Strategic Dialogue Participants

Moderator - Mr. Raffaele Barberio, Director, Key4Biz

Mr. Raffaele Barberio has been a journalist since 1989 [@rafbarberio], and Founder and Editor in Chief of Key4biz (www.key4biz.it) since 2001, the online newspaper specialized in Telecommunications, Media, and Internet.  He holds a degree in Communications Studies from the University of Rome, Masters at Centre de Sociologie Urbaine (Paris), Polytechnic of Central London and Goldsmith's College (London). Between 1995-2000, he worked in Finsiel Spa as Head of Projects on Cultural Heritage and Digital Libraries, and from 1993-1995 as Head of Marketing in Sidac Spa (IRI-Stet Group). From I989 to 1993, he was General Manager of CEMEI, the Multimedia and Electronic Interactive Publishing Consortium, formed by RAI, STET and PHILIPS.  He was worked as a consultant for many institutions and enterprises on topics related with development, market and services on television and telecommunications. He is also author of many articles, books and analysis of national and international specialized press and communications, including "L'Europa delle Televisioni" 1989-'92; Edizioni Il Mulino; "L'antenna promessa"- 1984; and Edizioni ERI; "Le dinamiche del broadcasting" 1986 Edizioni RAI.

Mr. Moez Chakchouk, CEO, Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI)

Mr. Chakchouk graduated from the Sup’Com Engineering School in Tunisia in 1998, and received his M.S in telecommunications from the ENIT Engineering School in 2001. In February 2009, he achieved his Ph.D in telecommunications and applied mathematics, under the joint tuition of El Manar University, Tunisia and Paris Descartes University, France.

 

He started his career in 1998 as a research engineer in the Center of Telecommunication Studies and Research (CERT). In July 2005, he joined the Telecommunications Regulation Authority (INT), first as chief of the technical department, later he became the Director of Interconnection & Access. In March 2010, he was appointed as Adviser to the Minister of Communications Technology.  A few weeks after the Tunisian revolution, Chakchouk was appointed Chairman and CEO of the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI). His aim is to redefine ATI’s role, which used to be the former governments instrument to censorship the internet. With his team, he has succeeded in launching TunIXP, the first Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in the Maghreb Arab region.

 

 

Mr. Matthias Kurth, Executive Chairman and Member of the Executive Committee, Cable Europe

Matthias Kurth joined Cable Europe in October 2012 as Executive Chairman. Mr. Kurth sits on Cable Europe’s Executive Committee which has oversight of the cable industry’s main representational duties in Europe. Matthias lastly held the position of President of the German Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), the authority for telecommunications, postal, energy and railway markets in Germany, including frequency management and digital signature. He played an instrumental role in the liberalization of the German energy market and left behind notable achievements with respect to competition in the telecommunications market. Matthias also served as Chairman of the European Regulators Group (ERG) in 2009 to increase regulatory cooperation at the EU level.

Mr. Kurth worked as a judge and lawyer for 16 years prior to his roles of President of BNetzA and Chairman of the ERG. He served as State Secretary in the Hesse Ministry of Economics, Transport, Technology and European Affairs between 1994 and 1999.Mr. Kurth was member of the Hesse Land Parliament from 1978 to 1994 and also worked as a lawyer in Hesse.

 

 

Lynn St. Amour, President, ISOC

Lynn St. Amour is President and CEO of the Internet Society.  She joined the Internet Society in 1998 as Executive Director of its Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) division, and was responsible for international expansion. She became the global Executive Director and COO in 1999 and held that position until her appointment as President and CEO in February of 2001.
 
St. Amour significantly expanded the Internet Society, establishing it as an internationally respected expert on Internet governance, and technical, development, and policy issues affecting the Internet. She is a frequent speaker at Internet conferences, an active participant in many United Nation's organizations and agencies as well as the World Economic Forum, and she serves on numerous boards of global organizations.

 

St. Amour has extensive experience in global IT and international business.  Her background includes positions at the highest levels in international sales and marketing, strategic planning, partner management, and manufacturing.  Prior to joining the Internet Society, she was director of Business Development and Joint Venture Operations for AT&T's Europe, Middle East, and Africa division.  Earlier in her career, she was a Strategic Alliance Director for Digital and led Digital's corporate manufacturing restructuring efforts as the leader of the worldwide Capacity Management Team.
 
A graduate of the University of Vermont, St. Amour began her career in information technology with the General Electric Corporation.

