Secretary-General
ITU 
   

Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, a citizen of the Republic of Mali, carries over 20 years of experience in the Telecommunications field and has had the opportunity to hold various management positions in leading Telecommunications companies. His professional career covered the Public sector in his native Mali, Intergovernmental institutions with INTELSAT in Washington D.C. and the Private sector with ICO Global Communications.
   

Dr. Touré holds a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of St. Petersburg, Russia (1979).
    

At the time of his election as Director of BDT in 1998, he was working in the Private sector as the Africa Regional General Manager for ICO Global Communications, a Global Mobile Personal Communication System (GMPCS) company. Dr Hamadoun Touré has been re-elected for a second term as Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau on 2 October 2002 at the Marrakesh Plenipotentiary Conference.
    

Dr. Touré was with ICO Global Communications from 4 July 1996 to January 1999 and was responsible for the company's regional operations and marketing distribution networks across the African continent. He developed and managed the relationship with regional and national telecommunications organizations, government departments and regulatory authorities and service distributors. He was also responsible for identifying and enhancing business opportunities for the successful commercial implementation of ICO's services throughout the continent.

His main strategy has been a regional approach, which involves setting up Joint Ventures, including Private and Public corporations from Cellular Network Operators to Public Telecommunication Corporations. Dr. Touré has also been very active in pursuing all policy matters related to GMPCS implementation with the Regulators in all African countries.
    

Prior to ICO, he worked for INTELSAT (from 1985 to 1996), the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization based in Washington DC, USA. He served there in several positions, starting in the Assistance and Development Programme (IADP), managing regional assistance and development programmes. During this time he developed plans for the implementation of regional interconnectivity projects aimed at improving direct regional links and reducing external transits. Dr. Touré was subsequently Director Africa, and Group Director for Africa and the Middle East, driving INTELSAT's approach to these two important regions. As Group Director, A&ME of INTELSAT, Dr. Hamadoun Touré was responsible for all technical, commercial and operational matters in the region. 
      

Dr. Touré began his career at the Office of Posts and Telecommunications (OPT) of Mali (West Africa) in 1979. At OPT, the turning point of his career was his nomination as the Head of Satellite Communication and as the Head of the Division of International Telecommunications at the time of the merger of the international and national sectors which created SOTELMA and which also resulted in the creation of two separate entities of Post and of Telecommunications.