Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava took office as Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023. 

With more than 30 years in telecommunications, including over 20 years in ITU’s Development Sector, Dr Zavazava has promoted and implemented impactful information and communication technology projects around the world. 

Prior to his election as BDT Director, he served as ITU’s Chief of Partnerships for Digital Development, overseeing development-related projects, strategic partnerships, and resource mobilization between 2019 and 2022, while launching new initiatives that have boosted the engagement of industry, private-sector and academia members in ITU’s work. 

Miosotis Rivas Peña has held the position of General Director of the National Statistics
Office of the Dominican Republic since August 2020. She has a degree in economics with
master’s degrees in Economic Policy, Gender and Development and Human
Development. She has extensive work experience in the Central American and Caribbean
region in matters of regional integration, development and public policies, public equality
policies, gender mainstreaming and trade negotiations. She has worked closely in
strengthening the Central American Integration System, recently as the Executive Director
of the Regional Center for the Promotion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(CENPROMYPE) and previously as the Technical Secretariat for Women of the Council of
Ministers of Women of Central America, space from which he promoted the first regional
gender equality and equity policy (PRIEG). She was a representative of UN Women in
Dominican Republic and has vast experience as a lecturer in different universities. Active
member of various feminist and Contemplative Extension spaces.

Alan Smith is Head of Visual and Data Journalism at the Financial Times. A data visualisation specialist, his TEDx talk Why You Should Love Statistics was featured on TED.com in 2017. Alan is the author of How Charts Work, a handbook on designing with data using the FT’s principles. He is also Honorary Professor of Practice at UCL’s Social Data Institute. Before he joined the FT, he was head of digital content at the UK Office for National Statistics where he was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 for services to official statistics.

Helani Galpaya is the CEO of LIRNEasia, a pro-poor, pro-market think tank working on digital and other infrastructure policy issues across the emerging Asia Pacific. She researches and engages in public discourse on topics related to meaningful digital access, human rights online, changes to labor and skills in light of technology and climate change, and the governance of platforms, data, and algorithms. Further details at https://lirneasia.net/people/helani-galpaya/ .

Laura Eiro is the Director General of the Data, Safety and Security Department at the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Finland. Her department is responsible for data economy and digitalisation policy, media policy, network security, Intelligent Transport Systems, transport automation and transport safety. She is also a Member of Board of the CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd and Chair of the Advisory Board of Statistics Finland.

Previously Eiro has worked at the Ministry of Transport and Communications in several expert and managerial positions. She has also worked at Finland’s Permanent Representation to the EU, at Intelligent Transportation Society of Finland and at the Ministry of Finance as Secretary General of the Finnish Technology Advisory Board.

Ekaterine Imedadze has been a commissioner of the Georgian National Communications Commission (ComCom) since March 2021. Prior to taking up her position, she headed the Telecommunications Market Regulation Department at ComCom.
Ms Imedadze has over 15 years of professional experience in telecommunications with a global perspective. Ms Imedadze has held several key positions at the international telecommunications group company VEON Ltd., leading the Global Process unit responsible for the group’s digital transformation. She also served as the group’s internal control and risk management lead for several years. Ms. Imedadze had previously served as the Head of Finance and Operations for a number of large private organisations, as well as a business consultant for leading ICT companies.
Ms Imedadze holds an MBA from the University of Bradford School of Management and completed the Innovation Leadership programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Previously, she earned a master’s degree in physics as well as a postgraduate diploma in artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic from Tbilisi State University, and she is currently pursuing an LL.M. in competition law and economics at the Brussels School of Competition (BSC).
She speaks Georgian, English, German and Russian.

Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava took office as Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023. 

With more than 30 years in telecommunications, including over 20 years in ITU’s Development Sector, Dr Zavazava has promoted and implemented impactful information and communication technology projects around the world. 

Prior to his election as BDT Director, he served as ITU’s Chief of Partnerships for Digital Development, overseeing development-related projects, strategic partnerships, and resource mobilization between 2019 and 2022, while launching new initiatives that have boosted the engagement of industry, private-sector and academia members in ITU’s work. 

Mr Bernard Banda is currently Director for Economic Regulation and Consumer Protection at the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority, the regulator of Information and Communication Technologies in Zambia. He is also the Chair of the Expert Group of Telecommunication Indicators at the International Telecommunications Union. Bernard has extensive experience in research design and implementation, policy analysis and data analytics. In the last few years, he has led several national demand and supply side surveys in Zambia and is actively involved in a number of regional initiatives in Africa.

