Goundé Désiré Adadja

• Mr Adadja is a telecommunications engineer and has a Master's degree in Engineering from the Polytechnique Montreal School of Engineering in Canada;
• He has received professional training in business management at several institutions, including the University of Public Administration (ENAP) in Montreal, Canada, and the Centre for Financial, Economic and Banking Studies (CEFEB) in France;
• Accredited founding member of TEMIC, the Telecommunications Executive Management Institute of Canada;
• Mr Adadja was the Director General of the Postal and Telecommunications Office (OPT) of Benin from 1987 to 1993;
• From 1993 to January 2004, he was the first Director General of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organisation (RASCOM) based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; he has also served as President of the company RascomStar-QAF, based in Mauritius, which, under the auspices of RASCOM, launched the very first African satellite covering the entire continent and currently has two satellites in orbit;
• Mr Adadja has many years’ experience in international telecommunications, both with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS);
• In April 2006, he was appointed Technical Adviser to the President of the Republic of Benin for Telecommunications and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); he later also assumed the post of Director General of Benin Telecoms from September 2006 to June 2007;
• Mr Adadja was Minister for Communication and ICT for Benin from June 2007 to May 2011 and has played a key role in stabilising, boosting and stimulating the entire telecommunications and ICT sector in Benin;
• Since September 2011, Mr Adadja has acted as Special Adviser to the President of the Republic of Benin for Telecommunications and ICT;
• Mr Adadja also takes on consultancy roles in Africa and in other parts of the world, notably with regard to development policies and strategies for information and communication technologies.