Agenda

Karen McCabe is a Senior Director of Public Affairs & Marketing at IEEE where she drives efforts to build and connect communities working at the intersection of technology, standards, and policy. Karen has held various leadership and senior management positions in the technology sector, with a specific focus in the global standards and technology domain. Karen is engaged in efforts in climate change, digital inclusion, identity management, data governance, ethics and technology, and global standards in trade and policy. Karen is a member of the OECD Internet Technical Advisory Committee and works with an array of organizations and bodies to connect technologists, industry leaders and policymakers where she develops partnerships and builds alliances across stakeholder communities.

Martin coordinates ITC’s Tech Sector Development work and supports the internationalisation of tech startups in ten sub-Saharan African countries. He oversees the 10 M USD Netherlands Trust Fund IV (NTF IV) programme and manages directly its Uganda and Senegal tech-sector development projects, in partnership with the local IT & BPO sector and tech startups. Martin also designed ITC's Digital Entrepreneurship strategy and its related spin-off, the #FastTrackTech initiative, which was rolled out in 7 African countries at the end of 2019 and will run until December 2021. Earlier at ITC, he has been working for six years with Bangladesh’s outsourcing industry and implemented Digital4Development projects in Africa and Central Asia. Before joining ITC, I marketed French IT companies on the UK market at the French Trade Commission in London between 2003 and 2005. I held a similar position in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 1999 until 2003. I have a MA in International Business.

Moira de Roche is an independent consultant. She is the Chair of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) IP3, and a member of the IFIP board. Moira was awarded the IFIP Silver Core in 2016.

Moira is an accomplished speaker and has presented at conferences around the world and in South Africa, on diverse subjects including Technology & Learning, IT Leadership, Professionalism, Trust & the Duty of Care in Digital, as well as people-related issues with Industry 4.0. She has attended and presented at the World Summit for Information Society since 2012.

A Past-President of IITPSA (Institute of IT Professionals South Africa) Moira is a Professional Member and Fellow and serves as a Non-executive Director.  She received the IITPSA Distinguished Service in ICT Award in 2009.

She is also a member of ACM and the South African Institute of Directors.

Known as Telecom Father Figure, being in the field for last 49 years. The only person in the world Inaugurating & Ribbon Cutting World’s largest Consumer Electronic Show CES Las Vegas, USA for continuous ten years.

President, CMAI association of India, www.cmai.asia, having 48,500 members & 74 MOU partners worldwide; Chairman Emeritus, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India www.tematelecom.in; Vice Chairman International Telecom Union APT India; Member Governing Board Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council (Govt. of India), Director National Fertilizers Ltd. Associated with several industry associations.

Former GM HP Electronics Dev Corpn. & President HFCL.

Actively engaged in ICT, Mobile, Telecom, Education, Alternate Energy, Multimedia, Infrastructure & Education Sectors. Ten China offices & in several other Countries including USA, UK, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Bangkok etc. Known for delegations to various Countries and receiving incoming delegations. Providing generally one way/two way air fare, free hotel stay etc.

Representing on more than 180 Government Committees, Groups and very deeply involved in Policy Formulations on Telecom, Mobile, IT, Education.

Mr. Jaroslaw K. Ponder is Head of the Office for Europe at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (Geneva, Switzerland). He represents ITU in Europe and directs actions, projects, initiatives and experts groups targeting 46 countries of the Europe Region. His portfolio includes set of Regional Initiatives for Europe, designed by the European Member States and focusing on the ICT Infrastructure, Digitization, Digital Inclusion, Accessibility, Innovation and Cybersecurity.

Along the professional career, Mr. Ponder held official positions in the public sector and was a contributor to the legislative projects having the impact on the public policy. Since 2014 Mr. Ponder has been working for ITU holding diverse positions in the General Secretariat, Telecommunication Development Bureau, and Regional Presence, addressing complexity of information society development and digital transformation at national, regional, international level, including United Nations level. For several years he has managed ITU’s work on the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, leading towards the establishment of the flagship platforms, including WSIS Forum, WSIS Prizes, WSIS Stocktaking, others.

He is a Academician, Serial Entrepreneur, AI Researcher, Global connector and Thought Leader. He has organised workshop at International Telecommunication Union (ITU), WSIS forum-2018 and 2020 at Geneva, Switzerland. He visited St. Petersburg University, Russia, Singapore Management University, Singapore and delivered his speech. He presented his work at ITU Forum "Internet of Things: future applications and services. Perspective 2030"4th ITU Workshop on Network 2030 (St. Petersburg, Russia, 21-23 May 2019). His contribution to International Police organisation (INTERPOL) in Artificial Intelligence for Law enforcement at Interpol World 2019 Singapore is Exceptional. He has recieved International Achievement Award in 2019. He Attended meetings of Focus Groups FG-Distributed Ledger Technology, FG-ML and FG-DFS, Switzerland. He has contributed to UN-Habitat Cities 2030, Kulu-Lumpur for Smart city and technology. He is a consistent Contributor to United Nations-ITU and other Specialized agency on Invite. He holds Ph.D degree in Software Engineering.

Monique EPSTEIN– director and founder of the association

Senior Consultant, Ms Epstein has strong expertise in application design consulting services and project management. Starting her career as a Math teacher, going over to computers Analyst/Programmer, moving on to designing and implementing RDBMS-based information systems, Monique re-oriented her career in 1994 towards multimedia application design, working as Project Manager, and Consultant. Monique has a MA in computer science. She looks forward working with the latest technologies and is eager to learn new skills on various technical training courses. Since 2004, she has created several non-profit organizations whose common aims are helping e-excluded people (seniors, disabled people and juniors) to get familiar with new technologies.

