Doreen Bogdan-Martin has begun her four year term as the secretary-general of the United Nations (UN) tech agency International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Bogdan-Martin assumed duty this week, as ITU's 12th secretary-general, and the first woman to head the agency since its establishment in 1865.
ITU member states elected Bogdan-Martin and her new management team in September at ITU's Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-22) in Romania.
The Plenipotentairy Conference is the supreme organ of the union. It is the decision-making body which determines the direction of the union and its activities.
Prior to her election, Bogdan-Martin served as in the director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau since 2019.
As ITU secretary-general, Bogdan-Martin says she aims to drive innovative solutions, maximise ITU's relevance for its 193 member states, intensify global cooperation on connecting the unconnected, and strengthen the alignment of ITU's programmes with the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations.
Also, Bogdan-Martin says her team will play a developmental role in dealing with significant challenges the world is facing, including addressing the needs of some 2.7 billion people with no access to the Internet.
“I believe we, the ITU and our members, have an opportunity to make a transformational contribution. Continuous innovation can and will be a key enabler to facilitate resolution of many of these issues."
Bogdan-Martin will be supported by four others in the management team. The new team takes over from ITU's 11th secretary-general, Houlin Zhao, former deputy secretary-general Malcolm Johnson, and former Telecommunication Standardisation director Chaesub Lee.
Zimbabwean national, Cosmas Zavazava, is the new director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, responsible for mobilising global efforts to connect the billions of people who today remain offline.
Tomas Lamanauskas is the deputy secretary-general, a role that assists the secretary-general in managing the organisation.
In addition, Mario Maniewicz has begun his second term as director of ITU's Radiocommunication Bureau, which oversees the ITU Radio Regulations, the international treaty on radio spectrum use, satellite radiofrequency coordination, and related technical standards.
Seizo Onoe completes the team as the director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardisation Bureau, which is responsible for convening representatives from governments, private companies, and experts from around the world to develop internationally agreed technical standards.
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