Mr. Picasso is currently President and CEO of Global Telecom Ventures, LLC and its principal investment GTV GloboKasNet, LLC (GKN), a company he helped launch to provide transaction processing services in rural communities throughout the world, to enable banks and other institutions to extend their services to those and other underserved markets.
Prior to GTV, Mr. Picasso was CEO of Mobile 365, a provider of SMS services to 700 mobile carriers worldwide. He helped improve the company’s value by ensuring that the company could sustain its rapid growth and by signing critical deals in new markets to provide mobile banking services. In 2006, the company was sold to Sybase Inc. for US$ 425 million.
As former CEO of Iridium, Mr. Picasso successfully relaunched the company’s satellite business after its Chapter 7 reorganization. Though Iridium’s bankruptcy was one of the largest in US history, Mr. Picasso led the company to break-even operations in less than three years, while simultaneously laying the foundation for its subsequent highly profitable growth. Mr. Picasso’s ability to match technologies to market requirements and build required distribution channels on a global basis were the underpinning of this success.
Prior to Iridium, Mr. Picasso had already established a record of success at companies such as General Electric Spacenet Capital Services, where his performance earned him the position of President, Spacenet Unit. Earlier in his career, he spent five years with McKinsey, consulting to leading enterprises worldwide. He holds an M.B.A. with distinction from the Wharton School of Business, an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland,and a B.S. in Mathematics from Georgetown University. He is a published author and speaker, and is active in philanthropies in developing countries.
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Dr. Waverman is a Professor of Economics at the London Business School and the incoming Dean of the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business.
He is a leading researcher on the growth and productivity impacts of the rollout of telecommunications and computers. His analysis of the impacts of mobile phone rollout on growth in Africa was the subject of the ‘Economic Focus’ section of the March 12, 2005 The Economist. He recently authored a study funded by Nokia Siemens Networks, ‘The Connectivity Index,’ which ranks countries according to a new definition of how telecoms infrastructure, ‘smart’ usage, and complementary skills and capital drive economic growth and productivity.
The most influential of Dr. Waverman’s publications is “Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development” (jointly with Lars Hendrik Roeller), American Economic Review, September, 2001. His current book (jointly with Melvyn Fuss), The Networked Computer, is awaiting publishing by Cambridge University Press.
Through 2007, Dr. Waverman served as a non-executive Board member of the UK’s energy regulator—the Gas and Electricity Market Authority. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin (DIW) and a Fellow of Columbia University’s Center for Tele-Information. He is on Vodafone’s Advisory Board on the Social Importance of Mobile, and is a Director of the Nexus Mundi Foundation. He is a non-executive Director of Boltblue, a highly successful mobile service startup. At the London Business School, he directs executive education programs for Nokia China.
In 1995-96 Dr. Waverman served on the Advisory Committee introducing competition into Ontario’s electricity system, and was a part-time Board Member of both the Ontario Energy Board and the Ontario Telephone Service Commission. He was also a member of the US National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) for six years and edited the major journal in energy economics, The Energy Journal, for six years. He is a citizen of Canada and of France and a recipient of the prestigious Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the Government of France.
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Mr. Luque holds a Bachelor of Science in Law degree from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, South America's first university. He began his career as a consultant lawyer in the banking and oil industry and has more than 20 years of experience in the capital markets of the Caribbean and in Central and South America. During this period, he rose from independent stock broker to Chairman of the Board of the Peruvian Stock Exchange—a position he held for two consecutive terms, 1992-95 and 1995-98.
In 1995, Mr. Luque was elected a Member of the Paris-based International Federation of Stock Exchanges, and in 1998 was elected Chairman of the Board of the Iberoamerican Federation of Stock Exchanges, a private institution whose main objective is to standardize the legislation and operational practices of the 40 member exchanges, including those of Portugal and Spain, that comprise the Buenos Aires-headquartered Federation.
Mr. Luque was Chief of Party for the Boston Institute for Developing Economies (BIDE), which was hired by USAID for three projects in the Dominican Republic during 2002 and 2006: a) the modernization of the Dominican Republic Stock Exchange; b) the design of the strategy to further develop the country’s capital market; and c) the consolidation of the internal public debt.
He is a Board Member of two electrical companies in Peru, representing ENDESA group from Spain. In 2007, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Globokas Peru, whose mission in Peru is to extend and provide access to financial services to the rural poor by establishing the nation's largest banking correspondent agent network, implementing mobile banking solutions, and implementing other secure and cost-efficient channels.
