Special session on U4SSC

Cristina Bueti​​
ITU and U4SSC Secretariat

Cristina Bueti is the ITU Focal Point on Smart Sustainable Cities and AI-powered Virtual Worlds. She is also the Counsellor of ITU-T Study Group 20 “Internet of Things, digital twins and smart sustainable cities and communities” and serves as TSB/ITU focal point for Latin America. Cristina Bueti graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, Law and International Cooperation and Development of the University of Florence, where she completed postgraduate studies in International Cooperation and Telecommunications Law in Europe. In 2003, Ms. Bueti built on her academic credentials by completing a specialized course in peace keeping and international cooperation with special focus on telecommunications at the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta, before joining the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva in January 2004. As part of the International Women’s Day 2016, she was named as one of the ten Geneva-based inspirational women working to protect the environment. She has authored over 40 reports on telecommunication and emerging technology issues. A native Italian speaker, Cristina is also fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Soumaya Ben Dhaou
WG4 Leader,U4SSC Thematic Group on Artificial intelligence i​n cities

Soumaya Ben Dhaou is currently the research specialist at UNU-EGOV. She is coordinating the area on Emerging technologies and innovation for Digital Governance. She is investigating the potentials of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence or Blockchain and their impact on transforming Government and public service but also urban centres and settlements. She led in collaboration with IDRC and UN-HABITAT the “Global assessment of responsible AI in cities”. She is currently leading the working group at ITU (Switzerland) under the U4SSC (United 4 Smart Sustainable Cities Communities) Fostering responsible AI for cities (FAIR for cities) involving multiple experts on Ai. In parallel, she is collaborating on the ERASMUS+ program project AICOSERV (AI technologies for sustainable Public service Co-creation).

Okan Geray
Chair of U4SSC and Thematic Group Leader

Dr. Okan Geray has more than 25 years of experience in consulting and advisory roles across various industries. He has consulted for a number of organizations in Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Turkey and Dubai. He worked at A.T. Kearney global management consulting firm for 6 years and was a member of the Global Telecommunications and Higher Technology core team before he joined Dubai Government in 2002. He has fulfilled strategic planning and policy roles in Dubai eGovernment, Dubai Smart Government, Smart Dubai Office and is currently working in Dubai Digital Authority as the Strategic Planning Advisor. His responsibilities include Strategic Planning, Strategic Performance Management and Policy Making among others. Dr. Geray was the Co-Chair of the Enhancing Innovation and Participation Working Group, part of the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) global initiative. This working group addressed Smart Governance, Smart Economy and Smart People aspects in smart cities. He has led the two thematic groups “Guidelines on Strategies for Circular Cities” and “City Science Application Framework” in U4SSC. He is currently leading “Guiding principles for Artificial Intelligence in cities”, and co-leading “Enabling People-Centered Cities through Digital Transformation” in U4SSC. Dr. Geray is the Co-Rapporteur of ITU Study Group 20, Question 7 on “Evaluation and assessment of Smart Sustainable Cities and Communities”. He is a member of the IEC-ISO-ITU Joint Smart Cities Task Force (J-SCTF). He is also a member of the ITU Focus Group on Metaverse and is co-chairing Working Group 7 on “Economy, Competition and Regulation”. He was also the Co-Chair of the “Data Economy Impact, Commercialization and Monetization” Working Group, part of the ITU Focus Group on Data Processing and Management. Dr. Geray holds a double major B. Sc. degree in Industrial and Computer Engineering from Bosphorus University in Istanbul Turkiye, an M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Systems and Control Engineering from the University of Massachusetts in USA. He has published book chapters, several journal and conference papers, and teaches as an adjunct lecturer. ​

Barbara Kolm
Leader, U4SSC Austrian Country Hub

Barbara Kolm MP, is the founder of the Free Market Road ShowÒ, Director of the Austrian Economics Center, President of the Hayek Institut and Professor of Austrian Economics at the University of Donja Gorica in Montenegro. Until her election to the National Council in October 2024, she served on several supervisory boards in the Insurance and Finance Industry e.g. Vice President of the Austrian Central Bank, Supervisory Board of Wiener Städtische Wechselseitiger Versicherungsverein – Vermögensverwaltung – Vienna Insurance Group. She directs United 4 Smart Sustainable Cities National Hub in Austria. She is the recipient of various accolades and widely declared a pathfinder in liberty-based ideals on the European front.

Bettina Tratz-Ryan
Gartner; Co-Leader of Working Group 2 of the Thematic Group on Enabling People-Centred Cities through Digital Transformation

Bettina Tratz-Ryan is a Vice President Research and responsible for intelligent urban ecosystem research that includes smart city and industry stakeholders, as well as the digitization efforts in the manufacturing ecosystems and Industrie 4.0 transformation roadmaps. As part of her smart city research, she analyzes the strategic citizen impact and business value of data and information analytics, Internet of Things, data marketplaces and exchanges, applications and complex architectures for cities and their industry partners. Her expertise integrates technology models with services and business measures for subsystems such as transportation, mobility, microgrid and buildings. She also works on the business impact related to the Industrie 4.0 framework. Mrs.Tratz-Ryan understands to build green IT and environmental sustainability roadmaps compliant to DIN EN ISO 14001. Mrs. Tratz-Ryan has more than 26 years of industry experience in IT networking for telecommunications, utilities, transportation, healthcare and local governments.

John Smičiklas
Director, ESG (Morguard); Co-Leader of Working Group 3, Enabling People-Centred Cities through Digital Transformation

John Smičiklas is currently the Director, ESG for Morguard Corporation responsible for leading and coordinating the corporate ESG strategy and programs (including energy efficiency and decarbonization) for Morguard’s 250+ owned and managed properties across North America. John brings over 20 years experience in ESG / Sustainability including experience as Manager Sustainable Business, PwC; Director, Corporate Responsibility, BlackBerry; and Senior Director, Building Owners and Manager Assn (BOMA) Canada. John has also worked as a consultant for various UN agencies, supporting U4SSC efforts related to work on measuring and reporting on smart sustainable cities including managing the development of the U4SSC Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities. John holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Engineering) from the University of Toronto

Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo
Giga Programme Manager, ITU

Irene Kaggwa is the Programme Manager at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for Giga, a joint ITU-UNICEF initiative that seeks to support governments to connect all schools to the Internet by 2030.

Prior to that, she worked in different roles within Uganda Communications Commission – the regulator in the communications sector in Uganda, for a period of more than 23 years. Her experience spans policy development, research, strategy, communications regulation, radio spectrum management, cyber security and implementation of the various aspects of fostering ICT and ICT enabled socio-economic development.

A registered engineer, Irene holds a Master of Science in Communications Systems and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol and a Master of Science in Economic Management and Policy (Business Economic Pathway) from the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom. She did a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering at Makerere University in Uganda.