Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin was elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau in November 2018 and took office on the 1 of January 2019. She is a strategic leader with 30 years' of high-level experience in international and inter-governmental relations, and a long history of success in policy and strategy development, analysis and execution. From 2008-2018, she led the Strategic Planning & Membership Department of ITU, and also served as Coordinator of United Nations Affairs. She was one of the architects of the annual Global Symposium for Regulators and leads ITU's contribution to the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age. She serves as Executive Director of the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, and is leading ITU's collaboration with UNICEF and others on the GIGA project to connect the world's school. She holds a Master's degree in International Communications Policy from the American University in Washington, DC and a post graduate certificate in Strategies for Leadertship from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is an affiliate of the Harvard University Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and a Generation Unlimited Champion. She serves on a number of advisory bodies, including the Geneva Tsingua Initiative, the SDG Lab Advisory Board, and the UN Technology Innovation Labs. She is also an amateur radio operator. Ms Bogdan-Martin is married with four children.
Mr. Jaroslaw K. Ponder, Head of the ITU Office for Europe at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (Geneva, Switzerland), representing ITU in Europe and directing 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 annual WSIS Forum, WSIS Prizes, WSIS Stocktaking, others.
Ms. Roxana WIDMER-ILIESCU has been
working for over 22 years in the Development Sector of the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) contributing through her work in
achieving the goal of Digital Inclusion, by
promoting people empowerment through ICTs, including those with specific needs
such as persons with disabilities (PwD) and older persons,
women and girls, children and youth, indigenous peoples and people living in
remote areas. In
her role as a Senior Coordinator (Digital Inclusion) she
leads the development of activities, events, products and resources aiming at
providing ITU Members States and stakeholders with the necessary capacity and
tools to create at a national, regional and global level, inclusive and
accessible digital environments to all people, without discrimination
of gender, location, abilities or financial means. As the ITU-D
Focal Point for ICT accessibility, she also
advises ITU Member States on developing ICT accessibility policies and on
implementing related strategies and best practices. In this capacity, she has
designed and overseen the development of several ITU-D key resources in
ICT accessibility, willing to ensure that everyone, including
PwD can have an independent life and access information, education and job
opportunities to be part of the digital economy. The ultimate
goal of Ms Widmer’s work within ITU is to support global efforts in building a
digitally inclusive society and thus ensuring that no one is left behind in the
digital age.
Mr. Mark Applin. 72 million people worldwide use sign language. Blind and low vision users access content online using screen readers. Wouldn't it be great if there was a sign language ‘screen reader’ for Deaf users? CV19 has highlighted barriers the culturally and linguistically Deaf community face accessing critical information in all walks of life. You may have seen protests at the lack of sign language interpreters at televised CV19 briefings. Digital inclusion is a real issue. Progressive organisations like Lloyds Bank understand that just because it’s written, doesn't mean it's understood by Deaf sign language users for whom Sign Language (SL) is a first and preferred language, and English is a second. SL is a visual language, not written. Meet Signly - synchronous, in-vision, sign language translations on any webpage in any sign language for any Deaf sign language user.
Mr. Sérgio Belo is head of the portuguese Digital Experience Unit (DEU) since November
2018, which he helped to establish merging Web Accessibility and Usability. DEU
is a unit of Administrative Modernization Agency (AMA), a public institute with
competences in the areas of administrative modernization and simplification and
electronic administration, under the tutelage of the Secretary of State for
Innovation and Administrative Modernization. AMA's also the national authority
for Web Accessibility and Usability, and DEU´s main objectives are to support
the definition of policies, to implement strategies and to provide facilitating
tools, contributing to the global improvement of user experience in digital
platforms of public services. DEU also assumes a leading role in an
increasingly digital society, aiming to generate awareness, support learning
and alert decision-makers, contributing to more inclusive digital services and
better user experience; to identify and promote the application of best
practices of Web accessibility and usability; and to evaluate the level of
accessibility and usability. In
previous public functions, Sérgio was head of AMA´s Portals and Contact Centers
Unit, in charge of the management and development of national public services
portal (now evolved to ePortugal.gov) and support lines for citizens and
enterprises. In the meantime he also worked in the Cooperation for Development
sector spending a year based in Cape Verde in the technical coordination team
of the project “Support to improvement in quality and proximity of Public
Services of PALOP and Timor-Leste” co-financed by European Union and Camões -
Cooperation and Language Institute. Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Sérgio´s academic
degree is in Communication Sciences and he worked in major private
communication groups, where he played important roles, before embracing a
career in the public sector.
