Doreen Bogdan-Martin, KD2JTX, elected Secretary-General of ITU

Bucharest, Romania, 29 September 2022


Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have elected Doreen Bogdan-Martin of the United States of America as the organization's next Secretary-General.

Bogdan-Martin will be the first woman to lead ITU, which was established in 1865 and became a United Nations specialized agency in 1947.

The election took place during ITU's Plenipotentiary Conference (PP-22) in Bucharest, Romania, on Thursday, with representatives of Member States voting during the meeting's morning session. Bogdan-Martin won the position with 139 votes, out of 172 votes cast.

"Whether it's today's children or our children's children, we need to provide them with a strong and stable foundation for growth," Bogdan-Martin said. “The world is facing significant challenges – escalating conflicts, a climate crisis, food security, gender inequalities, and 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."

Ms Bogdan-Martin has held leadership positions in international telecommunications policy for over two decades. Throughout her career, she has brokered innovative and visionary partnerships with the private sector, civil society, and other United Nations agencies to accelerate digital inclusion and connectivity.

Bogdan-Martin will begin her four-year term as ITU Secretary-General on 1 January 2023.

The Secretary-General-elect has pledged “to continue driving this institution to be innovative and increasingly relevant for our Member States, better positioning all of us to embrace the digital environment and make progress on achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals and connecting the unconnected."

Inclusive digital development
Bogdan-Martin was endorsed by her country's government as a candidate to make the digital future inclusive and accessible for everyone, especially in developing countries.

US President Joe Biden, in a 20 September statement backing her candidacy, said: “Ms. Bogdan-Martin possesses the integrity, experience, and vision necessary to transform the digital landscape."

As chief architect of ITU's development work in recent years, Bogdan-Martin has emphasized the need for digital transformation to achieve economic prosperity, job creation, skills development, gender equality, and socio-economic inclusion, as well as to build circular economies, reduce climate impact, and save lives. Her current term as Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau ends on 31 December 2022.

Among her campaign priorities, she said she would “lead ITU into a new era of global and regional partnerships," adding that the organization “must evolve and sometimes break from old ways" to stay relevant.

Electing ITU's other top leaders
At the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, Member States will also elect candidates to the posts of Deputy Secretary-General, Radiocommunication Bureau Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau Director, and Telecommunication Development Bureau Director.

The voting for ITU's senior leadership will be followed by elections for the 12-member Radio Regulations Board and for regionally allocated Member State places on the 48-seat ITU Council, which governs ITU between quadrennial Plenipotentiary Conferences.


About ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), driving innovation in ICTs together with 193 Member States and a membership of over 900 companies, universities, and international and regional organizations. Established over 150 years ago, ITU is the intergovernmental body responsible for coordinating the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promoting international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, improving communication infrastructure in the developing world, and establishing the worldwide standards that foster seamless interconnection of a vast range of communications systems. From broadband networks to cutting-edge wireless technologies, aeronautical and maritime navigation, radio astronomy, oceanographic and satellite-based earth monitoring as well as converging fixed-mobile phone, Internet and broadcasting technologies, ITU is committed to connecting the world. For more information, visit www.itu.int



Source: https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/PR-2022-09-29-ITU-SG-elected-Doreen-Bogdan-Martin.aspx

 

Nothing like a UN "specialized" agency to make things better!

 

More regulation has never gone wrong in the past

 

ITU seems to have done reasonably well. We take for granted that planes communicate wherever in the world they happen to be. Same for shipping. You can make a phone call from one country to another thanks to ITU regulations. Ham bands are pretty much the same around the world (or at least within the same ITU/IARU region), so we can work the DX. If each country had different bands, or different airlines used different distress frequencies. the world would be in a mess. Regulation ain't always a bad thing.

 

At 1st-glance; - I think you all fell for it. Check her QRZ page. She's another "Token" amateur.
Like the NASA radio 'hams' (for heavens' sake lose that damn term, or take up am-dram).
You're either an active radio amateur operator. or you are the token 'ham' at the ITU.
And ... you want equality? I'll give you equality, and I will treat you as I am treated!

 

Why not ask her? @KD2JTX

 

I've been in the 4U1ITU shack when Doreen was there.

Try again.

 

Doreen's been with the ITU for 28 years.

 

Me too. Several times. She knows the Amateur Service very well.

Tim VE6SH

 

Doreen Bogdan-Martin won the election for Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - the U.N. body that sets standards for new technologies - with 139 votes out of 172, defeating Russia's Rashid Ismailov who got 25. Married, mom of four, ARRL member, Dept of Commerce, Dept of State, World Economic Forum, UN. Some observers depicted the vote as a battle over the control of the internet, between open standards and countries (like ours) seeking to step up controls over communications. The first woman in the 153-year history of the ITU to hold an elected office.

Key issues: Inclusivity, gender equality, youth summit, accessibility, satellites, Internet. Endorsed by the President.


Strategies for Leadership – IMD Business School Certification (2012)
United Nations Leaders Programme – Accountability and Ethics Certification (2011)
M.A. International Communications Policy (1991)
American University, School of International Service
B.A. University of Delaware (1988)

www.linkedin.com/in/doreentbogdan
Twitter @doreenbogdan
https://www.state.gov/doreen-bogdan-martin-itu-secretary-general-candidate/cv/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...ry-general-candidacy-of-doreen-bogdan-martin/

 

Yet still a Technician?

 

Your statement reminds me of the QST Letters to the Editor in '06 to '07 crying the blues like Billie Holiday that, "I had to learn and pass a Morse Code test, so should the new hams!" I spent three years as a Technician class, and most of it was on 900 MHz repeaters... and? To this day, I know plenty of hams that are "...still a technician." Most are stellar Motorola Communications Technicians/System Development/Software Design/RF Engineer guys. Don't forget, this is all just a hobby. As the old saying goes, "... there is something in the hobby for everyone."

 

Just shows a level of knowledge in amateur radio?

 

The Secretary-General Elect of the International Telecommunication Union owes no one an explanation of her amateur operator license class.