Dr Hamadoun Touré was elected Secretary-General at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, in November 2006 and took office on 1 January 2007.

Dr Touré is committed to cultivate ITU as an innovative, forward-looking organisation adapted to meet the challenges created by the new ICT environment and to spearhead the Union towards implementing the resolutions of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He served as Director of BDT from 1998 until 2006, where he played a significant role in the WSIS process by launching numerous projects based on partnership building with international organizations, governments, civil society and the private sector.

From 1996 - 1998, Dr Touré was Africa's regional general manager for ICO Global Communications. He spearheaded the company's activities to lay the foundation that ensured the successful introduction and operation of ICO's regional activities including marketing and network distribution as well as co-ordination with service partners, regulators and operators of fixed, mobile and special services.

Prior to ICO, Dr Touré joined the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) where he occupied several important positions. From 1986 to 1990, he was Telecommunications Officer of INTELSAT Assistance and Development Programme (IADP). He was involved in IADP projects including the design of earth stations, feasibility studies for domestic satellite communication systems and the implementation of technologies such as time division multiple access (TDMA) and demand assignment multiple access (DAMA) in several developing countries.

From 1990 to 1994, he was INTELSAT's Director for the Africa Region and later served as the Group Director for Africa and the Middle East from 1994 to 1996. During this time, he took an active part in the continental initiative launched by the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM) to pool transponders on the INTELSAT system. He pioneered studies for regional interconnectivity and worked closely with all African and the Middle East countries to enhance the development of their telecommunication infrastructure. In these positions he managed annual revenue budgets of more than USD 115 million.