Mr. Michael Fembek After graduating
from the Vienna University of Economics, Michael Fembek (born 1961) joined
GEWINN, an Austrian business magazine, serving between 2000 and 2007 as
editor-in-chief. In 2009 he
initiated “Sinnstifter”, a project by Austrian philanthropists, and launched
the annual Austrian CSR-Guide on corporate responsibility. In 2010 he joined
the Essl Foundation as Programme Manager and – until 2014 - the bauMax group as
its Head of Social Affairs. Since 2011 he is
the Director of the Zero Project, a project of the Essl Foundation, and
organizes the annual Zero Project Conference in the UN Headquarters in Vienna. In 2014, he
co-initiated the Verband für Gemeinnütziges Stiften, the Austrian philanthropic
association, where he serves as Vice President. In 2015, he became the Chair of
the Thematic Group on Disabilities within the European Foundation Centre (EFC),
in 2016 he co-initiated the Haus der Philanthropie in Vienna, and in 2019 he
co-initiated the Sinnnbildungsstiftung, a foundation focusing on innovations in
education, and now serves as a board member.
Ms. Francesca Fideli. Patients and people with disabilities rights activist, Francesca co-founded Fightthestroke Foundation together with Roberto D'Angelo, with the aim of developing inclusive solutions for young stroke survivors and people with Cerebral Palsy. Thanks to the use of translational technology and science, Fightthestroke has revolutionized the rehabilitation ecosystem with the www.mirrorable.org platform, winner of numerous awards for being able to combine the most advanced discoveries in Neuroscience with Artificial Intelligence. Francesca is the author of the book "Lotta e Sorridi" published by Sperling & Kupfer in 2015 and translated into German by Bastei Lubbe in 2018, she is Ashoka, Eisenhower and Global Good Fund Fellow, TED speaker and TEDMED ambassador in Italy since 2014.
Mr. Eduardo Jauregui. Electronic Engineer (TECNUN Universidad de Navarra ´96) and MBA (Universidad de Deusto´04) I started my professional career in a small company. In 2006 I moved to ASSA ABLOY a multinational corporation leader on access control to manage the R&D department. In 2013 I decided to create my own company to boost a global business from a disruptive technology based on eye-tracking. Together with Vicomtech Research Laboratory, we founded IRISBOND, to provide an alternative communication solution based on technology with social innovation focus. Today IRISBOND provides a new way for humans to communicate through precision eye-tracking technology, for many markets such as assistive technology, robotics or neuromarketing.
Mr. Gion Linder. After studies in marketing Gion Linder worked as a consultant for different new media projects in the eighties and nineties. He worked as a content-manager for a publisher, as a product-manager for a cable-company and as a project-manager for a mobile carrier. In 2007 joined SWISS TXT, a company of the national public broadcaster, where he strongly increased the number of services for television and third-party entities in all national languages. Meanwhile he is a member of the management board. Gion Linder is also chairman of the Eurovision Access Services Experts Group.
Mr. Julien Monnet started his career in the new technologies field in 2001, working in a start-up company for 6 years as commercial and project officer.
He then joined a major French media company: L'Equipe, to create and manage an structure dedicated to sports news and results on mobile services.
He finally joined Delta Process, the company that created Tadeo, as sales manager at the beginning of 2012. He is now director of Tadeo, and member of the Executive Committee of Delta Process.
Mr. Tim Murdoch is co-founder of Waymap, an award-wining start-up that delivers the best in class wayfinding for visually impaired and other communities through a breakthrough technology that delivers highly accurate location and heading on smartphones and without the need for beacon infrastructure, both indoors and outside. Our vision is to deliver the benefits of Smart Cities to those who might benefit from it most, starting with indoor navigation and tracking. Tim is one of the original creators of the M-PESA money transfer service for Vodafone, a financial service that has transformed the lives of many millions of people across Africa and beyond and become the poster child for the financial services industry. Tim is an Industrial Research Fellow at Cambridge University Engineering Design Centre and Fellow of Cambridge Digital Innovation at the Judge Business School.
Ms. Catherine Naughton is the Director of the European Disability Forum (EDF), a unique platform which brings together representative Organisation of persons with disabilities from across Europe. EDF is an umbrella organisation of persons with disabilities that defends the interests of over 100 million persons with disabilities in Europe. EDF is run by persons with disabilities and their families. EDF is a strong united voice of persons with disabilities in Europe. She is also the Vice President of the Social Platform. Social Platform is the largest network of European rights- and value-based civil society organisations working in the social sector. Catherine has an academic background in public health, and 25 years of experience in the field of disability. She has worked in many countries, and at the EU and International level in promoting the inclusion of person with disabilities.
Ms. Inmaculada Placencia
Porrero is a Senior Expert in Disability and Inclusion at Directorate-General
Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission. Her unit
is responsible for the coordination of European policies for persons with
disabilities. She works on European disability policies including the European
Disability Strategy 2010-2020, and the EU implementation of the UNCRPD.
Inmaculada holds a degree in Physics and Computer Science and worked in
research and development before joining The European Commission in 1991. She
has worked on research programmes addressing accessibility as well as assistive
technologies and was Deputy Head of Unit for various disability-related units
in the Commission. Her work in the "e-Inclusion" unit of the
Directorate-General for Information Society and Media addressed accessibility
policy. While at the Directorate-General for Justice she contributed to
disability-related antidiscrimination legislation. She was responsible for the
Task Force for the preparation of the European Accessibility Act and remains
responsible since its adoption in 2015. Currently under the Directorate General
for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, she is also working on the
preparation of the post 2020 European Disability Strategy.
