Agenda

Dr. Jacob M. Korok 
Graduate of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazing University, Egypt 1994
Obtained Master degree in Veterinary medicine (MSc) Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum, Sudan.
Was appointed as the Deputy Minister of ICT in the Republic of South Sudan and has been closely involved in the ICT sector. He oversees the ICT sector in South Sudan. He is also a board member in a number of ICT institutions such as the South Sudan International Gateway, and the government’s eservices board.

Professor Konstantinos Masselos has been appointed as the President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) in February 2018. He has been elected Chair of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) for 2023 and Vice-Chair for 2022 and 2024. He served as Vice-Chair of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) for 2019 as well.
 
He is a Professor in Computing Systems Design in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications at University of the Peloponnese (Greece). He served as Rector of the above university the period 2012-2017. 
 
During the period 2005 to 2008, he was Lecturer in digital systems in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, at the Imperial College London. Also from 2010 to 2016, he served as Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, at the Imperial College London. From 2001 to 2004, he joined Intracom Telecom SA in Greece. 
 
He has been involved in several research and development projects and has consulting experience in industry and public organizations. Since 2005 he has been regularly involved as an expert in different European Commission units. He was member of the Scientific Committee of European COoperation in Science and Technology (COST) organization from 2015 to 2017. He has authored more than 120 papers in international journals and conferences.

Mr. Knights has spent the last two decades working in the public sector in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and specifically in the area of telecommunications development, regulation and policy. Prior to joining the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) as its Director in 2002 he was the Telecommunications Officer in the Ministry of Communications and Works and was deeply involved in the telecommunications liberalization process within the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). 
His expertise covers a wide area including management, emergency communications, numbering, universal service and access, policy development, digital transformation and the Internet. Mr. Knights believes in practical solutions to problems and tries to have his work benefit the citizens he serves here at home and the wider Caribbean region. 
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, a Master’s Degree in Telecommunications and Networking and an MBA in International Business.

Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo was appointed Acting Executive Director of the Uganda Communications Commission in February 2020. Prior to that appointment, Mrs. Kaggwa Sewankambo was the Director of Engineering and Communications Infrastructure at the Commission, a position she continues to hold alongside that of Ag. Executive Director.
She possesses a vast experience of 20 years in the ICT sector spanning policy development, research, regulation and implementation in various aspects of ICT policy and regulation.
An engineer by profession, Mrs. Sewankambo holds a Master of Science in Communications Systems and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and a Master of Science in Economic Management and Policy (Business Economic Pathway) from the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom. She acquired her Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Makerere University in Kampala.

Björn Richter is heading the GIZ Digital Transformation Cluster of Global and Sector Programmes and is representing German Government. Together with his team of experienced tech-experts he is implementing the global digital development agenda of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. They aim to facilitate a human-centered digital transformation with all partners of the digital ecosystem while utilizing digital technologies for leap-frogging. Jointly with twelve EU member states, European Commission, tech-companies and civil society they also facilitating the D4D hub as “Team Europe” approach on digital development projects.

Before engaging in digital development, he was working ten years in the media business, experiencing the impacts of digital transformation. Afterwards he joined German Development Cooperation and was advising senior representatives of partner countries in the ASEAN and SADC Countries as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan. These experiences can be utilized during his current assignment, as he taps into concrete experiences on the ground as well as first-hand expertise from disruption in the field of media.

She is a lawyer from the Pontificia Javeriana University with a master’s degree in Law, an INALDE Management Course and a specialization in Business Law, with more than 17 years of experience in telecommunications regulation.

In the Communications Regulation Commission, she has served as Advisor, Dispute Resolution Coordinator and Legal Advisory and Dispute Resolution Coordinator, where she lead the legal strategy for monitoring regulatory decisions of a general and particular nature of high impact, as in the judicial defense of the Commission.

Since March 2022, she has been the Commissioner of the Communications Commission Session.

Maike Luiken, PhD, SMIEEE, IEEE-HKN, FEIC, is 2022 IEEE Past Vice President - Member & Geographic Activities. She served as President of IEEE Canada in 2018 - 2019 and, in 2018, as Chair, Policy Track, IEEE Internet Initiative. She is and has been for more than 15 years a very strong supporter of sustainable development.

She is a co-owner and managing director, R&D, at a start-up company and also an Adjunct Research Professor at Western University, London, Canada.

Previously, in Sarnia, Canada, she led the Bluewater Sustainability Initiative, 2006 – 2013, and was the founding Director of the Bluewater Technology Access Centre (now Lambton Manufacturing Innovation Centre) following eight years as Dean at Lambton College with several portfolios: School of Technology and Applied Sciences, Business Development, Sustainable Development and Applied Research. Her strategic leadership in the development of the applied research & innovation capacity and portfolio led to Lambton College becoming one of the three top Research Colleges in Canada.

