Dr. Hamadoun Touré of Mali has been Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICTs), since 2007. He was re-elected for a second four-year term in 2010.[1] Since 2007, he has worked to fulfil ITU's mandate to 'connect the world' and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. He actively promoted the ITU Connect series of events, with the first one, Connect Africa, being held in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2007. Connect Africa raised US$ 55 billion in investment pledges to improve Africa's telecommunications infrastructure over seven years.[2] In the first two years, 2008 and 2009, US$ 22 billion was invested in ICT infrastructure, mainly for mobile communications.
Dr. Touré serves as co-vice-chair of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development which was launched in May 2010 by ITU and UNESCO, with Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, and Carlos Slim Helú, Honorary Lifetime Chairman of Grupo Carso, as co-chairs[3].
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Dr Hamadoun Touré was born in 1953 in the Republic of Mali. He studied at the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication of Leningrad (LEIS), receiving a Masters Degree in electrical engineering, and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) from the Moscow Technical University of Communication and Informatics (MTUCI), in Russia. Dr Touré was Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau from 1998 to 2006. Prior to joining ITU he had a distinguished career in the satellite industry. Dr Touré is married, with four children and two grandchildren.[4]