Anne-Laure Durand is the Head of the Market Observatory Unit at the Electronic Communications, Postal and Print Media Distribution Regulatory Authority of France.
She has an extensive experience in the production and publication of statistics on the electronic communications market.
Since 2020, she has been responsible for the collection and publication of environmental indicators in the digital sector.

Liang Guo is the Chief Engineer of cloud computing and bigdata institute of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. He has conducted long-term research on computing, storage, and networking of data centre. He edited 6 books, published over 30 papers, led 2 national standards and over 20 industry standards. He received multiple awards from the China Electronics Society, the China Communications Society and China Communications Standards Association.

Shazna Zuhyle, independent consultant and Research Fellow (LIRNEasia) has over 15 years’ of experience in ICT domain including the software industry. In 2017 she led the sub-committee that proposed revisions to the ITU’s ICT price benchmarking methodology and has been continuously engaged with ICT price baskets since 2013.

Within the ICT sector, her interests have been in broadband quality of service, and Disaster Risk Management on which she authored and co-authored a series of papers for UN ESCAP on the resilience of ICTs for Disaster Risk Management and Disaster Risk Reduction, inter alia.

She holds an MSc in Telecommunications from University College London (UCL), UK.

 

Esperanza Magpantay is the Senior Statistician at the ICT Data and Analytics division of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she has worked since December 2000. She oversees and contributes to the collection, harmonization, and dissemination of ICT statistics and represents the ITU in various international initiatives and working groups, including the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development and the UN Inter-agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators. Ms. Magpantay leads the UN-Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD) Task Team on mobile phone big data, collaborating with over 50 experts from international and regional organizations, national statistics offices, and research entities.

She has represented the ITU at numerous international meetings, such as the UN Statistical Commission, the UN World Data Forum, and the International Conferences on Big Data, delivering presentations and trainings on ICT statistics. Before joining the ITU, she spent 7 years at the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva as a statistical officer. Ms. Magpantay holds a Master’s degree in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE University in Madrid, Spain, and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from the University of the Philippines.

Scarlett Fondeur Gil is an Economics graduate from the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology in the Dominican Republic, with a Masters in International Relations from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. She has been working for the last nine years as an Economic Affairs Officer for the ICT Analysis Section of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, based in Geneva, Switzerland. She and her colleagues produce the annual Information Economy Report, which analyzes trends on ICT and the information economy in developing countries and makes policy recommendations to UNCTAD member states. She is also involved in the development of internationally comparable ICT statistics in the context of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, which is composed by 13 international organizations. In this context, UNCTAD is a member of the Partnership’s Task Group on E-waste measurement. UNCTAD currently collects data on the use of ICT by businesses, on the ICT sector, and on international trade in ICT goods, and aims to continue developing statistical work on measuring trade in ICT services, and gender and ICT.

Deniz Susar is a Governance and Public Administration Officer, Digital Government Branch, Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government is a Governance and Public Administration Officer at the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government of UNDESA. Deniz’s main work areas include digital government and preparation of the biannual UNDESA flagship publication ‘United Nations E-Government Survey’. As part of his current role, he also supports the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). HIs main research areas include e-government, open government, citizen engagement, internet governance, artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies and open government data. Deniz holds a Master Degree on International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University, New York, United States and a Computer Engineering degree from the Bosphorus University of Istanbul, Turkey.

Michael Frosch is the senior statistician at the International Labour Organization (ILO). He joined the Statistical Standards and method unit at the Department of Statistics at ILO in 2016. He was leading the work with developing the 21st ICLS resolution concerning statistics on the informal economy. He has also contributed to the work of developing the new statistical standards on work relationships and is now the ILO focal point for its implementation.  Prior ILO, Michael Frosch worked with the Danish Labour Force Survey at Statistics Denmark as a senior advisor.

Yusif Yusifov is the Deputy Chairman of the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
He is a Ph.D. in economics. Graduated with bachelor’s degree in statistics, master’s degree in macroeconomic statistics and public administration.
He has a long-standing career with the State Statistical Committee, starting as a Leading Economist in 1998 and progressively advancing through various leadership roles. Since 2013, he has served as Deputy Chairman, contributing to the development and management of statistical operations in Azerbaijan.

