Jean Marie Altema is a Computer Science Engineer. He is also Assistant Coordinator at the Presidential Commission for Innovation and Socio-professional Integration of Youth in Haiti. Mr Altema has been​​ a Senior ICT Adviser in capacity development, strategy and digital governance, telecom regulation, cyber security and internet governance. Mr Altema was Director General of the National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL). Prior to joining CONATEL, he held the position of Coordinator of the e-Governance Unit at the Prime Minister's Office and ICT Advisor to the Prime Minister. He is the founder of profIT Development Consulting, a consulting firm in strategy and digital governance. Mr Altema created his blog www.altemajeanmarie.com​ to better communicate about the ICT sector and engage the stakeholders.

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Mr Aluvula is currently the Manager Special Projects with the telecommunications regulator in Papua New Guinea, the National ICT Authority or NICTA. His post is attached to the Office of the CEO. His role as Manager Special Projects include the development and implementation of appropriate plans, policies, codes and guidelines for the fair and cost efficient regulation of the telecommunications industry in PNG. Some of the recent projects he is currently involved in include the Sim Card registration, Cybersecurity CERT establishment and the analogue to digital television migration to name a few. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the PNG University of Technology as well as an MBA from James Cook University, Australia.

 

Supavadee Aramvith received the B.S. (first class honors) degree in Computer Science from Ma-hidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, in 1993. She received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, in 1996 and 2001, respectively. She joined Chulalongkorn University in June 2001. Currently, she is an Associate Professor and Head of Digital Signal Processing Laboratory at Department of Electrical Engineering. Her specializations are Video Communication Technology researches. She published over 120 papers in International Conference Proceedings and Journals with 4 International Book Chapters. She is one of the author of the ITU book, “ICT-centric economic growth, innovation, and job creation.” She has rich project management experiences as the project leader and technical advisor to the NBTC and the formerly MICT of Thailand. In addition, she is very active in international arena with JICA Project for AUN/SEED-Net, IEEE, IEICE, and APSIPA. She is currently a member, IEEE Educational Activi-ties Board (EAB) and Chair, IEEE EAB Pre-University Education Coordination Committee.​

 

Carlos Baca is currently coordinator of the research area in Redes por la Diversidad, Equidad y Sustentabilidad A.C., an organization that works to support communitarian and indigenous communication and communication processes. He has a doctorate in Sociology at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades - BUAP in Puebla, Mexico. In this same institution, he developed his Master's studies in Sociology and, previously, his Bachelor's Degree in Communication Sciences from the UDLAP. He is a professor in the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Campus Puebla. He has collaborated in different communication projects for social change and since 2010 teaches in different universities in the city of Puebla.

 

Mr Brian Bosire, Founder​, UjuziKilimo & HydroIQ, Kenya

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Ms Jennifer Britton, Deputy Programme Manager, ICT for Development (ICT4D) for CARICOM Secretariat, Guyana

​​​Mr Adrián Carballo, Board Member, CCAT LAT and SSIG

​​​H.E.​ Dr Margarita Cedeño​, Vice President of the Dominican Republic

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Mr Albert Daniels, Senior Manager for Stakeholder Engagement for the Caribbean, ICANN​

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Dr Virginia Dignum, Associate Professor, Social Artificial Intelligence, Delft University, Netherlands

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Dr Hopeton Dunn, Professor of Communications Policy and Digital Media, University of the West Indies, Jamaica

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Ms Belinda Exelby, Head of International Relations, GSMA

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Dr Mario Ferreira, Continuing Education Manager, INATEL, Brazil

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Dr Anna Förster, Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, University of Bremen, Germany

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Ms Sonia Gill, Secretary General and Board Member, Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), Barbados

Mr Gustav Gonzalez, Founder, MaeFloresta, Colombia

Mr Oscar Martín González, Undersecretary of Regulation, Ministry of Modernization, Argentina

Rolando M. Guzman holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a Master's in Pure Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also holds a Master's in Quantitative Economics from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil). He is also an alumni of the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. His career includes activities in public administration, private management, consulting, and economy and social research. He has been Director of Strategic Planning and Market Intelligence in the Telecommunications Sector, Director of Economic Research of the National Planning Office (ONAPLAN) and Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Economics. As a researcher, he has provided consulting services to various national and international agencies, such as the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Econo​mic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Rolando Guzman has authored or co-authored more than ten books and dozens of national and international publications. An essential part of his contributions has been directed to the analysis of the Dominican educational sector and its links with economic development, international competitiveness and the dynamics of the labor market. In addition, his work extends to the topics of macroeconomic policies, technological innovation, and income distribution.In 2011 he was elected as President of INTEC.

