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| Seizo Onoe, Director, ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau
Seizo Onoe took office as Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023.
Before his election as TSB Director by ITU Member States, he completed an over 30-year career with Japanese mobile operator NTT DOCOMO. In 2021, he became Executive Vice President and Chief Standardization Strategy Officer for the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation and a Fellow of NTT DOCOMO, INC. From 2017, he served as NTT DOCOMO’s Chief Technology Architect and President of its subsidiary DOCOMO Technology.
Between 2012 and 2017, he served as NTT DOCOMO’s Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, a Member of the Board of Directors, and Managing Director of R&D Innovation Division. Earlier, he served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of NTT DOCOMO’s R&D Strategy Department and Managing Director of the company’s Radio Network Development Department.
As TSB Director, he heads the part of ITU responsible for the coordination of technical standards and collaborative standardization processes that enable the interconnection and interoperability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) worldwide.
Mr Onoe is committed to facilitating open and inclusive standardization processes, along with promoting digital technologies to address global issues, building a new ecosystem that reflects evolving technologies, and strengthening cooperation and collaboration in ICT standardization worldwide.
Known in the industry as “the father of LTE” (Long-Term Evolution), he helped upgrade the wireless broadband standard for mobile devices and networks. He now aims for global outreach to bridge standardization gaps, deliver the benefits of technology widely and speedily, and ensure meaningful and affordable broadband access for everyone.
Mr Onoe holds a Master’s degree in electronics from the Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering.
Mr Onoe is married and has two children.
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| Jaroslaw Ponder, Head, ITU Office for Europe
Mr Ponder is Head of the ITU Office for Europe at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (Geneva, Switzerland). Within the last years Mr. Ponder has been carrying out numerous projects, activities and initiatives at national, regional and international levels. He has been taking lead role in many international conferences and summits dealing with fostering ICT innovation and development of ICT ecosystem, information society, and advancements of digital economy worldwide, while setting strategies and ensuring their timely implementation. Along the professional career Mr. Ponder held official positions in the public sector and was a contributor to the legislative projects having impact on the public policy. Since 2014 Mr. Ponder has been working for ITU, in Market, Economics and Finance Unit (MEF/ITU), Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU/ITU), Project and Initiatives Department (PRI/ITU). From year 2008 upon his former duties he has acted as Europe Officer (EUR/ITU) as well as Project Manager for European Centres of Excellence Network (CoE-EUR). In August 2008 he was appointed as Coordinator for Europe. After successful recreation of the coordination for the region in 2009 he moved to the General Secretariat becoming Strategy and Policy Coordinator and one year later Senior Strategy and Policy Advisor with the objective to lead the ITU activities on World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS; United Nation Process on ICTs) and its 10 year review, amongst the others successfully establishing prime platforms, i.e. WSIS Forum, WSIS Prizes, WSIS Stocktaking, and organizing WSIS+10 High Level Event (2014) that resulted in negotiated texts. In parallel, since 2011 he has been working as Coordinator for Europe strengthening coordination and implementation mechanism. In 2017 he became the Head of ITU Office for Europe, directing actions, projects, initiatives, experts groups targeting 45 countries and representing ITU in Europe.
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| Mihail Ion, National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM); Chair of the CEPT-COM-ITU project team on ITU -T issues
Bachelor’s degree in International Economic Affairs. Working in European Affairs on ICT/TELECOM issues for as long as I can remember. I’ve had an interesting journey from the Romanian MFA where I learned the public administration mechanisms and am continuing to work for the national regulator. Passionate about economic regulation and grateful to work with people from cultures all over the world.
