Agenda

Dr Emilija Stojmenova Duh is the Minister of Digital Transformation of Slovenia. Prior to holding this position, she was the Executive Director of the Digital Innovation Hub Slovenia (2018-2019) and was the Director of RAZ:UM (2014-2016). She has coordinated several national and international research and development projects on the use of new digital technologies for innovation in and the development of cities, villages and communities. She has worked in several thematic groups of the European Commission on the topic of digital innovation hubs and rural development. She participates in an international team of researchers that has developed the SEROI+ methodology for measuring and monitoring the societal, economic and environmental return on investment of digital products and services. She has authored and co-authored a number of scientific and professional publications concerning digital transformation and is an Associate Professor for the Department of Information and Communication Technologies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana. She was the first President of IEEE’s "Women in Engineering Slovenia". She is also the first Slovenian woman representative at the Global Young Academy and a member of the European Research Area Working Group within ALLEA – All European Academies. She completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics of the University of Maribor.

Igli Tafa is the General Director of the National Authority for Electronic Certification and Cyber Security of Albania (AKCESK) and National Coordinator for Cyber Security. He is a cyber security professional with a breadth of expertise developed through a diverse career supporting organizations in the private and public sectors. For the last nine years, he has engaged the security community in training, research, and information sharing to help protect against and manage cyber threats. He has built relationships with local governments and academic institutions nationwide to raise awareness of cyber security and how to manage it. He has advocated for a persistent and sustained approach to cyber security and has been involved in many large-scale domestic and international projects. Before joining AKCESK, Igli Tafa held various related roles in risk assessment, security systems engineering, application layer security, and incident response. He has a Ph.D. in Virtualization Systems in Computer Science from the Polytechnic University of Tirana and several industry credentials. Mr. Tafa's passion for fostering cybersecurity education has led to his continued success. His mission is to use his knowledge and experience to empower individuals, organizations, and governments to utilize secure practices as foundational building blocks for maintaining the digital economy.

Meliha Kovačević is Head of Telecommunications licensing department at the Communications regulatory agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CRA). Since joining CRA in 2001, she has been dealing with various regulatory issues, including introduction of liberalization at the market, establishment of licensing regime, adoption and implementation of rules on consumer protection, as well as conduction of market analysis. Mrs. Kovacevic holds B.Sc. of Electrical engineering, from  the University of Sarajevo.

Peter Mariën has worked in the context of International Partnerships for over 15 years and previously worked in banking and treasury.  During his work with the European Commission, he was posted in Europe and in EU Delegations in Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, Latin America, and the Caribbean, where he occupied several positions as team leader. In September 2020,  Mr. Mariën joined INTPA’s new Unit working on Science, Technology, Innovation, and Digitalisation, where he is the Teamleader for Digital Governance. He holds a master's in Business Economics and an EMLE in Law and Economics.

Andreas Schaffhauser is currently the acting director of the Federal Institute for Geology, Geophysics, Climatology and Meteorology of Austria (GeoSphere) and the Permanent Representative of Austria with World Meteorological Organization. GeoSphere Austria is based on the merger of the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), founded in 1851, the national weather and earthquake service and the Geological Federal Institute (GBA), founded in 1849, as a geological service. In his previous position of head of the customer service division of the Austrian Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, Andreas was responsible for public weather services, climate- and environmental services, and commercial- and international activities. He managed Meteoalarm, an impact-orientated, common framework of authoritative warning information for meteorological and hydrological hazards of 37 NHMSs across the European domain from 2019 to 2021.  

Alessandro Caforio is the Director of Research and Innovation at International Telematic University UNINETTUNO in Rome (Italy), where he coordinates the design and the management of research projects focused on innovation in programs and curricula, ICT technologies applied to teaching and learning processes, on social innovation and inclusive design. He is furthermore Professor for the "Digital Technologies and Cognitive Processes" and the “Psychotechnologies for learning processes” courses in UNINETTUNO University. He is a member of the “Innovation Expert Register” of the Italian Minister of Economic Development, and member of EMPOWER expert pools in “AI in Education”, “Course and Curriculm Design” and “Continuous Professional Development and SLPs” (https://empower.eadtu.eu/fields-of-expertise). He has been involved and managed European projects in the Lifelong Learning, Tempus, Creative Europe, Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+ programmes; currenlty is Project Director of "GreenSCENT - Smart Citizen Education for a Green Future" project, funded by European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme.

Inga Rimkeviciene works at the national communications regulator for more than 15 years. She participated in several EU projects in the field of electronic communications, member of Standardization Technical Committee on Electromagnetic Compatibility (TK 8). Since 2018, Member of Lithuanian delegation at the main ITU events, including the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference (Dubai, 2018), ITU Council, GSR, other. Since 2019, Chair of the Steering Committee of ITU Europe Centres of Excellence. Since May 2020, the Chair of the CEPT Project Team on preparation to the WTDC-21 and the main coordinator of preparations of Europe for the WTDC. Active participant of the Network of Women (NoW) for Europe Region, member of the Advisory Board of the Network of Women for WTDC (NoW4WTDC).​

Slava joined the newly created Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (MDTU) in 2019 as the Head of eServices development. He is the architect of the highly popular digital app called ‘Government and I - DIIA` that is used by over 10 million Ukrainians. His current goal at the MDTU is to abolish the bureaucracy in Ukraine by delivering all government services by 2024 with just a few clicks – from filing tax returns to marriages to registering a company remotely. Prior to joining the MDTU, Slava was a successful digital marketing entrepreneur.

Mr. Jaroslaw K. Ponder, is the Head of the Office for Europe at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), representing ITU in Europe and directing actions, projects, initiatives and experts’ groups targeting 46 countries of the Europe Region. His portfolio includes Regional Initiatives for Europe, designed by the European Member States and focusing on the ICT Infrastructure, Digitization, Digital Inclusion, Accessibility, Innovation and Cybersecurity.
 
Mr. Ponder has managed numerous projects, activities and initiatives at national, regional and international levels. He has taken lead roles in many international conferences and summits concerning ICT innovation and development of ICT ecosystem, information society, and advancements of digital economy worldwide, while setting strategies and ensuring their timely implementation. During his professional career, Mr. Ponder has held official positions in the public sector and has been a leading contributor to legislative projects, which influenced public policy. Mr. Ponder has working for ITU since 2004 holding diverse positions in the General Secretariat, Telecommunication Development Bureau, and Regional Presence, addressing the complexity of information society development and digital transformation at national, regional, international level, including United Nations level. Mr. Ponder was appointed Head of ITU Office for Europe in 2017.
 
For several years, Mr. Ponder has managed ITU’s work in the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, establishing the annual WSIS Forum, WSIS Prizes, WSIS Stocktaking, and others. In his current role, Mr. Ponder has established several formal coordination mechanisms facilitating the work of UN agencies in advancing digital transformation at the national and regional level. 

At the Europe Office of the ITU, Sarah is in charge of the UN Affairs and UN Partnerships, digital inclusion, child online protection, and green digital issues. In addition to managing projects supporting Member States in these areas, her responsibilities include strengthening the cooperation between the ITU Office for Europe and the UN Sustainable Development System and EU structures on digital development and ICT projects to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She co-leads two regional UN working groups on digital transformation and serves as the Office's representative to the UN Country Teams in the Europe Region and to the UN in Brussels. She holds a master's degree from UNU-MERIT in Public Policy and Human Development as well as a bachelor's degree in communication and marketing. She has also received training in journalism.