Agenda

Dr. Chaesub Lee was elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 in Busan, Republic of Korea, and re-elected to this post for a second four-year term at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dr Lee has contributed ICT standardization for over 30 years, specializing in areas such as integrated services digital networks (ISDN), global information infrastructure (GII), Internet protocol, next-generation networks (NGN), Internet protocol television (IPTV) and cloud computing.

Within ITU Dr Lee served as Chairman of the ITU Focus Group on Next-Generation Networks (NGN) to address the growing need for international standards for NGN, including service requirements, functional architecture, mobility, security and Quality of Service (QoS). He was also Vice-Chairman of the ITU Focus Group on IPTV which worked to coordinate and promote the development of IPTV standards. He acted as Vice-Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 13 (Future networks and cloud) from 2001 until 2008, becoming Chairman of that group in 2009. ITU-T Study Group 13 develops standards for NGN, future networks, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile telecommunications, to ensure their smooth international deployment.

Cliff is founder and executive director of Amplio, a Seattle-based nonprofit that creates proven, safe, and equitable technology to reach the world’s hardest-to-reach communities. Amplio’s battery-powered Talking Book audio device enables governments and global organizations to share hours of local language content on demand. Since 2007, Talking Book programs have reached over one million listeners in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Niger, Liberia, and Zambia, with programs expanding to new countries and regions. The Talking Book is recognized by UNESCO as an inclusive digital solution that low-literate adults and youth can use to gain new skills and knowledge to improve their livelihoods and lives.
Cliff is a two-time recipient of Microsoft’s Integral Fellows Award and has received The Tech Award, a Computerworld Honors Award, and Wise Award for the Talking Book program. He was selected as a Clinton Global Initiative member and a PBS Newshour Agent of Change. Prior to starting Amplio, Cliff was a software developer for Microsoft and a nuclear engineering officer for the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. He received a BS in cognitive science from MIT and a MS in computer science and engineering from the University of Washington.

Since January 2020, Sylvia Poll is the Head of the Digital Society Division in the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This Division focuses on digital inclusion, ICT applications and digital innovation ecosystems. Before that, she was for five years the Head of the ITU Project Support Division. Sylvia Poll was the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office in Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland from 2010 to 2014, where she was the main focal point for Costa Rica, on sport for development and peace, as well as ITU, WIPO, WHO and IOM. Prior to this position, she was the Latin America Regional Manager of Executive Programs at the INCAE Business School and a manager at a Costa Rican communications company. Ms. Poll was also an accomplished elite swimmer. She represented Costa Rica in two Olympic Games, Seoul, Korea 1988 and Barcelona, Spain, 1992. She won a silver medal, the first Olympic medal ever at that time, for Costa Rica and Central America, in addition to winning over 600 medals at national, regional and world swimming competitions. She was chosen the Best Athlete in Latin America two years in a row, in 1988 and 1989. Since 2010 she is a Member of the international organization “Peace and Sport”, as one of their “Champions of Peace”, a special Sport Ambassador, to help build sustainable peace through sport. 

Andreana Atanasova holds a Master’s Degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Technical University of Sofia. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of telecommunications and European affairs.

From 2009 to 2011, Andreana Atanasova was Director of the Communications Directorate at the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications. She was responsible for the policy in the field of electronic communications, drafting of the Electronic Communications Act, the Postal Services Act and other strategic documents and secondary legislation in the communications sector. In the period 2011-2013 she was a Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Bulgaria in the EU on all issues related to communications and information society. In 2014 Andreana Atanasova was appointed by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria as a Member of the Communications Regulation Commission with a five-year term. 

On August 12, 2019 Andreana Atanasova was appointed as a Deputy Minister of Transport, IT and Communications responsible for information technology and communications.
 

Dr. Maria Myers-Hamilton, Ed. D has been a pioneer in the field of Information Technology and Communications for over 30 years. Maria is the current Managing Director at the Spectrum Management Authority (“the SMA”), the regulator of Spectrum Radio Frequency, where she has spearheaded several initiatives, including the implementation of the Spectrum CAP, the Spectrum Pricing Policy, the Spectrum Management Framework, the Amateur Radio Operators Exam and the online Radio Technician (Class B) Course. Maria currently serves as the Vice Chairwoman of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), an inter-governmental organization dedicated to supporting the development of the Caribbean information and communications technologies (ICT) sector and Sub-Committee Chairwoman in the National Council on Education, where the focus is on addressing the issues impacting the education process. Additionally and under Maria’s leadership, the SMA team implemented the allocation of the radio frequency spectrum for Jamaica in keeping with the National Frequency Allocation Table (NFAT).
Prior to assuming the position of Managing Director of the SMA in January 2018, Maria was involved in several ICT based engagements in both the public and private sectors. For a period of close to three (3) years, Maria served as Director of Information Systems at the Jamaica Public Service Company where she led a team of seventy (70) members and completed thirty-five (35) ICT projects, on time and within budget. Also, Maria served as Senior Consultant at Lignum Systems Co. Limited, a firm that provided a wide range of I.T. consultancy services to both public and private sector companies.

Ms. Ghalia Ali Al-Mannai received a letter of appreciation from Bill Gates for exceptional performance in the mobile learning project, winner of first place in the "Imagine Cup07 Programming" competition at the GCC level. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering from the United Arab Emirates University. She established her own software development company upon graduation and worked on developing several projects for the UAE Government. She joined the General Women's Union as Director of the Information Technology Department and contributed to the development of a number of government services, managed many teams, and won a number of local and international awards and represented the UAE on more than one occasion.

Marta Arsovska Tomovska is the Director of the Public Administration Reform team in the Office of the Prime Minister of Serbia. Previously, she was Macedonian Minister for ICT and Public Administration, and a C-level executive in several companies in the IT and telecommunication industry. She is considered to be one of the pioneers of the internet access in the Western Balkans, leading one of the first Internet Service Providers and several cyber security initiatives. Marta is an Executive Board Member of the UN framework organization World Summit Awards, and is also serving other boards. Certified by the UN's ITU for building national digital innovation ecosystems, she is now advising governments, organizations and corporations on digital transformation and innovation. BSc. in Electrical Engineering, MSc. in Economy and Computer Science, educated at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Marta is frequent panelist and speaker on the most prestigious ICT conferences worldwide on topics such as digital transformation, innovation, and eGovernment.

Dr Serge Stinckwich is the Head of Research at the United Nations University Institute in Macau. Prior to joining the Institute, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Caen Normandie (France) and researcher in the UMMISCO international joint research unit of IRD (French Research Institute on Sustainable Development) and Sorbonne University.
Over the years, Serge Stinckwich developed an innovative research program about modelling and simulation of complex systems at the intersection of several scientific disciplines applied to developing countries issues. His research interests are domain-specific languages and tools that ease the tasks of non-computer experts to model, simulate and analyze complex systems. He has applied his work to Epidemiology, Environmental Monitoring and Disaster Management.
 He organized and co-organized more than 50 workshops and conferences on topics such as Software Engineering, Modelling and Simulation, Rescue Robotics, Disaster Management, Complex Systems, … and supervised more than 20 Ph.D./Masters students from various countries (Chile, Vietnam, Cameroon, Senegal etc.

Dike Felix O. is a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and currently a researcher at Fudan University, Shanghai China where he is developing a model that explains how managers, policy makers and researchers can use transformational learning to promote environmental sustainability practices among individuals and in different societies.
Felix also has experience in educational test and assessment. For example, he had developed a manual for assessing psycho-moto ICT (Information and Communication Technology) competencies for Junior Secondary School three (JS3) students in Enugu State, Nigeria.
He is passionate about topics and educational contents that promotes critical thinking and pro-environmental behavior change for sustainability. In his leisure time, Felix likes playing football, reading articles and travelling.

Ms. Plentz covers emerging technologies and digital transformation for The UN Brief www.theunbrief.com, in Geneva.

In 2016 Ms. Plentz Fagundes was appointed by the European Commission to the High Level Group of Experts to review the impact of Horizon 2020, the £80 billion Framework Programme to fund Research and Innovation in the EU.  

Jensine (Yen-See Nah) Larsen is an award-winning digital social impact entrepreneur, journalist, and global speaker on the power of technology to speed up global women's power - and how we can all be a part of this ground-up revolution. She founded World Pulse magazine in 2003, growing that platform into WorldPulse.com, a groundbreaking safe global social network connecting women worldwide for a greater global voice, and leader in grassroots women’s digital empowerment training. Today, World Pulse is powered by more than 70,000 women from 190 countries who are speaking for themselves and collectively improving the lives of 17.4 million people. For her work, Jensine received the 2018 Media Social Impact Award from the United Nations.

Jensine has a bold ambition – to ensure digital technology unleashes the untapped potential of women everywhere. For 15+ years, Jensine has made it her job to listen to women in forgotten communities around the world. She is a frequent speaker on how social networking and technological innovation is a powerful accelerator for women’s global power. In 2020, World Pulse ran #SheTransformsTech, a global crowdsourcing and participatory research campaign to listen to women's voices regarding their experiences, concerns, priorities, ideas and recommendations on how tech can be transformed for it to work for them, ultimately aiming at gender justice and internet health. The #SheTransformsTech findings and recommendations, meant to offer reflection and actionable ideas, are now ready to be shared with every stakeholder involved in the design and creation of technology, and digital public policy.