Meet ITU’s next top elected officials: Tomas Lamanauskas

“The biggest power that we as the ITU have is the attention, credibility, and the mandate of the countries,” says Tomas Lamanauskas, the next Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Lamanauskas was elected to this key executive role on 29 September, during the organization’s recent Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest.

As Deputy Secretary-General, he will assist newly elected ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, and carry out specific tasks and management functions as the 157-year-old organization moves forward in the digital age.

Lamanauskas, who previously headed ITU’s Corporate Strategy Division, will return from private-sector consultancy work to join the new ITU leadership team, whose mandate begins on 1 January 2023.

“We need to engage with the industry and be relevant with them,” he says, underscoring the need to keep up with the rapid evolution of digital services and technologies. “We can find out by listening to them on where the world is going and how we can contribute.”

All the countries must be included in decision-making on the digital future, he adds, underlining the need to connect everyone and raise ambitions on tackling climate change.

ITU, as a UN specialized agency with unique public-private reach, should be well positioned to align industry priorities with inclusive global sustainable development, says Lamanauskas, adding:

“We need to locate our core strength and capabilities to contribute. We need to clarify our role in the digital world.”

Watch the full video interview: