Dorothy Gordon
Chair, UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP)
Dorothy Gordon is the Chair of the UNESCO Information For All Programme and Board Member of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education. She has worked in the field of international development and technology for over thirty years and is recognized as a leading technology activist and specialist on policy, education, technology, and society in Africa. Her work as a leader, manager, consultant, and speaker has taken her to over 100 countries. She is a strong advocate of the ROAM principles (internet universality), building on her work with the Open Movement and Creative Commons.
Leveraging her government, corporate, civil society, and UN policy and management experience, she currently works as an advisor and management consultant. Previously, as the founding Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, she strategically positioned the Centre as a leading technology training and consulting partner on the African continent. During her tenure, she actively encouraged greater participation of women in STEM, supported Ghana’s start-up economy, and built global tech partnerships to complement South-South cooperation with India. She served as a senior manager with UNDP in India and held other management and specialist positions in Geneva, New York, and Zambia.
She mentors, volunteers, and serves on governing boards and award juries with a number of local and global initiatives working to define a better technology-mediated future. These include Chatham House, Creative Commons, IEEE WG-ICICLE, Kasahorow Foundation, Literacy Bridge Ghana, UNESCO, and the World Summit Awards.
She holds degrees from the University of Ghana and the University of Sussex, Institute of Development Studies, where she trained as a development economist. She works in both English and French.
Guilherme Canela Godoi
Chief, Section of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists, UNESCO Communication and Information Sector
Former Regional Adviser for Communication and Information, UNESCO Montevideo Office
Guilherme Canela holds the position of chief of the section of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. For 8 years, he held the position of Communication and Information Regional Adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean at UNESCO Montevideo Office. During those years, he performed as Regional Coordinator of the UNESCO Initiative for the Promotion of Democracy and Freedom of Expression in judicial systems in Latin America. He was also the Secretary of the Regional Committee of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, and focal point of the Organization for issues related to the safety of journalists. He has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Brasília (UNB) and a Master’s Degree on Political Science from the University of São Paulo (USP).
For 8 years (2000-2008), Guilherme coordinated the media and journalism research area of the News Agency for Children’s Rights (ANDI). In this period, he was responsible for several surveys that evaluated the news media coverage on issues such as children’s education, rights, violence, health, sexual abuse, human and social development, drugs, participatory democracy, entrepreneurial social responsibility, human rights, among others.
He is co-author of 10 books published by ANDI on these issues (Series Media and Social Mobilization, Cortez Publisher) and several brochures, magazines and discussion texts on various topics related to the universe of human rights, of the rights of children, in particular of development and of democracies. He was research consultant for the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and for the Ayrton Senna Journalism Award.
Guilherme was senior member of the Working Group of the Ministry of Justice of Brazil to Provide Advisory Services to the Regulation of TV Programs’ Rating System and associated researcher at the Nucleus for Studies of Media and Politics of the University of Brasilia. He was president of the Consultative Committee on Children and Media in Uruguay. Jointly with Solano Nascimento he published the book Access to information and public policies social control. He actively participated in the process of discussion and implementation of Access laws in Brazil, Paraguay and acted as an international observer in the Uruguay Open Government process. He was/is a member of several advisory boards and juries related to journalism and freedom of expression.
José Clastornik
Chief Executive, AGESIC, Office of the President of Uruguay
José Clastornik was appointed by the President of the Republic to lead the Agency for e-Government and Information and Knowledge Society (AGESIC) since its inception in 2007. With his leadership, Uruguay has consolidated as a leading digital government, globally recognized as part of the D7.
Clastornik is member of the Boards of Directors of the regulatory units of Privacy, Access to Public Information and Electronic Certification. He was the President of the Public Procurement Agency from its inception until 2017.
Prior to this appointment, he served as the CEO of HG, the IT firm of the government’s Telco enterprise and held executive positions in multinational IT companies for more than ten years.
Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Former Chief, Strategic Planning & Membership, ITU
Doreen Bogdan-Martin was elected Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau on the 1st of November 2018. She took office on the 1st of January 2019.
She is a strategic leader with 30 years' high-level experience in international and inter-governmental relations and a long history of success in policy and strategy development, analysis and execution. She has advised governments around the world on policy and regulatory issues, and is a regular presenter at high-level international forums and summits.
Prior to her election, Ms Bogdan-Martin oversaw the organization's Membership, Corporate Communications, External Affairs and UN Liaison teams, and was instrumental in establishing the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, on which she continues to serve as Executive Director.
She was one of the principal architects of the annual Global Symposium for Regulators, directed ITU's first global youth summit #BYND, oversees ITU's contribution to the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age, and is leading ITU's collaboration with UNICEF and others on the GIGA project to connect the world's schools.
Prior to joining ITU, Ms Bogdan-Martin was a Telecommunications Policy Specialist in the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA), US Department of Commerce.
She holds a Master's degree in International Communications Policy from American University in Washington, DC, post-graduate certification in Strategies for Leadership from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and is certified in Accountability and Ethics by the United Nations Leaders Programme.
She is an affiliate of the Harvard University Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society, and a Generation Unlimited Champion. She serves on a number of advisory bodies, including the Geneva-Tsinghua Initiative, the SDG Lab Advisory Board, and the UN Technology Innovation Labs. She is also an amateur radio operator.
She is married with four children.
Chief Nathaniel Ebo Nsarko
Country Director, Ghana, Millennium Promise Alliance & the One Million Community Health Workers (1mCHW) Campaign
Chief Nathaniel Ebo Nsarko is a Ghanaian and currently the country director of Millennium Promise Alliance and the One Million Community Health Worker Campaign where ICT and innovations are explored to advance healthcare to the door steps of the rural poor. He holds Master’s degrees in Community Health and Development Communication, an MBA in Public Health Management from Robert Kennedy College, Zurich, Switzerland and a Master’s in Communication Studies (Development Communication) from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and B.F.A and Dip. TEC degrees from University of Ghana - Legon Ghana. Chief Nat has over 15 years of practical field experience as community based health communication expert, development and social engineer coupled with various managerial positions at the national, regional, district and community levels in Ghana. He has several ambassadorial roles to his credit including Peace ambassador for Ghana 2008/ 2013, SDG 3 Ambassador from Lavazza Foundation 2017 and serves as a chief advisor for the UN Youth Ghana.
As a community health communication and mobilization expert, development communications and sustainable development project concept designer, Chief Nat has demonstrated a high level of commitment and excellence. His rich experience has earned him deep involvement with Ministries of Health, Employment and Local Government and Rural Development, Ghana Health Service and many other agencies and organizations in Ghana over the years.
Eduardo Diniz
Professor, Fundação Getulio Vargas
Eduardo Henrique Diniz is an electrical engineer and has been a professor at Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP) in São Paulo, Brazil, since 1999. He has been Head of the Department of Technology and Data Science since 2018. Eduardo is also a researcher at the FGV’s Center for Financial Inclusion Studies. He was a visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley, from 1997-98, at HEC Montreal in 2007, and Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 2016-17. He has been also Bellagio Fellow since 2014. Eduardo has conducted research on technology in banking since 1991 and published several papers and articles on the subject. From 2009 to 2015, he served as the Chief-Editor of Revista de Administração de Empresas. He holds an MSc and PhD in Business Administration, with a focus in Information Systems Management.
Luis Gonzalez Morales
Chief, Web Development and Data Visualization Section, UN Statistics Division
Luis Gonzalez Morales is Chief of the Web Development and Data Visualization Unit and focal point on Data Revolution for Sustainable Development at the UN Statistics Division. He is part of the Secretariat's team organizing the UN World Data Forum and supporting the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and co-leads initiatives in data interoperability and integration of geospatial information and statistics for the SDGs. Since he joined the Statistics Division in 2005, Luis has worked with national statistical offices and international partners on methodology and capacity development projects, particularly in the fields of economic statistics, data quality, development indicators, and the coordination of national statistical activities for the SDGs. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Bochum in Germany and an MSc in Statistics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies in Mexico.
Jessica Espey
Senior Adviser to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
Jessica is a Senior Advisor to the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the Head of the TReNDS program, SDSN’s Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics. Before moving to Cambridge she was Associate Director and Head of SDSN’s New York Office.
