Agenda

Thomas Schneider is ambassador and director of International Affairs at the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC).

Schneider is a long-standing expert in digital governance and in the governance of the information and knowledge society and artificial intelligence (AI). He leads the Swiss delegation in various key international forums in these fields.

Since 2003, he has been coordinating Swiss activities in regard to the implementation and follow-up of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). He is chair of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) which has been mandated to negotiate a legally binding instrument on AI since 2022.

H.E. Ms. Suela Janina, Albania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, plays a leading role in the WSIS+20 review as Co‑Facilitator, bringing to this session a focus on e-government and digital transformation under Action Line C7. Drawing on a distinguished diplomatic career and her academic expertise in international law and human rights, Ambassador Janina has championed digital governance reforms that enhance transparency, service delivery, and inclusive public participation. Her leadership in multilateral fora—spanning the EU, OSCE, and UN—positions her as a proponent for leveraging ICTs to strengthen institutions and support sustainable development.

H.E. Mr. Erastus Ekitela Lokaale serves as Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and was appointed as co‑facilitator for the WSIS+20 review process. His career spans governance, climate policy, and human rights, reflecting deep commitment to inclusive digital transformation. As a former UNDP Programme Manager and Speaker of the County Assembly of Turkana, he helped design and implement ICT-enabled governance initiatives to improve transparency and service delivery at both local and national levels. Ambassador Lokaale’s experience bridging grassroots governance with international policy makes him a strong voice for people-centered, rights-based digital public infrastructure.

Angel González Sanz is the Head of the Technology, Innovation and Knowledge Development Branch of the Division on Technology and Logistics of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 

Mr. González Sanz joined the United Nations secretariat as an economist in 1994. Since then, the main focus of his work has been on programmes dealing with technology including ICTs, and innovation policy. His team is responsible, among other functions, for supporting the work of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development, a functional commission of the ECOSOC.

Mr. Gill is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Research Collaborative (I-DAIR) project, based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.  

A thought leader on digital technology, he brings to the position a deep knowledge of digital technologies coupled with a solid understanding of how to leverage the digital transformation responsibly and inclusively for progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Previously, he was the Executive Director and Co-Lead of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (2018-2019).  In addition to delivering the report of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, Mr. Gill helped secure high-impact international consensus recommendations on regulating Artificial Intelligence (Al) in lethal autonomous weapon systems in 2017 and 2018, the draft Al ethics recommendation of UNESCO in 2020, and a new international platform on digital health and Al. 

Thibaut Kleiner is the Director for Future Networks in DG Connect. He has worked since 2001 at the European Commission. The first ten years of his career in the Commission were spent in the area of competition policy (merger, antitrust and State aid). In September 2011, he moved to the digital policy area, as advisor of Vice-President Neelie Kroes, in charge of the Digital Agenda, and supervised Internet policies at large (Internet Governance, cybersecurity, cloud, data). 

From January 2014 to June 2016, he was head of unit in charge of network technologies (5G and Internet of Things) in DG Connect. From June 2016 to December 2019 he was the deputy head of cabinet of Commissioner Oettinger, in charge of Budget and Human Resources and he then came back to DG Connect to head the unit in charge of Research Strategy and Coordination and was subsequently Director for Policy, Strategy and Outreach from December 2020 until March 2025. An economist by training Thibaut holds a Master from HEC Paris and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Cynthia is a seasoned Policy and Regulatory Development Manager with over 15 years of experience in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. In her current role in the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) she is responsible for key areas such as developing and implementing ICTs communications strategies and policies and stakeholder relations engagements. She is the current ITU Minister Council and African Coordinator for ITU Activities in Geneva. 

Dr. Tawfik Jelassi was appointed UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information on 1st July 2021. In this position, he is responsible for the Organization’s programmes on building inclusive knowledge societies, leading digital transformation, strategizing the role of ICT in education, and fostering freedom of expression.

Dr. Jelassi holds a Ph.D. doctorate in information systems from New York University (USA) and postgraduate diplomas from the University of Paris Dauphine (France).

Tomas Lamanauskas is Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, elected at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference of 2022, and taking up duties as of January 2023. 

His 25 years of experience spans across sectors of telecoms and digital policy, regulation and strategy, stemming from executive level positions in agencies, companies, and organizations across Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and the Pacific region. 

As Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Tomas focuses on the financial sustainability and operational excellence of the organization. He also works to raise the digital industry's ambition in fighting the climate crisis through the Green Digital Action initiative and promotes investments into the digital infrastructure as well as digital resilience through the Digital Infrastructure Investment Initiative and other efforts. Additionally, Tomas contributes to the global efforts to harness the opportunities and mitigate challenges of new technologies, in particular Artificial Intelligence, including through his role as a co-chair of the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on AI. He is also playing a key role in ensuring ITU's support to other UN-wide development and governance efforts, including through the World Summit of the Information Society process and membership at the Operational Steering Committee of the UN Joint SDG Fund.