ITU Re-elects Zhao as Director-General, Bogdan-Martin Elected as Head of Development Bureau

Dubai, Nov. 1, 2018 — Member States of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have re-elected Houlin Zhao of China as ITU secretary-general. The election took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, during the Plenary session of the PP-18 conference this morning. Zhao won the position with 176 votes, from 178 ballot papers deposited. He contested the position unopposed.

Zhao, an information and communication technology (ICT) engineer who has served in a variety of senior management positions at ITU, will begin his second, and last, four-year term on 1 January 2019.

“We continue to connect the unconnected," says Zhao. “We are strengthening partnerships to implement our common vision of a connected world, where information and communication technology is a source for good for everyone everywhere."

Prior to first being elected as ITU Secretary General in 2014, Zhao served eight years as ITU deputy secretary-general. He also served two elected terms as director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), which develops technical standards to ensure worldwide ICT interoperability. Before that, he was a senior counsellor with TSB for 12 years.

“Since being elected secretary-general of ITU in 2015, Houlin Zhao has attained marked achievements in overcoming the challenges that ITU faces in advancing its work and activities by way of promoting reform and innovation," said Wei Miao, Minister of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China in putting forward Zhao for re-election as ITU Secretary-General. “His pragmatism and spirit of teamwork has been widely recognized. We are confident that Mr Zhao will undoubtedly … continue to lead ITU in playing an even more important role in the worldwide development of information and communication technologies."

Bogdan-Martin, who served as the ITU’s chief of Strategic Planning and Membership, was also elected as director of ITU Bureau of Telecommunication Development (BDT).  Bogdan-Martin is the first woman to be elected to one of the five leadership positions in the ITU’s 153-year history.   

Doreen Bogdan-Martin has dedicated more than 25 years to promoting telecommunications and connectivity and has a proven track record of accomplishment.  She began her career as a telecommunications policy specialist at the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunication and Information Administration or NTIA.  She joined the ITU in 1994, where she led the policy and regulatory reforms program.  Over the past decade, Bogdan-Martin served as the chief of Strategic Planning and Membership.

The Satellite Industry Association in a statement said it is “very pleased to congratulate American Doreen Bogdan-Martin on her historic first ballot victory and becoming the new head of the ITU’s BDT. Tom Stroup, president of SIA, said “Bogdan-Martin has dedicated much of her career as a public servant with the focus of advancing global connectivity, a goal that is shared by many within the satellite industry.  Because satellites have the unique capability of providing ubiquitous global connectivity, the industry can play an instrumental role in helping the ITU and BDT achieve Ms. Bogdan-Martin’s campaign goal of providing Internet to the world’s nearly 4 billion unconnected.”

The ITU Plenipotentiary Conference election process also includes the posts of ITU Deputy Secretary-General, Director of ITU's Radiocommunication Bureau, Director of ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau.

These elections will be followed by elections for the Radio Regulations Board and ITU Council, the governing body which oversees the running of ITU between quadrennial Plenipotentiary Conferences.