Agenda

Tomas Lamanauskas took office as Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023. In this key elected role, he assists the ITU Secretary-General with managing the organization, addressing the needs of ITU's unique, global public-private membership, and pursuing key strategic objectives to promote inclusive digital transformation in line with sustainable development. 

Mr Lamanauskas aims to forge impact-driv​en partnerships to advance global connectivity, help the information and communication technology industry cut emissions and address the climate crisis, and implement results-oriented management, with maximum transparency and accountability, to ready ITU for a dynamic future. As Deputy Secretary-General, he fosters close collaboration across varied radiocommunication, standardization, and development activities, reinforcing the collective role of ITU's five elected officials as a single, highly effective team. 

Prior to his election by ITU Member States in September 2022, Mr Lamanauskas held senior executive positions with national regulatory authorities in Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, and as a senior government advisor on telecommunications issues in the Pacific region. He previously led corporate strategy at ITU and public policy for multinational technology and communications company VEON .

Ambassador Thomas Schneider is leading the Swiss delegation in various fora in the field of digital and internet 
governance, including AI. In the past 20 years, he has been chairing several international committees and co-initiated several dialogue fora on national and international levels. He is currently the chair of the Council of Europe’s Committee on AI (CAI), mandated to negotiate a binding convention on AI. He has been a co-initiator of EuroDIG and is the president of 
its Support Association, since 2012. He is a bureau member of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Media 
and Information Society (he was its chair in 2018-19 and vice-chair in 2020-21). He chaired several CDMSI expert groups.
He has also been a member of the bureau of the CoE’s Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence in 2019-2021. From 
2014-2017, he was the chair of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee and in this role negotiated the compromise 
among governments and with the other stakeholders regarding the “IANA Stewardship transition”, the biggest reform in the ICANN system. He was a vice-chair of the OECD’s Committee for Digital Economy Policy (2020-2022).

He was responsible for the organization of the 12th UN IGF in Geneva in 2017 co-chair of the IGF’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group in 2017. He participated in the meetings of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, as personal advisor of Swiss president Doris Leuthard (2018-2019). He has also been a co-initiator of the Swiss Internet Governance Forum, since 2013. Since 2003, he has been coordinating the Swiss activities with regard to the follow-up of the UN World Summit on the Information Society.

Robert Opp is currently the Chief Digital Officer of UNDP, the United Nations’ global sustainable development organization working across 170 countries globally with more than 17,000 staff. He leads the agency’s digital transformation, an organization-wide effort, to harness the power of new technology to improve the lives of those furthest behind.

Prior to this role, Robert served as Director of the Innovation and Change Management Division within the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) where he established an in-house ‘Zero Hunger’ innovation accelerator and created an award-winning crowdfunding smartphone app, ShareTheMeal which has raised over US$40 million for hunger programmes.

Shamika N. Sirimanne is the Director of the Division on Technology and Logistics of UNCTAD.  She leads UNCTAD's trade logistics programme, including the work on trade facilitation, maritime transport, port management, and e-commerce and the digital economy. She also supervises UNCTAD’s largest technical cooperation programme, ASYCUDA—the Automated System for Customs. 

Ms. Sirimanne has extensive experience in development policy, research and technical cooperation gained from international organizations, national governments, think tanks and universities. Prior to UNCTAD, she served as the Director of the ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction Division of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), where she spearheaded major regional cooperation programmes such as the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway initiative, and Regional Drought Monitoring Mechanism.

Prateek Sibal is a Programme Specialist at the Digital Policies and Digital Transformation Section of the Communication and Information Sector at UNESCO. In this framework, he coordinates the Sector’s work on artificial intelligence and digital transformation with a focus on the judiciary and policymakers. His work spans research, advocacy, policy advice and capacity building for the governance of digital technologies. He teaches digital governance at Sciences Po, Paris.

Gitanjali Sah is Strategy and Policy Coordinator at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is responsible for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process. She has more than 15 years of work experience in ICT policy issues at the national, regional and international level. She is an experienced International Civil Servant having worked at several UN Agencies. She holds M.Phil. Development Studies, University of Cambridge, UK and a Masters in Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India.