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PRINCIPAL AND ASSOCIATES PROFILE

JUDITH HELLERSTEIN, Principal
is the Founder and CEO of Hellerstein & Associates, Judith Hellerstein is the Founder and CEO of Hellerstein & Associates, www.jhellerstein.com, a research consultancy specializing in opening up telecom and technology opportunities worldwide. She has a Masters in Public Policy (MPP/MPA) with a concentration on International Management. Judith has over thirty years experience in developing policies, regulations, building regulatory capacity, strategy development, broadband build-out, digital government assessment/strategies, regulatory reform, competition law, and on Internet Governance issues having worked on several high-profile projects while she was at the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission, MCI Communications, and Former Vice President Gore’s Reinventing Government office before founding her firm.

Judith is a passionate advocate for helping to bring connectivity and empower communities and has been working on connectivity, digital economy policies, and infrastructure issues. She has advised regulators, governments, international organizations, and commercial and non-profit clients around the world on the adoption of digital economy and digital development laws and policies, competition policy, cyber policies, and the development of the ICT sector, including market and regulatory reforms. She has also helped develop a whole litany of policies and legislation needed for digital development/digital economy/digital transformation issues.

Judith has led and managed several national multi-sectoral legislative and policy gap analyses of ICT and digital economy policies, including work on cyber, data protection, e-commerce and e-signature. She has also undertaken and led several regional and national assignments for the World Bank resulting in reforms in their legal, regulatory, and ICT frameworks. Judith has worked with actors across stakeholder groups in the Internet ecosystem to develop and manage Internet-related projects and campaigns.

Judith has worked with actors across stakeholder groups in the Internet ecosystem to develop and manage Internet-related projects and campaigns. Judith has extensive experience with multistakeholder approaches to governance and other policy issues and also has strong research, writing, and analysis expertise.

Judith is currently assisting the Department of Information and Communications in Papua New Guinea on digital transformation issues, including the drafting a variety of digital economy policies, regulations, and Digital Government and innovation issues.

Judith has a Master's Degree in public policy from the Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York City, where she focused on International Development. She was awarded a Public Fellowship Award and has published many papers relating to public policy in the ICT market.

RENE ADRIAN BUSTILLO, Associate
Dr. Bustillo is an expert in telecommunications law and regulation with broad experience in the fields of Project Management, Strategic Planning of Public Sector Reform, Telecom Operations, ICT, and Internet & Network Services. He has spent most of his career working on Telecom and ICT issues in Bolivia and in other Latin American countries.

During his 22 year professional career Dr. Bustillo worked at several posts at SITTEL (Bolivia's top Telecom Regulatory Authority). In January 2003, he was appointed Superintendent of Telecommunications of SITTEL (rank equivalent to Minister) by the President of Bolivia to carry forward the telecom sector reforms implanted since 1995. While he was Superintendent he reordered and rearranged Electromagnetic Frequency Assignments, devised Public Tender Regulation for Licensing, implemented multi-carrier selection scheme for long-distance, established ITU Fundamental Technical Plans, restructured the institution with a focus on consumer and market protection, settled disputes between operators, obtained recognition at regional level, certified main regulatory processes for ISO 9001:2000, carried out successful auction processes for new services and mobile, launched ENTEL's Internet Services nationwide, participated in ENTEL's privatization process and was instrumental in restructuring the largest Bolivian fixed-line operator (COTEL) from bankruptcy though intervention.

As Superintendent of Telecommunications, he was a key player in setting up the Bolivian's National Strategy for ICTs, presented at the 2005 Information Society Summit in Tunisia. Many of the activities performed by the regulatory agency in Bolivia aimed at developing the ICT sector in rural areas, and Dr. Bustillo fostered the development of programs such as telecenters, computers for schools, and roundtable discussions with civil society, government, and industry for preparation of the so called "digital agenda" in the country. He has also, worked for the largest telecom operator in Bolivia, Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (ENTEL) and held several positions, including Data Networks Division Chief. Dr. Bustillo also worked as Spectrum Management Consultant in Colombia where he was responsible for providing a diagnostic of the current regulatory regime and evaluating existing policies and proposing options and alternatives for the Ministry of Communications and the telecom regulator (CRT) to establish a new policy and regulatory framework. He also prepared a study, about Broadband technologies, convergence, and regulatory situation for REGULATEL, performing a country-by-country diagnostic of the broadband regulatory regime and recommending regulatory and normative measures.