Alexandre Barbosa, Head of the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), linked to the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br) is responsible for research projects to produce ICT-related data for the monitoring of national policies and international goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He coordinates capacity building programs in survey methodologies in Latin America and Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa. Mr Barbosa is a Member of Consultive Committee of the Brazilian Census (Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics) and member of the Board of Councelors of the Brazilian Center for Innovation in Education (CIEB). Chair of the Expert Group on ICT Households indicators (EGH) from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) from 2012 to 2017, expert at the OECD working party on Measurement and Analysis of the Digital Economy and working party on Artificial Intelligence Governance.

As a trailblazer in the field of ICT statistics, Ms Linah Ngumba spearheads this sector at the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the National Statistics Office (NSO). She handles ICT-related research and analysis in the organization. Ms Ngumba was instrumental in establishing the ICT statistics division, introducing the Economic Survey report, orchestrating ICT enterprise and public institution surveys, and integrating an ICT module in the integrated household budget surveys and the 2019 Population and Household Census. Currently, she chairs the International Telecommunication Union’s Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators. Ms Ngumba hold master’s degrees in the fields of Communications Management and Economics, in addition to her bachelor’s degree in economics and Statistics.

Molly Lesher is the Acting Head of the Digital Connectivity, Economics and Society division at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, with responsibility for connectivity infrastructure and services policy, cybersecurity, online safety and consumer policy. She is also the Head of the OECD Digital Policy, Economics, and Measurement unit, with responsibility for the online Going Digital Toolkit, the OECD flagship publication the OECD Digital Economy Outlook, and the OECD Working Party on Digital Economics, Measurement and Analysis. She co-ordinated the Going Digital project, leading the development of the Going Digital Integrated Policy Framework and the Going Digital Toolkit. Previous positions include Counsellor to the Directors of the OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Directorate, 10 years as a trade economist in the OECD’s Trade and Agriculture Directorate, as well as roles in the Research Department of the US Federal Reserve Bank (international economics) as well as the private sector (Fidelity Investments, a US-based financial services company).

Justin Thomas PhD, CPsychol, is an experimental psychologist with a long-standing interest in artificial intelligence and human computer interaction. He is particularly focused on the space where digital technologies intersect with culture and wellbeing. He is presently a senior research specialist at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) within the digital wellbeing program (Sync).

Enrico Nano is the Head of Research at Horizon Group, where he leads several projects from index building and impact evaluation to policy assessment and strategy formulation. He holds a PhD in development economics from the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) and two master’s degrees in economics.
Previously, Enrico was a Lead Economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome and Abu Dhabi, and a Research Economist at the World Trade Organization. He also worked as a consultant for the OECD, ILO and UniCredit Bank in Moscow, and as research assistant at Bruegel, IHEID, and European Commission.
With over 10 academic and policy publications, his research focuses on applying econometric and impact evaluation techniques on human capital development topics, ranging from education and labor markets to health and gender, from agriculture and climate to trade and competitiveness.
As part of WEF’s Global Shapers Community, Enrico was curator of the Rome Hub, a member of the Davos Lab taskforce, and of the 2020 Davos 50. He also co-founded two youth NGOs active in social impact projects at local and national level. A sports and outdoor enthusiast, he is fluent in Italian and English, and has a working knowledge of French and Spanish.

Dr Vuorikari is an independent expert with over 20 years of experience in digital skills and digital education. Since 2022, she has co-chaired EGH’s sub-group on ICT Skills. In 2022, Dr Vuorikari led the EU’s update of its Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (2.2) and contributed to the Digital Skills Indicator 2.0. Between 2017-2022, she was a member of Eurostat’s Information Society Statistics Working Group while working at EU’s Joint Research Centre. Today, she collaborates with the ITU, World Bank and EU to enhance citizens’ digital competence.

Yusif Yusifov is the Deputy Chairman of the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
He is a Ph.D. in economics. Graduated with bachelor’s degree in statistics, master’s degree in macroeconomic statistics and public administration.
He has a long-standing career with the State Statistical Committee, starting as a Leading Economist in 1998 and progressively advancing through various leadership roles. Since 2013, he has served as Deputy Chairman, contributing to the development and management of statistical operations in Azerbaijan.

