Touré of Mali Elected as Secretary-General of ITU

Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré of Mali was elected as Secretary-General of ITU for a four-year term.

Mr Touré won the position with 95 votes with 155 countries present and voting, and thus the required majority for election was 78 votes. The majority emerged in the third round of voting, with Mr Mathias Kurth of Germany receiving 60 votes.



Touré takes over from outgoing Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi of Japan.



Dr Hamadoun Touré has served as Director of the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT) of the ITU since 1998. He holds a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Leningrad (LEIS, USSR) and Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) from the University of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Moscow (MTUCI, Russia).



Houlin Zhao of China was elected Deputy Secretary-General in the first round with 93 votes. Mr. Zhao has served as Director of the ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Bureau since 1998. He holds a degree from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and a Master degree of Science in telematics, University of Essex (UK).

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