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| Lidia Stępińska-Ustasiak, International Collaboration Expert, KIGEIT, Poland; Member of the Group on Capacity Building Initiatives (GCBI); Public Affairs Advisor, T-Mobile, Polska
Public Policy and Public Affairs Expert with 20 years of experience gathered in telecommunication and ICT sectors (T-Mobile, Orange and UPC Poland). Sociologist focused on the social impact of technology, digital skills, and implications of ICT for human and institutional capacity building. Co-author of reports, author of publications, lecturer and public speaker. Worked also for research institution as an analyst and sociologist at ITECH Institute of Innovation and Technology, and Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw. Previously deputy director of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE), the regulator of the telecommunication and postal markets in Poland, in charge of the International Organizations Unit as well as the Social and Economic Cooperation Unit, responsible for collaboration with the United Nations agencies, OECD and other international organizations, UKE’s relations with chambers of commerce (NTAs), units of public administration and academic institutions. In 2019 Chairwoman of the Steering Committee of the International Telecommunication Union Centres of Excellence network of partners specializing in telecommunications and ICT training. Since 2018 member of the Group on Capacity Building Initiatives, advising the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau and appointed to the position of chairwoman in 2019. |
| Per Fröjdh, Vice President International Standards, Ericsson; Vice-Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16 on Multimedia; Vice-Chairman of ITU-T Focus Group on Metaverse
Per Fröjdh has more than three decades of experience in research and innovation. He received his MSc and PhD degrees after studies at Chalmers University in Gothenburg and at Imperial College in London. Subsequent to postdoctoral appointments in Seattle and Copenhagen he was professor of theoretical physics at Stockholm University before joining Ericsson as manager of video research and standardization. Per has contributed to the AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265 standards for video compression, the DASH streaming format and the ISO base media file format in MPEG, for which he was recognized with an Emmy Award. He served on the advisory committee for W3C and has been editor of 15 standards in MPEG, ITU-T, 3GPP and IETF. He is currently the Multimedia Chair at the Swedish Institute for Standards, Vice Chair of ITU-T Study Group 16 on multimedia, Vice Chair of ITU-T Focus Group on metaverse, Treasurer and Board Director of the DASH Industry Forum and Steering Board Member of DVB. He also serves as Vice President and Board Director of the Media Coding Industry Forum.
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| Fryderyk Lewicki, Orange Polska, Poland; Chairman of ITU-T Working Party 1/5
Fryderyk Lewicki received MSc and PhD degrees from the Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland). He is also a graduate of several telecommunication programs provided by the United States Telecommunication Training Institute in Washington DC (1990-1992). Since 1985 he joined the Research and Development Division (Orange Labs Poland) of Orange Poland where he has a position of the Manager on Antennas, Propagation and EMC. He is V-ce Chairman of the ITU-T SG5 WP2/5 “Electromagnetic fields: emission, immunity and, human exposure” and for the third term the Rapporteur for Question 7/5 “Human Exposure to EMF due to Radio Systems and Mobile Equipment”. In the ITU-R SG3 “Radiowave propagation” he is chairman of the Sub Working Party SWP 3K-2 “Path general propagation method”. He is also Past chair of the Polish Chapter of the IEEE EMC Society. The main fields of his activity are: antenna systems, protection against electromagnetic radiation, spectrum management and radiowave propagation.
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| Pawel Biskupski, CEO, Systemics-PAB
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| Jan Kondej, Chief Technical Officer, Systemics-PAB
Jan Kondej, M.Sc., Eng. supported the 5G Perfecta project at Systemics PAB and has been involved in telecommunications and broadcasting since 1992, when he started his professional career at the State Radiocommunication Agency and the Polish Radio. In the area of mobile telephony since 1996, where he actively participated in the launch and network development and business development strategy for GSM, UMTS and LTE at Polkomtel, the Polish mobile network operator created by irTouch/Vodafone/TDC. Areas of interest are mobile networks: 5G technology and the mobile market, including business modelling in telecommunications and, through interactions with mobile operators worldwide, also the Quality of Experience issues in mobile networks. He represents Systemics-PAB in the ETSI working groups. He also participates in trade fair conferences at the national and international level. Participates in the Eureka CELTIC-NEXT projects. He is a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology (Faculty of Electronics) and a graduate of Business Studies at the Lublin Business School in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire.
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| Didier Berthoumieux, Director Technology Strategy, Nokia
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| Arnaud Taddei, Global Security Strategist, Enterprise Security Group
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| Izabela Iglewska, Minister Advisor, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Poland
Ms. Iglewska has over 15 years’ experience in the international cooperation including cooperation in the ICT area. Ms. Iglewska has represented Poland in major ITU Conferences and meetings since 2022, including the Plenipotentiary Conference and the World Radiocommunication Conference. Besides ITU, she represents Poland at the European Union foras. She has developed her career in Polish civil service both at domestic and EU level staying focused on the telecommunications and cyber policy. Within her career in the Ministry of Digital Affairs she played vital role in projects that supported promotion and engagement of women in ICT. Impact of her contributions has been recognized at national and international level by Ministry, National Public Institutes and ITU Office for Europe. She is currently engaged in preparations to the Polish Presidency in the EU Council 2025 in the area of telecommunications and information society.
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| Susanna Mattsson, Sweden's Councillor and Deputy Director, Ministry of Finance, Sweden
Susanna Mattsson, Deputy Director at the Swedish Ministry of Finance and Swedish
Councillor to ITU, has a PhD Degree from Stockholm School of Economics and a
Bachelor of Economics Degree from Uppsala University. She has been Deputy Head of
Delegation to ITU Plenipotentiary 2018 and 2022.
