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As Director BDT from 1999 until 2006, he played a significant role in the WSIS process by launching numerous projects based on partnership building with International Organizations, Governments, Civil Society and the Private Sector.

He is married with four children and two granddaughters.

Prior to his election as Director of BDT in 1998, Dr Hamadoun Touré was Africa's Regional General Manager for ICO Global Communications (1996–1998). He spearheaded the company's activities from its Africa Regional Office in South Africa, where he laid the foundation to ensure the successful introduction and operation of ICO's regional operations: marketing and network distribution, coordination with service partners, regulators and operators of fixed, mobile and special services.

He joined the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) in December 1985 where he occupied several important positions. From 1986 to 1990, he was Telecommunications Officer of INTELSAT Assistance and Development Programme (IADP). In this capacity he participated in several IADP projects including the design of earth stations, feasibility studies for domestic satellite communication systems and the implementation of technologies such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and demand assignment multiple access (DAMA) in several developing countries.

From 1990 to 1994, he was INTELSAT's Director for the Africa Region and later served as the Group Director for Africa and the Middle East from 1994 to 1996. During this time, he took an active part in the continental initiative launched by the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM) to pool trans¬ponders on the INTELSAT system. He pioneered studies for regional interconnectivity and worked closely with all African and the Middle East countries to enhance the development of their telecommunication infrastructure. In these positions he managed annual revenue budgets of more than USD 115 million.

He is well known for his steadfast commitment to projects such as AFROSAT, AFSAT, PANAFTEL (Pan-African Telecommunications Network), as well as for his contributions to numerous conferences and meetings of ITU, INTELSAT, RASCOM, PATU (Pan-African Telecommunications Union), PANAFTEL and CAPTAC (Conference of Post and Telecommunication Administrations of Central Africa).

On the national scene, he was Manager of the Sulymanbougou II earth station in Bamako, Mali, where he coordinated activities between the country's national Office des postes et télécommunications (OPT) and TELEMALI in 1985. Later that year, he headed OPT's Satellite Communications Section.

From 1981 to 1984, he was Engineer in charge of operation and maintenance of the International Satellite earth station in Bamako, Mali. He interfaced with the International Switching Centre in Bamako in 1980 and with the PANAFTEL microwave terminal from October 1979.

His sound operation and maintenance of satellite communications earth stations earned him the reputation of a committed manager.

Dr Touré's language and negotiating skills help him to efficiently broker agreements in several international arenas. He is proficient in three official languages of the Union: English, French and Russian.

• Decorations and honorary titles
• Knight of the National Order of Mali
• Officer of the National Order of Côte d’Ivoire
• Doctorate honoris causa from the Odessa National Academy of Telecommunications (Ukraine)
• Honorary Citizen of the city of Grecia (Costa Rica)

Alexandre VASSILIEV
Counsellor of ITU-R Study Group 7

Mr. Alexandre Vassiliev, Counsellor of ITU-R Study Group 7 (Science services) and Working Party 5B (Maritime and aeronautical mobile, and radiodetermination services), BR Focal point on Emergency Radiocommunications and Radiocommunications and Climate Change.

Alexandre VASSILIEV has worked in the ITU since 1989 in Radiocommunication services and in the Study Group departments. He participated in development and maintenance of several Frequency Plans for terrestrial and space services, as well as in many World and Regional Radiocommunication Conferences, Radiocommunication Assemblies, Forums and seminars. He represented ITU at meetings of UN Agencies, Regional Groups and other national and international organizations.

Prior to joining ITU, Mr VASSILIEV worked as the Deputy Director of the Leningrad’s regional radio research and development institute (LONIIR). He was responsible for departments carrying out the studies in spectrum management and development of equipment for satellite and radio-relay systems.

Hans Vestberg
First Executive President of the Ericsson Group

Appointed President and Chief Executive Officer, Ericsson Group, as of January 1, 2010

Hans Vestberg is First Executive President of the Ericsson Group, the world's leading provider of telecommunications solutions and related services to mobile and fixed network operators. Ericsson is the largest supplier of mobile communications technologies as well as a leader in broadband solutions. Working in 175 countries, Ericsson has more than 82,500 employees and generated revenue of USD 27 billion (SEK 209 billion) in 2008. The company was founded in 1876 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Together with the rest of Ericsson’s management team, Vestberg is focused on advancing the company‘s vision of ‘An all communicating world’ through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions.

Vestberg was born 1965 in Hudiksvall, Sweden. He graduated from Uppsala University with a Bachelor of Business Administration.

After graduation in 1991, he joined Ericsson in Hudiksvall. In June 1992 Vestberg started as Financial Analyst of Asia, Africa and Latin America and was partly located in China. In 1994 Vestberg was appointed Financial Director at Ericsson in Chile. Between 1995 and 2002 he held various positions within finance for Ericsson in Brazil and the USA. In 2002 he was appointed CEO and President of Ericsson in Mexico. And in July 2003 he was appointed Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Global Services. Vestberg became CFO and Head of Finance in October 2007. Hans Vestberg is appointed President and Chief Executive Officer as of January 1, 2010.

Vestberg’s board assignments; Board member, Vice Chairman Audit Committee and Vice Chairman Finance Committee of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. Board member and Vice Chairman Audit committee at ST-Ericsson. President, Swedish Handball Federation.

Hans Vestberg is a founding member of the United Nations Digital Health Initiative's Advisory Board, and speaks frequently about the role of telecommunications in helping to solve some of the global challenges of our time, including climate change.

Mr. Younes is presently the Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN). He is responsible for NASA's space communications and navigation infrastructure and services. Mr. Younes manages the SCAN Program Office at NASA Headquarters and oversees all NASA telecommunications and navigation projects and networks, including NASA's Space Network (SN), Near-earth Network (NEN), and Deep Space Network (DSN). Mr. Younes is also responsible for data standards and spectrum for the Agency as well as the development of enabling technologies critical to meeting the Agency's vision for an integrated SCaN architecture aligned with NASA's future space exploration needs.

Prior to returning to NASA in 2007, Mr. Younes was the DoD Director for Spectrum Management with responsibility for spectrum policy and strategic planning and implementation for the Department of Defense. Under his leadership, the Department has successfully negotiated major win-win agreements with the FCC, NTIA, and US private sector. He has successfully led the DoD spectrum management organization to become more proactive in addressing RF and spectrum issues and has been instrumental in transforming the management and use of the electromagnetic spectrum within and outside the Department. He has played a lead and positive role in developing the Presidential Initiative Recommendations on Spectrum Reform.

Mr. Younes' experience spans over twenty five years of leadership in microwave and RF systems engineering and technology. His interpersonal skills and rich linguistic ability have been instrumental in furthering US objectives both nationally and abroad. He has over ten years of involvement in various forums of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and has provided direct support to US ambassadors to three World Radio Conferences (WRCs).