 

  

 

H.E. Mr. Diego Molano Vega, Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Colombia

The Minister of Information and Communication Technologies, Diego Molano Vega is an electrical engineer, with a master in Economics from the Universidad Javeriana and a MBA from the Institute for Management Development (IMD), Switzerland. He has over 20 years of experience in the ICT industry, in both public and private sectors.

 

He has held executive positions in multinational companies such as Ascom (Switzerland), Bellsouth (USA) and Telefónica (Spain), where he was responsible for operations in areas of corporate relations, regulation and wholesale businesses in 18 countries of the world. While at Telefonica, he directed research and publications on the impact of technology on public health, banking, in the justice sector, education, small and medium enterprises and productivity, competitiveness and innovation in Latin America.

 

Molano Vega was Director of the National Telecommunications Commission (CRT) between 1996-2000. His management focused on the liberalization of the sector. In its wake, there was an increase in competition and private foreign investment in the country. He has served on the Boards of important major international business organizations such as the Iberoamerican Association of Telecommunications Operators (Ahciet), the Business Economic Forum of Mercosur (MEBF), European Business Forum, EUBrasil and the Chamber of Commerce of Colombia in Spain. He was founder and president of the Telecommunications Regulators Association of Latin America (Regulatel) and member of the board of 4-72, the postal network in Colombia that operates the National Postal Services SA. On 6 August 2010, he was appointed Minister of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) by the president-elect of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, and embarked on his Ministerial duties on 7 August 2010.

 

 

H.E. Ms. Magdalena Gaj , President, UKE, Poland  

On 27 January 2012, the Polish Parliament appointed Magdalena Gaj as the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). Magdalena Gaj is a licensed legal adviser / legal counsel and expert in telecommunications law. Since 2001, she has worked on telecommunication issues, regulation and law.

 

In 1998, she graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Between 1998-2001, she completed her post-graduate legal training and became a qualified legal adviser. At that time she worked for the legal chancellery. In 2001, she started her career as a lawyer in the Office of Telecommunications Regulation. From 2006 to 2009, she worked as Director of the Legal Department. In 2009, she was appointed Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Infrastructure, where she was responsible for telecom and postal issues.

 

Her work has focused on amendments to bring Polish law into compliance with European law, and on introducing provisions which facilitate the development of telecommunications services and consumer protection. The switchover process to digital terrestrial television has been among her priorities. Under her leadership the Plan for Digital TV Implementation in Poland, and subsequently the Act on digital terrestrial TV implementation were prepared and adopted by the Council of Ministers. Thanks to Magdalena Gaj's efforts, Poland become a member of the ITU Council.

 

During the Polish Presidency in the Council of the European Union she was in charge of the Council work in the field of telecommunications. The team led by her negotiated with the European Parliament a compromise version of the first Radio Spectrum Policy Programme which harmonizes the frequencies in the 800 MHz band on the EU-wide scale for the purposes of electronic communications services and broadband Internet access. In November 2011, Magdalena Gaj became Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Administration and Digitisation.

 

 

 

Scribe - Mr. Ulf Pehrsson, Vice-President Sales & Marketing, Head of Government & Industry Relations, Ericsson

Mr. Pehrsson is responsible for Telecom, Regulatory & Trade Policy at Ericsson.   Leveraging over twenty-five years of experience in government and telecommunication, Mr. Pehrsson is the architect of the company’s strategic focus on developing strong ties to Governments and Regulators around the world. Prior to joining Ericsson, Mr. Pehrsson served as the Deputy Director-General, Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA), Director, Ministry for Industry and Trade working primarily in the trade policy, trade & investment promotion and EU Single Market fields as well as represented the Swedish Government at various Embassies around the world.

 

Currently, Mr. Pehrsson chairs the Business Europe Internal Market Committee and is on the board of a number of organizations such as the Swedish Foreign Trade Association, International Council of Swedish Industry (NIR), ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) Vice-chair of the Trade & Investment Commission, ICC Sweden, Chair of the Computer/Telecom Group as well as the Trade Policy Group, SPIDER - Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions and the Palestine International Business Forum. Mr. Pehrsson holds a Master of Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics.  Mr. Pehrsson is married with three children.

Session 2: Broadband Driving Development

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H.E. Minister Omobola Johnson, Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Government of Nigeria

Mrs. Omobola Johnson is Nigeria's Honorable Minister of Communication Technology.