Susanna worked at the competition department at the Swedish Post and Telecom
Authority (PTS) between 2005 and 2014. At PTS her main task was to act as project
manager for analyzing relevant product and service markets within the electronic
communications sector susceptible to ex-ante regulation according to EU-regulation. In
2013, Susanna was appointed as an inquiry secretary in the Government public inquiry
tasked with reviewing the Swedish Broadband Strategy. She has thereafter acted as an
expert in a number of public inquires commissioned by the Government. Since 2014,
Susanna has served at the Swedish Government Offices with matters concerning
digitalization and electronic communications. She has been responsible case handler at
the Government Offices for a number of legal acts in the area of electronic
communications that have been negotiated in the EU.
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| Ksenja Podpečan, Secretary, Digital Society Directorate, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Slovenia
M.Sc. Ksenja Podpečan has developed her career in the public sector of the Republic of Slovenia. She started her Internship at Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia and was responsible for conducting international survey Crime in Slovenia. Since 2010, at Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia, she has mainly focused on the implementation of the rules of the European State aid law in Slovene legislation on national and municipality level in the field of agriculture, food, forestry, fisheries, digitalization, and electronic communications. During 2012–2020 she was responsible for strategic planning of Broadband infrastructure in rural areas of Slovenia through European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development program of Republic of Slovenia (program period 2007–2013 and 2014–2020) and for digitalization in the sector of agriculture and forestry. During 2020–2022 she was responsible for coordination of the Mechanism for cooperation between China and CEEC countries in forestry sector. Among her responsibilities at Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food was also setting up the foundation for the implementation of the Slovenian Recovery and Resilience Plan (NextGenerationEU – NextGen). She was responsible for two NextGen forestry measures and projects (project Digitalization of Public Forest Services and project Centre for seeds, forest, and protection of forests). Since 2023, at Ministry of Digital Transformation of the Republic of Slovenia, she is responsible for the strategic planning of Broadband infrastructure in Slovenia and for other state and national measures in the electronic communication sector in Slovenia. On the international level she is responsible for international organizations in the fields of telecommunications and digitization, such as ITU, CEF Digital, BCO Network and others.
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| Emilia Zalewska-Czajczyńska, Alumni Youth Envoy ITU Generation Connect Europe; Senior Specialist for Strategic Analysis in Cybersecurity, NASK - National Research Institute, Poland
Emilia Zalewska-Czajczyńska is a lawyer specialising in regulations and policy related to new technologies and Internet governance. She works as a Senior Specialist for Strategic Cybersecurity Analysis at the Polish National Research Institute NASK. As part of her role, she handles projects related to national and European legislation, digital governance, international cooperation, and provides advisory to entities within the national cybersecurity system.
Her other field of interest lies at the intersection of human rights with emerging technologies, especially AI and the metaverse. Emilia is also actively involved in supporting the development of digital competences among young people – she is a co-founder and coordinator of Youth IGF Poland. In 2022, she served as the Eastern Europe Representative on the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance steering committee. Recently, she has completed a training programme as an ICANN79 Fellow.
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| Charlyne Restivo, Coordinator of the Network of Women in ITU-T, (NoW in ITU-T), ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB)
Charlyne Restivo is the Coordinator of the Network of Women in Standards (ITU-T) and the co-chair of the ITU-wide Youth Task Force. She works at the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on issues related to sustainable digital transformation and serves as the project officer for the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24). Charlyne started her career at ITU in 2013. She worked at the Office of the ITU Secretary General for four years and later joined ITU Standards Bureau where she served as advisor of ITU-T Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Efficiency (FG-AI4EE).
Charlyne holds a diploma of political sciences and a specialized master's degree in international relations from Sciences Po Lyon, France. She also studied in the United States of America at the University of California Santa Cruz. Charlyne is a certified PRINCE2 project manager, and speaks English, French and some Spanish.
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| Zina Bumbálková, Senior expert, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Czech Republic
Zina Bumbalkova graduated from Media Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies at Charles University in Prague. In 2005, she became a part of the Ministry of Informatics of the Czech Republic, specifically in the Department of Electronic Communications. Following the dissolution of the Ministry, she moved to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, where she still works today. In recent years, she has specialised, among other things, in internet governance issues. She represents the Czech government in various international forums dealing with Internet governance, such as the Internet Governance Forum at the United Nations, the ITU Council, the High Level Internet Group at the European Commission, and the Government Advisory Committee at ICANN. Mother of four loves music and hiking.
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