James Hendler is the Director of the Institute for Data Exploration and Applications and the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI. He also heads the RPI-IBM Center for Health Empowerment by Analytics, Learning and Semantics (HEALS) and serves as a Chair of the Board of the UK’s charitable Web Science Trust. Hendler has authored over 350 books, technical papers and articles in the areas of Semantic Web, artificial intelligence, agent-based computing and high performance processing. One of the originators of the “Semantic Web,” Hendler was the recipient of a 1995 Fulbright Foundation Fellowship, is a former member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board, and is a Fellow of the AAAI, BCS, the IEEE, the AAAS and the ACM. In 2013, he was appointed as the Open Data Advisor to New York State and in 2015 appointed a member of the US Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee and in 2016, became a member of the National Academies Board on Research Data and Information. In 2017, Hendler joined the Director’s Advisory Committee for the National Security Directorate of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His most recent book is “Socisal Machines: the coming collision of artificial intelligence, social networks and humanity” (Apress, 2017).

Dr. Toni Janevski is a full professor in telecommunications at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies (FEEIT), Ss. Cyril and Methodius University (UKIM), Skopje, Macedonia. During 1996-1999 he worked for T-Mobile, Macedonia. From 1999 he is with FEEIT. During 2005-2008 he was Member of the Commission of the Agency for Electronic Communications in Macedonia. In 2008-2016 he was Member of the Senate of UKIM. In 2009 he established at FEEIT an ITU Centre of Excellence. He is author of several books from well-known publishers, including “Traffic Analysis and Design of Wireless IP Networks”, Artech House, 2003; "NGN Architectures, Protocols and Services", Wiley, 2014; "Internet Technologies for Fixed and Mobile Networks", Artech House, 2015. He received “Goce Delchev” state award for science in 2012, and “UKIM best scientists” award for 2013 (both can be received once in a lifetime). He successfully tutored many ITU Academy courses since 2009.

 

Ms. Patricia Kerretts - Kemei is a Human Resource Professional having practiced for over 15 years and is currently the Manager/Talent Management & Organization Development at the Communications Authority of Kenya. Patricia obtained her Masters in Business Administration from University of Nairobi, and is a certified Ethics Officer under the Institute of Ethics (South Africa). She is a member of the Institute of Human Resource Management and alumni of Kenya Institute of Management. Patricia has been involved in the area of learning and organizational wealth, knowledge management, performance management, strategy and change management and has championed many initiatives at the workplace. She has also been involved in developing and influencing inclusion of curriculum on ethics and child-on-line protection in conjunction with the Ministry for State for Public Service and Kenya School of Government.Patricia is passionate about community development and the​ use of ICTs in alleviating poverty and currently serves as a Director at Kamasai Education Centre, Nandi County. She has also served as Board member of Communications Sacco.

Paolo is a lawyer, specialized in IP law, and a member of both the Spanish and the Italian Bar Association. He works in the Copyright Law Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); he is part of the restricted team of lawyers dealing with all the copyright substantive matters within the Organization, ranging from legislative and policy advice to Member States to training and capacity building for both public and private sector. He was directly involved in all substantial and procedural matters leading to the adoption of the two latest IP treaties adopted at the international level; namely the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances (2012) and the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or otherwise Print Disabled (2013). He manages a number of projects in areas at the intersection between copyright law and new technologies, such as Internet Intermediaries, User Generated Content, Software and Videogames protection, new business models, access to knowledge initiatives and emerging licensing schemes. Before joining WIPO in 2007, Paolo practiced in the IP department of the law firm Uría Menéndez Abogados LLP in Madrid (Spain), and worked in the legal department of the Spanish collecting society, Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE). ​An Italian National, he speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish. He holds an Italian and a Spanish LL.B. and an LL.M. from the Autonomous University of Madrid.

