Hamadoun Touré
Hamadoun Ibrahim Touré (born September 3, 1953) of Mali was Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICTs), from 2007 to December 2014. He was re-elected for a second four-year term in 2010. Since 2007, he has worked to fulfil ITU's mandate to 'connect the world' and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Hamadoun Touré | |
|---|---|
| Secretary-General of the ITU | |
| In office 1 January 2007 – 31 December 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Yoshio Utsumi |
| Succeeded by | Houlin Zhao |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality | Malian Mali |
| Alma mater | Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad, Soviet Union University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow, Soviet Union |
He has also actively promoted the ITU Connect series of events, with the first one, Connect Africa, being held in Niger and Somalia, in 1997. Connect Africa raised US$55 million in investment pledges to improve Africa's telecommunication infrastructure over seven years. In the first two years, 1998 and 1999, US$22 million was invested in ICT infrastructure, mainly for mobile communications. He has also served on the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) International Advisory Board.
In May 2011, Touré was appointed the United Nations' (UN) Cybersecurity Executing Arm by the UN's Specialised Agency – International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The Memorandum of Agreement was officially signed by Touré and Datuk Mohd Noor Amin, Chairman of IMPACT at the TCU's head office in Geneva.