Prior to her ministerial appointment, she was Country Managing Director of Accenture in Nigeria. Omobola has over 25 years consulting experience and has worked with a cross-section of companies in a variety of industries; successfully transforming them into more competitive and dynamic organisations.

Omobola is also the founding Chairperson and member of Board of Trustees of Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ) a non-governmental organisation that seeks to improve the success rate of female entrepreneurs and increase the proportion of women in senior positions in corporate organisations. Omobola is also a Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Africa.

Omobola holds a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester and a Masters degree in Digital Electronics from King's College, London.  She is nearing completion of a doctorate degree at Cranfield University; her research focuses on corporate leadership practices in emerging markets.

  

 

Mr. Yung Kim, President and Group Chief Strategy Officer of Korea Telecom Corporation

 

Mr. Yung Kim is President and Group Chief Strategy Officer of Korea Telecom Corporation, a fully integrated total telecommunications service provider in Korea with over USD 18.8 billion in revenue.  As a President and Group Chief Strategy Officer, Mr. Kim is responsible for Korea Telecom group strategy, corporate management and innovation, global corporate development, strategic investment and Mergers & Acquisitions, and group synergy and portfolio management of 53 subsidiaries with consolidate revenue of over USD 23.8 billion.

 

Mr. Kim also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Korea Telecom SAT Company, Ltd., a spin-off company of KT specializing in satellite communications services and the operation of satellites.  Mr. Kim currently sits on the Board of Directors of Korea Telecom Corporation, BC Card (a credit/debit card issuance, transaction and processing company) and KT Skylife Company, Ltd., (a satellite TV company). He joined KT Corp. in 2009 as SEVP and Head of the Strategy Planning & Investment. He currently serves as Vice-Chairman of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea (IEEK).

 

Prior to joining KT, Mr. Kim had been with British Telecom for over 27 years, working at key posts in various telecommunications business areas. From 2004 – 2009, he was Vice-President of Technology and Innovation at the Group CTO Office, reporting in-line to the Group CEO.  His main responsibility was to source innovative telecom and ICT products and services in Japan and Korea, with the aim of introducing them to the UK.  He was also Head of Technology and Operations, BT Japan, with primary responsibility for all technical and capital investment matters relating to BT’s investments in Japan, including Japan Telecom, J-Phone and BT NIS. 

 

Mr. Kim graduated from University College, University of London, with a BSc in Electronic Engineering with Honours in 1980 and was awarded a MSC in Microwave Engineering and Modern Optics from the same establishment in 1981.

 

 

 

Dr. Amr Badawi, Executive President of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA), Egypt

 

Dr. Amr Badawi is currently the Executive President of the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA). He is also a professor of Electronics at Cairo University. Before that he served as Senior Advisor to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, where he handled the development of the Telecom Sector. He was involved in the policy development and in providing support to all the telecom entities such as the ISPs, vendors, etc… Dr. Badawi joined MCIT after a nine-year tenure with GTE & General Dynamics.  There, he acted as Program Manager and in several other technical positions in support of the Telecom Sector Support and the ICT programs in Egypt. Prior to his tenure at GTE he founded Telecomp International in Egypt in 1990. He also taught at Cairo University and was a Telecom consultant for several government and private entities from 1987 - 1995.  Dr Badawi worked as a development and systems engineer at Aydin Systems, California from 1984 to 1987. Dr. Badawi holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, California and obtained both his M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Electronics Engineering from Cairo University.

  

 

 

Mr. Franco Bernabè, Executive Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia

Mr. Franco Bernabè was born in Vipiteno/Sterzing (Bozen) on September 18, 1948. He is married with two children.

Since April 2011 he is Telecom Italia Chairman and Chief Executive Officer after having the position of Chief Executive Officer in the previous three-year period.

After earning his degree with honours in Economics and Political Science at the University of Turin in 1973, Mr. Bernabè worked for two years as a post-graduate fellow at the Einaudi Foundation.

He began his professional career in 1976 as a Senior Economist at the OECD Department of Economics and Statistics in Paris.

In 1978 he joined the Planning Department of FIAT as Chief Economist.

In 1983 he joined Eni as an Assistant to the Chairman and became subsequently the Head of Corporate Planning, Financial Control and Corporate Development.

From 1992 to 1998 Mr. Bernabè was CEO of Eni. During his two terms, he achieved the turnaround of the company and its successful privatisation bringing Eni to be one of the largest oil companies by market capitalization worldwide.