Dr. Bustillo is both an Engineer and a registered Attorney, having graduated as Electrical Engineer Cum Laude from Utah State University (U.S.), with a Masters Degree in Computer Systems Design from the University of Houston-Clear Lake (U.S.), and holds a Degree in Civil Law from "Franz Tamayo" University (Bolivia). Dr. Bustillo is also a university professor for ninth and tenth semester courses for Data Communication and Project Assessment/Counseling, at the Electrical Engineering School of the Universidad Mayor de San Andres (UMSA) in Bolivia. He is frequently invited to speak in forums and workshops in fields related to sector regulation and infrastructure, telecommunications, and ICT development. Dr. Bustillo is a dual citizen (U.S. and Bolivian), and speaks Spanish (Native Proficiency), English (Advanced Professional Proficiency), and German (General Proficiency).

DR. LISHAN ADAM , an associate Dr. Lishan Adam has more than 28 years of professional, post-graduate experience in ICT sector analysis in Ethiopia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Eastern Europe with focus on broadband access, infrastructure development, policy and regulation in the ICT and telecommunication sector, e-government systems and applications in sectors like health, education, agriculture and trade. Initially, he worked at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa as a programmer, trainer, network manager and a regional advisor. During the process he served as the first low cost network manager for Ethiopia and played a role in the development of national ICT policy in the country. Since he began consulting in 2003, Mr. Adam provided advice to governments, international institutions and regional bodies on the communications/broadband infrastructure development, e-government, e-applications, digital inclusion and policy and regulatory matters covering spectrum management, licensing, interconnection, standards, type approval, and digital migration. In Ethiopia he played a key role in the design a cloud computing strategy, a national postal addressing system, the development of e-services and more recently in development of a business plan for the Ethiopian Information Technology Park, Ethio IT Village.

He has extensive teaching and curriculum design experience in the ICT application regulatory field. Apart from teaching courses in information management at Addis Ababa University, he served as an academic at the Universities of Stellenbosch in South Africa as an Associate Professor on Information Systems teaching courses on ICT policy and knowledge management; at University of West Indies as course convenor on telecommunications planning with focus on policy, regulation and telecommunications business; and the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa as Associate Professor on ICT Policy and regulation.

As a member of the Research ICT Africa, he was involved in demand and supply analysis of ICT sector in eastern Africa with focus on the review of Ethiopian Telecommunications Sector in 2007, 2011/2012. His experience in telecommunication policy covers the following aspects:

  • Led a team that carries out policy and regulatory gap analysis in Uganda covering telecom policy, legislation, regulation and institutional framework, 2018 Assessed policy, regulatory, institutional gaps in delivering broadband services in the least Developing countries for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), 2017
  • Developed rural communications development fund policy (Universal Access Fund Policy) for 2017-2020 with focus on the supply side (broadband access) and demand side (e-government, e-health, e-education) for un-served and underserved population for the Uganda Communications Commission, 2017
  • Trained new regulator on Next Generation Network, Licensing, Inter-connection, Quality of Service, Consumer Protection, Digital Transition, Standards and Type approval during the setup of the Namibian Communications Commission, 2011
  • Carried out survey of digital migration and developed guidelines and policies for digital migration for eastern Africa and also advised the Government of Cameroon on digital transition policy, 2011,2012
  • Carryout regulatory and policy capacity building gap analysis for African Caribbean and Pacific Countries, 2011
  • Carried out a study on telecommunications Quality of Service Regulation for Uganda Communications Commission, 2009
  • Developed regulatory guidelines for radio frequency management and monitoring for eastern and southern Africa, 2007
  • Reviewed spectrum policy toolkit for the Information for Development programme of the World Bank, 2005
  • Developed guidelines for type approval and standards for the Communications Regulators Association of Southern Africa (CRASA), 2004.
  • Mr. Adam recently published recently a paper entitled "Risk and Opportunities on the Late Telecom Privatisation in Ethiopia: The Case of Ethio Telecom." Mr. Adam is a well-respected expert on telecom and IT issues in Ethiopia and the African region contributing to the works of the Economic Commission of Africa, the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank. He brings both the full knowledge, integrity and extensive network to projects.