 

Halima Letamo currently works as a Training and Development officer for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). She works for the human capacity building division which is responsible for ITU’s training interventions and human capacity development support to the ITU membership. She holds a master of Business Administration degree and a Master of Education degree as well as 20 years work experience in human capacity development, spread across service in the Botswana Government, UNESCO, Botswana Training Regulator, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation and ITU. Her international service includes chairing the programme for development and training of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation and serving in the organisations governing board. She is a change management practitioner and holds other professional qualifications such as Project Management, Balanced Score Card, Targeted Selection, Human Rights Based Approach to Programming and Implementation of Quality Management Systems

 

Mr Patrick Masambu was elected as the Director General of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO) at the organization’s Assembly of Parties meeting held in Washington, D.C in October 2016. Previously, Mr Masambu served as the Deputy Director General and Director of Technical Affairs at ITSO Headquarters in Washington, D.C for a period of 7 years. In this role, he made significant contributions to top level decision making in ITSO as well as related key satellite industry initiatives. 

In the period prior to the year 2010, Mr Masambu held several top level management positions in Uganda’s telecommunications sector, where as the founding Chief Executive of the country’s communications regulatory agency, the Uganda Communications Commission, he had the opportunity to spearhead the country’s telecommunications and ICT reforms, operations and regulation. Mr Masambu has also actively led and participated in the design, development and implementation of various works and initiatives at regional and international level institutions such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), African Telecommunications Union (ATU), World Bank and a number of Academic Institutions. Mr Masambu holds MBA and B.Sc(Engineering)(Hons) degrees; a Postgraduate Diploma in Telecommunications Systems Management and several certificates in specialized disciplines in telecommunications; regulation and ICT.

Mr Mazara is a professional in economics and finance, a professor and researcher. He graduated in Business Administration and has a master in Financial Economics from the University of Chile in 2000. He has completed a postgraduate in Public Services Regulation and Defense of Competition at the Center for Economic Studies for Regulation (CEER) of the Argentine University of Business (UADE) in 2002. Mr Mazara also graduated from the Telecommunications Senior Management Program of the Telecommunications Executive Management Institute of Canada (TEMIC) in 2003. He is a member of the DR-CAFTA Negotiating Team (Trade Capacity Building) in 2004 and a manager of Concessions and Licenses of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL) from 2000 to 2004. In the period 2006-2010 he was the Director of the Economics Degree at the School of Business Administration and Business Technological Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC). In addition, Mr Mazara is a professor of Social Policies and Governance Training and Political Management for Youth USAID, CIES and CEGES-INTEC in 2006-2008. He is also a professor at the PUCMM and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). Mr Mazara​ has been a consultant to international organizations such as IDB, UNDP and UNFPA.

Dr Maurice McNaughton is an Engineering Graduate of the University of the West Indies and holds a PhD in Decision Sciences at Georgia State University. He has over 20 years senior management and leadership experience in the planning and direction of enterprise-level Information Technology in organizations. His research interest spans the domain of Open ICT ecosystems and integrates extensive industry experience with focused academic research about the strategic use of ICTs as an enabler of business innovation in small and large enterprises, as well as a growth-enabler for developing economies. Dr​ McNaughton is currently Director of the Centre of Excellence for IT-enabled Innovation at the Mona School of Business & Management and is currently doing active research in the areas of Open/Big Data, Mobile Financial Services, and Open Source platforms. He is a founding member of the Caribbean Open Institute, a regional coalition of Caribbean organizations that engages and works with regional governments, researchers, journalists, technologists, NGOs, and academics, to raise awareness, strengthen capacity, and foster collaborations towards the adoption of open development approaches.

A development specialist with more than 15 years of experience in developing countries and international organizations, Luciana was United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) advisor on poverty reduction and international trade policies, with special focus on capacity building programmes fo r Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, with field experience in Asian and African countries. She led UNDP’s contribution to the Aid for Trade initiative of the World Trade Organization as well as the global monitoring of MDG 8 (partnerships and financing for development). Before joining UNDP, she served as trade officer in the Ministry of Economy and Production of Argentina with leadership in multilateral and regional trade negotiations focused on non-agricultural products, trade rules, dispute settlement, South-South cooperation and multilateral environmental agreements. She was a researcher at the Economic Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Chile focusing on fiscal and trade policies. She holds two master's degrees in Public Policy (Georgetown University) and International Development (New York University), and currently serves as Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP in the Dominican Republic, where she leads the programme and operations of the organization in the country, with a strong focus on sustainable development policies vis-à-vis SDG mainstreaming, implementation and monitoring.​