Monique is also administrator of EURAG6Europe association

Ms. Haiyun Zhang is the founder of Youchang Consulting and Sky Ocean Media, co-founder of Planet Net Zero Project. Besides, she serves as the Director of Public Relations, China Council for G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Program, and the incoming vice curator of Shanghai I Hub, Global Shaper Community of World Economic Forum. She is currently a postgraduate student in the Department of Law at National Taiwan University. She finished her bachelor’s degree at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. Currently, she functions as the journal editor of the China Guiding Cases Project at Stanford Law School, and the director of the Network Department of the China Public Affairs and International Relations Association(CNPAIR). She previously worked as an intern in the U.S. Congress and was also invited to participate in the 11th UN General Assembly, the 66th UN Civil Organization Assembly, the 68th UN Youth Power Conference. She also worked as a former Hilary Clinton’s campaign volunteer, a research assistant at the Department of Economics, Harvard University as well as the Department of Psychology, Stanford University.

Ms Esperanza Magpantay is the Senior Statistician of the ICT Data and Analytics division of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she has been working since December 2000. She is responsible for the collection, harmonization and dissemination of ICT statistics. Ms Magpantay coordinates the work of the ITU Expert Groups on ICT indicators, the ITU’s representative at the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development and its Steering Committee, UN Inter-agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators and the UN Global Working Group on Big Data where she currently leads the Task Team on mobile phone big data. She has represented ITU in international meetings including the UN Statistical Commission and the UN Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA), and in regional events giving presentations and trainings on ICT statistics. Before joining ITU, she worked for 7 years at the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva as a statistical officer. She has a degree in Statistics from the University of the Philippines and is a candidate in Master in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE University in Madrid, Spain.

Andy Quested started as a BBC Technical Assistant in 1978 becoming a video-tape editor in 1985 where he worked on many comedy, children’s and documentary series.
In 1998 Andy moved to a new technology department working on the BBC’s first HD programmes including Planet Earth I and the first UHD programme, Planet Earth II.
He is technical lead of the UK’s Digital Production Partnerships AS-11 format and leads the EBU Production Strategic Group looking at all areas of content production. He is an active member of SMPTE becoming a Fellow in 2014 for work relating to standards
Andy is currently the chair of ITU-R Working Party 6C where he initiated new areas of study on Advanced Immersive Audio-Visual Systems and Artificial Intelligence in content production and international programme exchange.

Mr Istvan Bozsoki joined the ITU in 1997 to work at the Space Department of the Radiocommunication Bureau and he was dealing with coordination and notification of satellite systems. In 2007 he moved to the Telecommunication Development Bureau and was responsible for spectrum management and broadcasting issues. In April 2013 he became Head of Spectrum Management and Broadcasting Division and since November 2016 he is Head, Telecommunications Network and Spectrum Management Division. After obtaining his degree in telecommunication engineering at the Technical University Budapest in 1980 he spent 17 years at the Hungarian Communication Authority and he was dealing with technical and regulatory aspects of the spectrum management. Among others, he was responsible for the development of a computerized spectrum management system. Later, he was appointed as director of international affairs. He has master degrees in radiocommunications and broadcasting.

Natalia Vicente is the Director of Public Affairs & Communications at ESOA where she works closely with the Secretary General and the CEOs of ESOA Member companies to drive forward high-level advocacy for the satellite communications sector. Specifically, Natalia focusses on the Development Agenda working with international organisations to ensure nation states understand the value of leveraging available satellite communications services to bridge digital, education and health divides in their countries.

Natalia is also a Board Member of the European Internet Forum where she represents ESOA in front of Members of the European Parliament. Natalia has over a decade of experience in the digital sector, focusing on public policy, government relations and building international partnerships.

Before joining ESOA, Natalia worked for the European Telecommunications Network Operator’s (ETNO) working on public and regulatory affairs. Prior to that, she worked for Telefonica, Telecom Italia and TagTagCity, where she was one of the first employees involved in establishing a start-up venture providing mobile solutions to municipalities and local businesses in Belgium.

Natalia is a qualified lawyer with an LLM from the University Autonoma of Madrid and holds a Master of Business Administration specialised in Marketing. She is a Spanish national, lives in Brussels and speaks 4 languages.

Caroline Troein works at the International Telecommunications Union as a lead researcher, and works on projects related to cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and digital capacity. At the Fletcher School Digital Planet initiative, she co-created the Smart Societies framework for looking at digital societies, and worked on the Digital Evolution Index, African Leadfrog Index, Digital Trust Index, and Global Cost of Cash. She focused on strategic technologies in the global commons, applying systems analytics and security studies to cyber, space, and maritime questions. She has worked as a consultant on cross-country user technology behavior. She has also worked as a Congressional staffer in the US House of Representatives, where her policy portfolio included technology, space, and cyber issues. She has assisted in high level diplomatic conferences on cyber issues, and is strongly engaged with the cyber and space policy communities.

Mr Ronchi is member of the following Boards of Directors: Global Forum, World Summit Award, European Youth Award, European Education New Society Association, Fondazione Italiana Nuove Comunicazioni. Member of the Keio University NoE. Ronchi is appointed as an expert by: European Commission, Council of Europe,  Italian Association of Banks, National Research Council. National and international project coordinator. He cooperated as organizer or programme chair in W3C, ACM, IEEE conferences. Author/contributor of more than 400 papers and various books on: e-Services e-Culture, IPR, e-Government, e-Health, and e-Learning. Mr. Ronchi is a professor – Engineering Faculty, Politecnico di Milano.