    Alisa Abrams is a highly skilled evaluation specialist, with nearly twenty years of IFI evaluation experience formerly with the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) and the Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund (IEO). Ms. Abrams is certified as an evaluator by the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) (Carleton University) and is certified as a Facilitator in Participatory Rural Appraisal (Egerton University, Kenya). She holds a Master's Degree in International Development and Social Change (Clark University).

    As a co-team leader and team member, Ms. Abrams has conceived, designed and implemented 15 complex, cross-cutting global evaluations assessing the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, intermediate outcomes/impact, and sustainability of World Bank and IMF strategies, governance, management, operational policies, lending programs/DPLs, country partnership frameworks, activities, technical assistance, analytical advisory services, and external partnerships, including those supported by multi-donor trust funds. Ms. Abrams has extensive experience in designing and implementing evaluations using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and instruments as well as in collecting and analyzing primary and secondary data sources. She has been the lead author or contributor for evaluation reports, including evidence-based lessons and practical recommendations endorsed and implemented by stakeholders, and for dissemination and outreach materials and summary presentations.

    Ms. Abrams also has extensive experience in supervising high-level and sectoral external consultants. Prior to her tenure in IEG, Ms. Abrams held positions in the World Bank Institute Office of the Gender Coordinator, World Bank Group Office of the U.S. Executive Director, and World Bank Group Office of the Executive Director for Japan.

    Dr. Mark Kennet, PhD Economics-Demand and Pricing, specializes in engineering-economic cost modeling, demand modeling, and econometric studies. He is an international telecommunications and Internet consultant with many years of experience in regulatory issues on both the government and industry sides. Dr. Kennet's work has included the development of cost modeling tools for interconnection and universal service applications in a wide variety of countries, including United States, Portugal, Peru, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Namibia, Kenya, Australia, and the Maldives, and other countries in all the populated continents. He is best-known for his work on telecommunications economic cost models and has contributed to regulatory and/or private sector models in a wide variety of nations, including the United States, Gabon, Portugal, Peru, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Namibia, Kenya, Australia, and the Maldives, and other countries in all the populated continents. Dr. Kennet has served as a consultant to efforts to develop national broadband networks in Peru, Mexico, and Gabon.

    Dr. Kennet has also worked as a university professor and a senior economist in various government agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission. In the academic arena, Dr. Kennet has authored or co-authored a number of professional articles and books on telecommunications economics and policy, and has served on the faculties of the University of California-Santa Cruz, Tulane University, and George Washington University. In the United States government, Kennet helped develop the North American Industrial Classification System and was instrumental in creating the regulations and cost model used to determine rural telecommunications subsidies.

    During the past twenty years, Dr. Kennet's work has included the development of cost modeling tools for interconnection and universal service applications in a wide variety of countries, including United States, Portugal, Peru, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Namibia, Kenya, Australia, and the Maldives, and other countries in all the populated continents. Dr. Kennet has advised on telecoms regulations in the United States, Jordan, and ECTEL. In addition, Dr. Kennet has served as a consultant to efforts to develop national broadband networks in Peru and Mexico. Dr. Kennet is co-author of a book published by MIT Press, "Cost Proxy Models and Telecommunications Policy: A New Approach to Empirical Analysis" (with F. Gasmi, J.-J. Laffont, and W.W. Sharkey) and has published numerous academic articles on the subject

    Dr. Kennet has vast experience in developing and completing projects both large and small, including with the World Bank as well as governments and private companies. He has managed and coordinated a number of projects and has very strong problem-solving skills. He has the ability to work flexibly on a range of assignments, and to adjust and prioritize a variety of tasks. Dr. Kennet holds a B.S. in economics and mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin.