 

Dr. Fengchun Miao is the Chief of the Unit for ICT in Education at UNESCO, Education Sector, Headquarters in Paris. He is leading UNESCO Education Sector’s programmes in areas of ICT in education policy planning and development, ICT competency standards for teachers and students (ICT CFT), Open Educational Resources (OER), mobile learning and AI for education, and future e-schools. He is also in charge of UNESCO Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education. He has launched the following major ICT in education events of UNESCO: International Conferences on ICT and SDG 4 for Education 2030 which has been convened twice (2015 and 2017) , UNESCO Mobile Learning Weeks (for seven years consecutively since 2011), Asia-Pacific Ministerial Forums on ICT in Education which has been organized for five times since 2010, and African Ministerial Forums on ICT in Education which has been organized twice. 

He has directly planned and organized more than 30 workshops on ICT in education policy development for more than 1000 policy makers from over 50 countries, and 15 workshop on OER policy development for more than 20 countries. Before joining UNESCO, Dr. Miao was the Director-General of the National Research Centre for Computer Education, Ministry of Education, China. In that capacity, he was responsible for the development of ICT in education policy and ICT curriculum standards for students and managing the National Association for the Use of ICT in K-12 Schools of China.

 

Luis Henry Molina is the current president of INDOTEL. He studied Law at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and did a Master's Degree in Public Law, mention of Constitutional Law from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He was Deputy Minister of the Presidency and Executive Director of the Center for Exports and Investments of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD). Founding Director of the National School of the Judiciary institution that managed to position itself as a model school in Latin America. He is also the former Executive Director of the National Commission for the Execution of the Criminal Procedure Reform (CONAEJ). He was the first general secretary of the Ibero-American Network of Judicial Schools (RIAEJ). He has contributed to the creation of networks of judicial schools in the Mexican states (REJEM) and the Argentine provinces (REFLEJAR), in the Euro Social Project of the European Union and as coordinator of the E-justice Project: justice in the knowledge society, of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit. He worked as an associate lawyer of the firm Pellerano & Herrera and executive director of the Commissioner of Support for the Reform and Modernization of Justice. He has served as a professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra. Where he taught the subjects: History of Law, Introduction to Law, Comparative Law at the bachelor's level; and Constitutional Law, at the bachelor's and master's level; and in the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), as well as in the Judicial Power, in the Master of Constitutional Law. In January 2011, he founded Connexting, SRL, a consulting firm that supports the strategic and business development of companies and institutions. There he offered services to companies, organizations and leaders in the formulation and development of successful strategies, in increasing the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of organizations, with emphasis on the information systems approach, the paradigm of the network society, information and communication technologies and advocacy capabilities.

 

Nizar Ben Neji is an Associate Professor and a researcher at the University of Carthage in Tunisia and former US Fulbright visiting scholar at the Massachusetts University. He has more than 14 years of experience in Cybersecurity consultancy and training. Dr. Ben Neji worked as Project Manager at the Tunisian Government Certification Authority (ANCE) of the Ministry of ICT in Tunisia and was member of several national steering committees and working groups in charge of supervising and conducting National PKI related projects such as TUNEPS (Tunisian Online E-Procurement System) and the National committee in charge of revising the cybersecurity and cybercriminality law in Tunisia. To date, Dr. Ben Neji is delivering professional seminars at an international level in wide variety of subjects related to cybersecurity and cybercriminality with ITU Centres of excellence (International Telecommunication Union), CTO (Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization) and AICTO (Arab Information and Communication Technology Organization).​

Mike Nxele is the Senior Human Capacity Building Officer in the Human Capacity Building division of the Bureau of Telecommunications Development of ITU. He is based at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva. In this capacity, Mike is responsible for providing advice and support to ITU member states and sector members in developing their human and institutional capacities to fully leverage the benefits of ICTs. Mike has over 30 years' experience in the field of human resources and human capital development. Prior to joining ITU in 2002, Mike Nxele worked as Director Human Resources for ten years within the incumbent fixed telecommunications operator in his native country, Zimbabwe. ​

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Mr Lee Rainie, Director of Internet and Technology Research, Pew Research Center