Miosotis Rivas Peña has held the position of General Director of the National Statistics
Office of the Dominican Republic since August 2020. She has a degree in economics with
master’s degrees in Economic Policy, Gender and Development and Human
Development. She has extensive work experience in the Central American and Caribbean
region in matters of regional integration, development and public policies, public equality
policies, gender mainstreaming and trade negotiations. She has worked closely in
strengthening the Central American Integration System, recently as the Executive Director
of the Regional Center for the Promotion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(CENPROMYPE) and previously as the Technical Secretariat for Women of the Council of
Ministers of Women of Central America, space from which he promoted the first regional
gender equality and equity policy (PRIEG). She was a representative of UN Women in
Dominican Republic and has vast experience as a lecturer in different universities. Active
member of various feminist and Contemplative Extension spaces.

Andrea Barone is an applied economist with over 20 years of in-depth experience in economic analysis and policymaking in the telecom and digital sectors. He joined the World Bank in 2018 as senior adviser to the Chief Economist for the MENA region, and in 2021 became senior economist in the Digital Development Vice Presidency. He is currently leading the development of several online platforms that will allow World Bank and external users to access, visualize, and download high-quality data on digital transformation topics. He is also participating in policy dialogue and operations in many countries.
Earlier in his career he was an economist at the Italian Competition Authority, where he carried out antitrust investigations, merger control analyses and market studies in different sectors (telecoms, media and broadcasting, e-commerce, banking and finance, payment systems, insurance, manufacturing, water and sanitation, waste management). In that period he was also a Registered National Expert for EU competition and consumer protection law and policy within TAIEX, the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument of the European Commission.
He holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence (Italy), a MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BSc in Business and Economics from the University of Florence.

Vasco Molini leads the design, implementation, and results management of the 50×2030 Initiative through the 50×2030 Program Management Team. Over the course of more than one decade with the World Bank, he worked in Mozambique, Angola, Sao Tome and Principe, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, where he led national surveys, analytical studies on jobs, inequality, and conflicts; he managed country-level statistical capacity building initiatives. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Florence and a Post/Doc at the Free University Amsterdam.

Henri Numbi Ilunga is an expert in telecommunications regulation with over 20 years of experience. As a senior executive at the Regulatory Authority for Post and Telecommunications of the Democratic Republic of Congo (ARPTC), he is responsible for market analysis and statistics. He also heads the market observatory within the ARPTC, contributing to the preparation of quarterly and annual reports on telecommunications. He has been a member of several ITU expert groups since 2010, particularly on ICT indicators and household surveys, and has also acted as an ITU consultant for capacity building in French-speaking African countries, leading national workshops on digital sector statistics. He has served as Vice-Rapporteur of ITU-D Study Group 1.
Holding a degree in statistics from the Higher Institute of Statistics (ISS) in Lubumbashi, he has gained additional skills through certifications in ICT infrastructure planning, change management, and telecommunications market regulation. He chaired a working group of the African Union on regulatory harmonization.

Esperanza Magpantay is the Senior Statistician at the ICT Data and Analytics division of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she has worked since December 2000. She oversees and contributes to the collection, harmonization, and dissemination of ICT statistics and represents the ITU in various international initiatives and working groups, including the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development and the UN Inter-agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators. Ms. Magpantay leads the UN-Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD) Task Team on mobile phone big data, collaborating with over 50 experts from international and regional organizations, national statistics offices, and research entities.

She has represented the ITU at numerous international meetings, such as the UN Statistical Commission, the UN World Data Forum, and the International Conferences on Big Data, delivering presentations and trainings on ICT statistics. Before joining the ITU, she spent 7 years at the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva as a statistical officer. Ms. Magpantay holds a Master’s degree in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE University in Madrid, Spain, and a Bachelor of Science in Statistics from the University of the Philippines.

Fredrik Eriksson is a Data Scientist of the ICT Data and Analytics Division of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) with nearly 20 years of experience in quantitative analysis from international organisations and across the private sector. Fredrik has previously been responsible for ITU’s data collection on ICT household statistics, and re-joined ITU in 2021 to focus on ITU’s work on big data after spending a few years building a Data Science team in the private sector. Prior to first joining ITU, he also worked in the finance sector and spent eight years at the OECD analysing international finance flows for economic development. Fredrik holds a Master’s degree in Statistics from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Mohamad Hairy Halib is the Head of the Statistics and Data Intelligence Department at MCMC. He has been at the forefront of implementing data-driven strategies and initiatives within MCMC and has published various key data, information and reports relating to the national communications and multimedia industry in Malaysia. His vast experiences as a regulator span across various telecommunication policies, including Mobile Number Portability, IPv6, and the National Broadband Plan. Holding a master’s degree in Economics and a bachelor’s in electrical electronic engineering, Hairy brings a unique blend of technical skill and analytical insight, essential for fostering innovation and shaping policy in the telecom regulatory framework.