Jessica’s current research includes a study on the return on investment from improved data systems, and case study research on the legal and institutional structures required for public-private data sharing to support the achievement of the SDGs. Jessica is a member of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data’s Technical Advisory Group and the Group on Earth’s Observation’s Expert Advisory Group.
Prior to joining SDSN, Jessica served as a special adviser on the post-2015 agenda within the Office of the President of Liberia. She has also worked as a senior researcher at Save the Children UK, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA). Her research interests are varied and include data systems for sustainable development, evidence-based policy-making, sustainable urbanization, and the study of horizontal inequalities.
Jessica holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Modern History from the University of Oxford and a Master of Sciences degree in the Political Economy of Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Over the past 12 years she has lived and worked in Liberia, Kenya, Rwanda, the UK and the US.
Sara Rendtorff-Smith
Independent Consultant, Data-Driven Governance and AI Policy
Sara Rendtorff-Smith supports public officials, nonprofits and journalists in accessing probabilistic AI to advance public interest, social equity and justice. She served as the Applied Research Lead for Data-driven Governance and AI Policy at MIT, and previously worked for nearly ten years on political, economic and social challenges facing countries in the immediate aftermath of armed conflict. She started her career with an international humanitarian NGO in Afghanistan and has since worked across the political, development and peacekeeping pillars to ensure that peacemaking is inclusive and international recovery and state building efforts contribute to sustainable peace. Sara has led program and policy initiatives in the Central African Republic (CAR), Darfur, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mali and South Sudan and has contributed to drafting UN institutional guidance on civilian protection, conflict management, economic governance and support to institution building in post-conflict settings. At UN headquarters, she served on special planning teams for transition scenarios in Syria and the establishment of a peacekeeping operation in the CAR. Sara is particularly interested in applying insights from system dynamics, behavioral sciences and data science to addressing the challenges of criminal justice reform, socio-economic inclusion and urban sustainability and resilience.
Katina Michael
Professor of Computing and Information Technology, University of Wollongong
Dr. Katina Michael is a professor in the School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Wollongong. Until recently she was the Associate Dean – International in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences. Katina is formerly the long-standing IEEE Technology and Society Magazine editor-in-chief (2012-2017), and presently an IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine senior editor. Since 2008 she has been a board member of the Australian Privacy Foundation, and formerly the Vice-Chair. Katina researches on the socio-ethical implications of emerging technologies. She has written and edited six books, guest edited numerous special issue journals on themes related to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, supply chain management, location-based services, innovation and surveillance/uberveillance. In 2017, Katina was awarded the prestigious Brian M. O'Connell Award for Distinguished Service to the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology (IEEESSIT).
Jeffrey D. Sachs
University Professor and Director, Center for Sustainable Development, The Earth Institute, Columbia University;
Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by The New York Times, “probably the most important economist in the world,” and by Time magazine “the world’s best known economist.” A recent survey by The Economist magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world’s three most influential living economists of the past decade. Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development, global macroeconomics, and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty, overcoming macroeconomic instability, promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more than thirty years he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He was among the outside advisors to Pope John Paul II on the encyclical Centesimus Annus and in recent years has worked closely with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences on the issues of sustainable development. Professor Sachs is the Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) which launched in 2012, bringing together scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society and the private sector to support and promote sustainable development problem-solving at local, national and global levels. The design and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is an important part of its work.
Nandan Nilekani
Co-Founder and Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys;
Co-Founder and Chairman, EkStep Foundation;
Former Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
Nandan Nilekani co-founded Infosys and has been the Non-Executive Chairman of Infosys since 24 Aug, 2017. He is the Co-founder and Chairman of EkStep, a not-for- profit effort to create a learner centric, technology based platform to improve basic literacy and numeracy for millions of children. He was most recently the Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the rank of a Cabinet Minister.
Born in Bengaluru, Nilekani received his Bachelor’s degree from IIT, Bombay. Fortune Magazine conferred him with “Asia’s Businessman of the year 2003.” In 2005 he received the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and politics. In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He was also named Businessman of the year by Forbes Asia. Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 & 2009. Foreign Policy magazine listed him as one of the Top 100 Global thinkers in 2010. He won The Economist Social & Economic Innovation Award for his leadership of India’s Unique Identification initiative (Aadhaar). In 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from E&Y. CNBC-TV 18 conferred India Business leader award for outstanding contributor to the Indian Economy - 2017, and he also received the 22nd Nikkei Asia Prize for Economic & Business Innovation 2017. Nandan Nilekani is the author of “Imagining India” and co- authored his second book with Viral Shah, “Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations.”
Pramod Varma
CTO, EkStep Foundation;
Chief Architect, Aadhaar
Dr. Pramod Varma is the Chief Architect and Technology Advisor for Aadhaar project where he is responsible for entire system architecture and strategic technology decisions. He is also the architect for various India Stack layers such as eSign, Digital Locker, and UPI. He voluntarily works with many government agencies at technology advisory level. He joined UIDAI in 2009 as part of the founding team and has been pivotal in ensuring an open, scalable, and secure architecture is built to meet the needs of Aadhaar project.
Currently, he is the CTO for EkStep, a not-for-profit, creating learner-centric, technology enabled platform to improve applied literacy and numeracy. He sits on the technology advisory board of National Payment Corporation (NPCI), Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), SEBI, and helps with many public initiatives as a volunteer at iSpirt. He regularly speaks at technology conferences and events and participates in advisory groups of various national projects from time to time. Pramod holds a Master’s and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science along with a second Master’s in Applied Mathematics. Over the past 25+ years, he has studied architectures spanning from mainframes to web and has worked extensively with most programming languages and databases. His main areas of interest are Internet scale distributed architectures and intelligent systems. He is passionate about technology, science, society, and teaching.
Shankar Maruwada
Co-Founder and CEO, EkStep Foundation
Shankar Maruwada is the CEO and Co-founder of EkStep. Shankar is passionate about addressing social problems at scale through technology based tools. He is an entrepreneur and marketing professional with a wide range of experience working on large scale projects such as the AADHAAR, India’s national identification program, where he was the Head of Demand Generation and Marketing.
Alison Kennedy
Former Programme Specialist, Education Survey Section, UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Prior to 2019, Alison Kennedy was a programme specialist at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) based in Montréal (Canada). She has worked as a statistician at both national and international levels for nearly thirty years in the field of education. She led the team responsible for education data for monitoring Education For All and the Millennium Development Goals and more recently has been heavily involved in the development and implementation of the global and thematic indicator frameworks for the follow-up and review of SDG 4 and the Education 2030 Agenda.
Alexandre Barbosa
Head of the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br) under the auspices of UNESCO, based in São Paulo, Brazil
Responsible for managing research projects for the production of ICT-related statistics on the access to and use of ICTs in different segments of society, including indicators on digital economy, e-commerce and e-government. Coordinates capacity building programs in survey methodologies in Latin America and Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa. Mr. Barbosa was the Chair of the Expert Group on ICT Households indicators (EGH) from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) from 2012 to 2017 and currently is member of the International Advisory Group of Experts on the Global Kids Online project (UNICEF and LSE) and member of the Council Board of The Innovation Center for Brazilian Education (CIEB).
Mr. Barbosa holds a PhD degree in Business Administration from Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil), a Master Degree in Business Administration from Bradford University (UK), a MSc Degree in Computer Science from Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and a BSc Degree in Electrical Engineering from Catholic University (Brazil). He has also conducted postdoctoral research at HEC Montreal (Canada) in the area of electronic government.
Guy Berger
Director for Strategies and Policies, UNESCO Communication and Information Sector
Guy Berger is the Director for Policies and Strategies regarding Communication and Information at UNESCO, and one of the agency’s lead officials on the subject of disinformation. Prior to this post, he was UNESCO's Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, where he was responsible for the Organization’s global work on press freedom, safety of journalists, internet freedom, media pluralism and independence, gender and media, media and information literacy, and journalism education. Before joining UNESCO, he headed the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. He has also worked in both press and television and had a long-running column on the The Mail & Guardian website.