In November 1998 he became CEO of Telecom Italia, a position he retained until May 1999 after the acquisition of the company by Olivetti.

At the end of 1999 he founded FB Group, an investment company active in the areas of financial advisory, ICT and renewable energy. In 2004, following the merger of the financial advisory activities of FB Group with the Rothschild Group, he was appointed as Vice Chairman of Rothschild Europe, position which he left when he became CEO of Telecom Italia.

Mr. Bernabè is currently Chairman of the Board of GSMA, the international organisation of mobile operators, member of the Board of Directors of PetroChina, and member of the European Roundtable. He is also Co-President of the Italy Brasil Business Council and Vice President of the Rome Industrialist and Enterprises Association with special duties for innovation and Broadband. He is member of the Governing Board of Confindustria.

He has served on the Board of TPG-TNT, of FIAT, on the Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations and on the Board of the Peres Center for Peace. He has also served pro bono on different public assignments: in 1999 he was appointed by the Italian Prime Minister as a special representative of the Italian Government for the reconstruction of Kosovo; between 2001 and 2003 he was the Chairman of La Biennale di Venezia, and since 2004 he is the Chairman of the Mart Museum. In 2011 he was appointed “Cavaliere del Lavoro”. Since February 2012 Mr. Bernabè is President of the Telecom Italia Foundation. 

 

Dr. Robert Pepper, Vice-President, Global Technology Policy, Cisco

Dr. Robert Pepper leads Cisco’s Global Technology Policy team working with governments across the world in areas such as broadband, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, security, privacy, Internet governance and ICT development. He joined Cisco in July 2005 from the FCC where he served as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development beginning in 1989 where he led teams developing policies promoting the development of the Internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, planning for the transition to digital television, and designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions. He serves on the board of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and advisory boards for Columbia University and Michigan State University, and is a Communications Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, the UK’s Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board and the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy. Pepper received his BA. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

 

Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General, ITU

 

Dr Hamadoun Touré has been Secretary-General of ITU since January 2007, and was re-elected for a second four-year term in October 2010. As Secretary-General, Dr Touré is committed to ITU’s mission of connecting the world, and to helping achieve the MDGs through harnessing the potential of ICTs.

 A long-standing champion of ICTs as a driver of social and economic development, Dr Touré previously served as Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) from 1998-2006. In this role he placed considerable emphasis on implementing the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), launching projects based on partnerships with international organizations, governments, the private sector and civil society.

 

Dr Touré started his career in his native Mali in 1979. He built a solid career in the satellite industry, serving as managing engineer in Mali’s first International Earth Station. He joined Intelsat’s Assistance and Development Programme in 1985. He was appointed Intelsat’s Group Director for Africa and the Middle East in 1994, earning a reputation as an energetic leader through his commitment to various regional connectivity projects such as RASCOM. In 1996 he joined ICO Global Communications as African Regional General Manager, spearheading the companies’ activities across the African region. A national of Mali, Dr Touré holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad, and a PhD from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow. He is married with four children and two grandchildren, and is proficient in four official ITU languages: English, French, Russian and Spanish.

 

 

 

Scribe -  Ms. Kathryn Brown, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Citizenship and International Relations, Verizon

Ms. Kathryn C. Brown has been with Verizon since June 2002 and is the Senior Vice-President, Corporate Citizenship and International Relations, where she leads Verizon's international public policy and corporate responsibility initiatives. She is Chair of the Verizon Shared Success Council and has responsibility for the Verizon Foundation.

Before joining Verizon, Ms. Brown was a partner at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Brown was the Chief of Staff to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman William E. Kennard, managing the agenda on all telecommunications, broadcast, and spectrum matters. Additionally, Ms. Brown was the Associate Administrator, Office of Policy Analysis and Development, at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA). Ms. Brown worked for eight years at the New York State Public Service Commission as the Director of the Consumer Services Division and as Litigation Attorney and Managing Attorney for Telecommunications with the Office of General Counsel. Prior to joining the NYPSC, she was the Deputy Clerk of the New York State Court of Appeals. Ms. Brown is a member of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Board of Directors, the University of Southern California Annenberg Innovation Lab Advisory Board, and the .ORG Advisory Council. Ms. Brown received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law in 1980 and her B.A., magna cum laude, from Marist College in 1974. She is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia. Kathy and her husband Steve reside in Oakton, Virginia, with their two adult daughters.