    DANIEL ESPITIA, an associate, is an economic development specialist with 24 years of professional experience in public sector reform in the ICT sector, privatization and restructuring; 20 years of experience as development economist, policy and regulation planning specialist, regional harmonization, institutional restructuring and governance. Mr. Espitia has extensive Field experience in the ICT development in 33 countries worldwide, in Africa, Latin America and South East Asia, including some regional economic blocks. He is a specialized project manager with 18 years experience directing complex international projects coordinating multi-disciplinary specialists, chief of liaison in communications and negotiation with stakeholders that include: individuals, companies, regional organizations, development banks, NGOs, government ministries and agencies, specialized presidential offices, and as on-call mission specialist for the UN.

    Mr. Espitia is a senior expert with a number of international organizations including USAID, the IDRC, the World Bank, the WTO, regional development banks and international NGOs and has a successful track record in international project management and on the design, development and application of economic development models in the field of access to information and communications.

    His competence in public sector reform projects is focused on government strategic planning, multi-industry business development and business case modeling. He has also significant experience in institutional restructuring projects, and has been an executive coach with conflict resolution skills and has been called to facilitate resolution of organizational conflict crisis situations.

    ALAN HOOPER, an associate, has particular expertise in public private partnerships (PPP), privatization, financial and organizational re-structuring, infrastructure finance, project finance and cross-border investment. He has strong negotiations experience and specific sector expertise in telecommunications, development banking, tourism and agribusiness.

    Alan has an extensive track record in leading sensitive and high-level commercial negotiations in the telecommunications sector. Most recently, when he was the lead negotiator of the advisory team supporting the Kenyan Ministers of Finance and Telecommunications and other senior Kenyan Government officials working on the Privatization of Telkom Kenya Ltd. (TKL). Alan was involved in sensitive high-level negotiations concerning unbundling of TKL's 60% in Safaricom, with the top management of Vodafone UK. This paved the way for the successful US$390 million privatization of TKL by sale of 51% to France Telecom, and was an essential pre-cursor to the initial public offering (IPO) of 25% of the shares in Safaricom on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, the largest IPO ever in sub Saharan Africa outside of South Africa.

    In Africa, Alan has worked in Botswana, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda where he has advised on telecommunications regulatory issues with a focus on implementing Universal Service, privatization, and attracting direct foreign investment into the telecommunications sector.

    Alan has substantial transactional experience in telecommunications. He has led transactions with five different African operators while they were being privatized. Alan was also financial and strategic advisor to the team from Telkom SA that conceptualized and implemented the US$650 million, 28,000km, SAT3-SAFE submarine cable linking Europe and the West coast of Africa to Asia. He has the capacity to identify and evaluate the economic, financial and legal implications of different courses of action available to Government in seeking an agreement. In the course of his career with the International Finance Corporation and subsequently, Mr. Hooper has been responsible for the evaluation of the financial viability of literally hundreds of projects, and for the successful financing of dozens of them. In the field of telecommunications he has been involved in some of the largest transactions on the African continent (see above) and also some of the smallest. In South Africa, together with Mr. Espitia, he has assisted small groups of black entrepreneurs in rural areas of South Africa with the successful development of winning strategies for highly competitive underserviced area licenses.

    Alan has an MBA from Harvard Universitys Business School, a MSc diploma in Management Science from Edinburgh University, UK, and a BSc in Organic Chemistry from Leeds University, UK. He speaks English, and some French and Spanish.

    TIRA GREENE, an Associate, is an attorney at law with very considerable experience in design of legal and regulatory frameworks and reviewing and drafting telecommunications, technology and trade laws, and preparing related policies, regulations, licences and contractual documents. She has provided legal advice and legislative drafting on WTO implementation and communications laws and/or regulations for over twenty countries.