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As the EVP of Business Development for GTV Globokas, Mr. Otero has been instrumental in efforts to deploy and launch their operations in Peru and Colombia. He is particularly well suited to the work, with a background in banking and other financial institutions in Peru and Mexico.
Mr. Otero began his career as a credit officer in the Corporate Banking Division, Banco de Credito (Peru). He later became a banking practice consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton (Mexico). His client, Banamex (Mexico), invited him to join them as Senior VP Risk Management. Following his time there, he returned to Peru, his birthplace, and became Chief Advisor to the CEO of Interbank (Peru). He then became head of Corporate Planning and Developing and Senior Advisor to the EVP of Virtual Banking of Banco Wiese (Peru), after which he was asked to serve as CEO of the Commodities Exchange of Peru.
In addition to the depth of his knowledge of financial institutions, Pedro has telecommunications experience, having consulted for one of the largest telecoms companies in the world (Verizon/MCI) and having served as CFO of Bellsouth's Yellow Pages operations in Peru. He also served as a Marketing Manager for two leading consumer brands at Procter and Gamble—unusual for a finance professional. He holds an MBA from Wharton, and a BS in Business Administration from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia), which is affiliated with Stanford's Business School.
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Mr. Solomon builds, leads, and develops the GSM Association’s public policy agenda and thought leadership program to ensure that the GSMA plays an influential role in shaping the global regulatory agenda. He is responsible for raising the GSMA’s profile internationally through effective communications and by developing relationships with the group’s many key audiences.
He is also responsible for developing partnerships with multilateral institutions and industry stakeholders, with the aim of identifying and promoting best practice policy and regulation and lobbying governments and regulators accordingly.
Mr. Solomon’s broad range of experience spans public policy, business development, strategy, marketing, and finance. He sits on the Boards of the UK Telecoms Academy, the ITU’s Connect the World program, and the Manobi Development Foundation. He has an MBA from INSEAD.
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Mr. Perlman founded CellularOnline in 1995. He holds BSc, BSc (Hons) MSc, BProc, LLB degrees, and is currently pursuing a doctorate of laws, for which he is researching various mobile commerce issues. He is also founding chairman of the Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA).
Mr. Perlman has been involved with computing and mobile technologies since the late 1980s, in technical, analytical, entrepreneurial, and management capacities. He has significant expertise in all aspects of data communications, regulatory procedures, mobile commerce, GSM cellular, CDMA, convergence, Internet, satellite technology, and telecommunications. An internationally respected writer, analyst, and commentator on Internet, science, mobile, and convergence issues, he also consults internationally on ICT for many large companies, investment houses, and network operators in Africa and Europe. He has chaired and spoken at many international mobile and telecoms conferences worldwide, and has chaired the GSM Africa and GSM North Africa international mobile conferences since 1998.
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Mr. Malamud is a founder and President of Inter-Governmental Postal Corporation (IGPC), the world’s largest philatelic agency. IGPC is a privately-held company that has consulted with postal administrations worldwide since 1957, specifically in the areas of design, production, marketing, and administration of postage stamp programs. Its client roster currently includes over 75 international postal administrations, and its philatelic division produces 65% of the world's stamps.
As President of IGPC, Mr. Malamud brings extensive and enduring relationships at the highest levels of international government, developed over 50 years of working in emerging markets. He has served as a strategic advisor to the ministries of telecommunications and post of more than 75 international governments, particularly in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
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Dr. Tharoor is Chairman of Dubai-based Afras Ventures, a prize-winning author of fiction and non-fiction books, and a widely-published critic, commentator, and columnist (including for The Hindu, The Times of India, and Newsweek).
In 2007 he concluded a 28-year career with the UN that included working with refugees in Southeast Asia at the peak of the 'boat people' crisis and handling peace-keeping operations in the former Yugoslavia, and culminated with his service as Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. In 2006, he was India's candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary-General, and emerged a strong second out of seven contenders.
His books include the classic The Great Indian Novel (1989), India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), Nehru: The Invention of India (2003), and most recently, The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell phone: Reflections on 21st Century India (2007).
Dr. Tharoor earned his Ph.D. at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at the age of 22, and was named by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1998 a 'Global Leader of Tomorrow.' He was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India's highest honor for overseas Indians.
He is married to Christa, a Canadian who is Deputy Secretary of the United Nations Disarmament Commission, and is the father of twin sons Ishaan and Kanishk.
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