Her areas of interest and expertise span diverse technical areas from ICT, energy and water to advanced manufacturing and nanotechnologies as well as technology design principles, ethics in design and policy associated with their implementation. She has particular interest in how progress in one area, e.g., in ICT, enables advances in other disciplines and in how deployment of various technologies contributes – or not - to achieving sustainable development.

Maike has experience in the public and private sectors in Canada and has worked in the USA and Germany.

Tomas Lamanauskas is Managing Partner of Envision Associates, a public policy, regulatory and strategy advisory firm. Tomas has also been nominated by the Government of Lithuania as a candidate for Deputy Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union for the 2022 elections.
 
His experience in telecoms and digital policy, regulation and strategy includes positions of Member of the Board, CEO and Deputy General Director of national communications regulatory authorities in Europe, the Middle East and Caribbean, and senior government advisor on information and communications technologies policy in the Pacific. He also served as Head of Corporate Strategy as well as Special Advisor for Crisis Strategy (COVID-19) and Partnership Initiatives for the International Telecommunication Union, and Group Director Public Policy at VEON, a multinational technology and communications company. 
 
Tomas has Master’s degrees in Public Administration (Harvard), Leadership and Strategy (London Business School), Telecommunications Regulation and Policy (The University of the West Indies) and Law (Vilnius University).

Ricardo Mena has served in the United Nations system since 1993, occupying positions in the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (UNDHA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Department of Management and with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

In 2009, Mr. Mena joined UNDRR as head of its Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean based in Panama. In 2017, he took on the position of UNDRR Chief of Branch in charge of Supporting and Monitoring the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction based in Geneva. He served as Director ad interim of the organization from December 2019 to May 2020, and was appointed as Director on 1 June 2020.

Mr. Mena has ample experience in all the facets of disaster risk reduction and its links with sustainable development, climate change and humanitarian crisis. He led 16 UN disaster relief missions, worked extensively in disaster preparedness and recovery, coordinated the implementation of national disaster mitigation projects in various countries and led the formulation of a preparatory assistance for the development of a disaster mitigation strategy for Latin America.

He led the establishment of the Business Continuity Management Unit at the UN Headquarters and oversaw the implementation of the corporate Avian Flu Preparedness Plan in New York and offices away from Headquarters.

Prior to his engagement with the United Nations, Mr. Mena held managerial positions in the private sector in Ecuador and worked with the organization Partners of the Americas as Deputy Director of an Emergency Preparedness Program for Ecuador and neighbouring countries.

Mr. Mena holds a master’s degree in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom.

Sarah Armstrong is the Executive Director for the Internet Society Foundation. Over the course of her career, her work has spanned non-profit, humanitarian, foundation and international development contexts both in the United States and overseas.  
 
Her previous position was with Abt Associates where she directed the Marketing Communications department and was responsible for strategy, operations and program management for the communications, marketing and business development functions. 
 
Before joining Abt, Sarah worked as The United States Agency for International Development’s Director of Outreach and Communications in Juba, South Sudan. It was at that time that South Sudan was becoming a new nation. She has also been a consultant to various non-profits and has directed successful programs for a wide range of organizations including AARP; the American Red Cross; and clients of Porter Novelli, an international public relations firm.
In 2004, Sarah established A Brighter Tomorrow for Africa Foundation (BTA), a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of women and children in Sierra Leone, West Africa through the financial support of small, community-based organizations. The organization now develops and maintains school feeding programs in rural and urban areas of Sierra Leone for over 1000 children who are now able to succeed in school because of the nourishment they receive. 
 
Sarah is the recipient of the Humanitarian Leadership Award, awarded by the National Organization of Sierra Leoneans of North America, and is a member of the Challenge Leadership Group on Digital Inclusion for MIT.  

Sarah joined Intel on February 14, 2021, with decades of global policy expertise and a proven track record of developing new policy platforms and executing global strategy.
Before joining Intel, she served as the Associate Vice President and Head of Global Health Policy/ESG Strategy for Organon a spin-off of Merck Pharmaceutical company. And was Merck’s Associate Vice President, Public Policy for China, Japan, and the Emerging Markets. 
 
Before joining Merck, Ms. Kemp was the Deputy Under Secretary for the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. In this role, she oversaw a $485 million annual budget and 2,100 trade and investment professionals based in 108 US cities and 76 markets worldwide. 
 
Prior to her time in D.C., she was the Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, overseeing the U.S. Department of Commerce’s trade promotion and trade policy activities in its operations in Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenyang, and Guangzhou. As a career Foreign Service Officer, she served as the Country Manager in China and Vietnam and had multiple postings in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. Ms. Kemp joined Commerce as a Presidential Management Fellow. 
 
She received her MBA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, her Master of Public Administration from Columbia University, and her Bachelor of Arts in Physiological–Anthropology from Hamilton College. Ms. Kemp is an independent board member of NTIC. And a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on China.