Trevor Monroe is a Senior Program Lead with the Chief Statisticians Office in the Development Data Group at the World Bank. Trevor leads programs that put Data and AI to work for development. Currently, He currently manages a program under the Global Data Facility to accelerate country capacity to use Mobile Phone Data for policy and Official statistics.

 

Dr Daniel Power is the Managing Director of the Flowminder Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to utilising mobile and other data to inform and support humanitarian and development policy and decision-making. With a background in data analysis and strategic project management, Dr Power leads Flowminder’s efforts to enhance the use of mobile data in addressing critical global challenges.

Flowminder’s work focuses on leveraging anonymized mobile operator data and other sources to provide crucial insights into population movements and resource needs, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The foundation’s projects span disaster response, public health, development planning, and poverty alleviation, significantly impacting how data is used to improve lives and support sustainable development goals.

Dr Power’s expertise includes strategic leadership, underpinned by a rich understanding of the complexities involved in using big data for social good. This encompasses partnership mobilisation, data engineering, privacy protection and ethics, data analysis, and supporting the practical use of data. His leadership at Flowminder is characterised by a commitment to people-centred principles, ensuring that the organisation not only utilises cutting-edge technology but also harnesses the collective expertise of its team to make a tangible impact on global humanitarian and development efforts.

Ronald Jansen leads the work on data innovation and statistical capacity management. Internationally, he supports the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics, including support for Regional and Global Hubs, the UN Global Platform and the Data Science Leaders Network. He holds a PhD in mathematical modelling of human information processing. He joined the United Nations in June of 1990.

InKyung Choi leads the Statistical Management and Modernisation Unit of the Statistics Division at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). As UNECE Secretariat for the High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics (HLG-MOS), she has extensive international collaboration experience on emerging technologies and modernisation topics, such as AI and standards. Prior to joining UNECE, she worked at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). She holds a master’s degree in Statistics from Korea University and a Ph.D. in Geospatial Statistics from Purdue University.

Irina Bejan is a Tech Lead at OpenMined, a non-profit that builds and deploys open source infrastructure for accessing non-public datasets and AI models. In her role, she leads pilots to explore how institutions or companies can accelerate research progress using sensitive assets responsibly. OpenMined has worked in this capacity with the UK AI Safety Institute, the United Nations, Reddit, Microsoft, Twitter/X, and was featured at the UN General Assembly, the Whitehouse PETs report and the Royal Society’s report on privacy enhancing technologies.

Howard Bilodeau is an economist at Statistics Canada where he focuses on measuring the digital transformation of Canadian businesses and society. As part of this role, he manages the development of new data products to address data gaps in the digital economy. He also works with the OECD Working Party on Digital Economics, Measurement and Analysis to collect comparable data across member countries.

Miosotis Rivas Peña has held the position of General Director of the National Statistics
Office of the Dominican Republic since August 2020. She has a degree in economics with
master’s degrees in Economic Policy, Gender and Development and Human
Development. She has extensive work experience in the Central American and Caribbean
region in matters of regional integration, development and public policies, public equality
policies, gender mainstreaming and trade negotiations. She has worked closely in
strengthening the Central American Integration System, recently as the Executive Director
of the Regional Center for the Promotion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(CENPROMYPE) and previously as the Technical Secretariat for Women of the Council of
Ministers of Women of Central America, space from which he promoted the first regional
gender equality and equity policy (PRIEG). She was a representative of UN Women in
Dominican Republic and has vast experience as a lecturer in different universities. Active
member of various feminist and Contemplative Extension spaces.

Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava took office as Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023. 

With more than 30 years in telecommunications, including over 20 years in ITU’s Development Sector, Dr Zavazava has promoted and implemented impactful information and communication technology projects around the world. 

Prior to his election as BDT Director, he served as ITU’s Chief of Partnerships for Digital Development, overseeing development-related projects, strategic partnerships, and resource mobilization between 2019 and 2022, while launching new initiatives that have boosted the engagement of industry, private-sector and academia members in ITU’s work.