    Ms. Greene is a trained and highly experienced legal and legislative drafter who has advised on and drafted hundreds of laws, regulations, guidelines, leases, licences and other commercial documents in international projects. She has advised on communications, e-Government and trade policy and legal and regulatory frameworks and drafted enabling and implementing laws. She is particularly experienced in telecommunications liberalisation, e-Government and WTO implementation issues in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). She has an Advanced Diploma in International Law (Masters Degree programme), and a Masters in Telecommunications Policy and Regulation from the University of the West Indies.

    Ms. Greene has exceptional interpersonal skills and develops excellent working relationships with persons from all cultures and backgrounds, evidenced by her track record of repeat consultancies from the same Governments/Countries. She has worked in many regions of the world and collaborated closely with colleagues in and from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and the United States. She is a very engaging speaker, with considerable experience in the conduct of consensus building and training workshops.

    DR. DEREK G GILL, Associate
    Derek G. Gill is an Associate and is also Founder, President, and CEO of FiberSat Telecommunications Corp., a provider of information technology and telecommunications services to enterprise and governmental customers. Dr. Gill has more than 20 years business experience at COMSAT, Verizon, FLAG Telecom, 360 Networks prior to founding his company.

    Dr. Gill's expertise is in designing and building global satellite and fiber optic telecommunications infrastructures to link the developed and developing worlds to facilitate information exchange, economic cooperation, foreign investment, and international trade and development. He also has vast experience in performing cost/benefit analyses of alternative sales, marketing, and product and pricing strategies in the global telecommunications market and in conducting research to understand the drivers of demand and supply for global telecommunications capacity.

    DR. PETER KNIGHT, Associate
    Peter Knight is an economist, training strategist, and e-government specialist with broad international experience in distance education, e-government, telecommunications reform, electronic media, training strategy/evaluation, international banking, foundation work, teaching, and research. He has extensive high-level contacts in Africa (especially South Africa), Latin America (especially Brazil and Peru), and Eastern Europe and Asia (especially Russia).

    Before joining the private sector, Dr. Knight led the Electronic Media Center at the World Bank from (June 1994-February 1997), and before that for six years was Chief of the National Economic Management Division in the Bank's Economic Development Institute (EDI), now called the World Bank Institute. His World Bank career spanned over 20 years, with more than eight devoted exclusively to work on Brazil. He became the World Bank's Lead Economist for Brazil in 1987. Before joining the World Bank in 1976 he held positions at Cornell University, the Ford Foundation (based in Lima, Peru) and the Brookings Institution (where he worked on studies of Latin American economic integration in collaboration with research institutes in most Latin American countries, including Brazil and Peru). His dissertation research was conducted in Brazil. In 1997 he co-founded Knight-Moore Telematics for Education and Development (www.knight-moore.com).

    In 2001, Dr. Knight founded and a Brazilian IT corporation, Telem?tica e Desenvolvimento Ltda. (www.tedbr.com) in Rio de Janiero, and within seven months was named to the Telecommunications and Information Technology Council of the Associa??o Comercial do Rio de Janeiro. Dr. Knight also writes regularly in Portuguese for the Brazilian financial sector magazine Banco Hoje, on topics linking ICT with economic and social development. He has consulted on e-government and distance education for the state governments of Rio de Janeiro and Paran? and conducted lectures on these topics at academic, research, and business institutions in S?o Paulo.

    Dr. Knight has published extensively in various languages, including Portuguese and Spanish. He is a member of the Board of the Journal of E-Government, and has extensive contacts in the e-government circles, especially in Brazil, where he was a speaker at the last Public Informatics Congress (CONIP) in June 2004 (he participated in the previous two CONIPs), and Peru. He is also a non-Bank member of the World Bank's e-Development Services Thematic Group, participating in and organizing videoconferences and other events in this field.


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