Our People and Organizations
IITF Board:
Prof. Sam Lanfranco. IITF Co-Founder and President
Sam is a development and social justice economist with a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. He has lectured and taught in numerous countries and has been involved with the digital venue since the 1980s, when store and forward email used low earth orbit satellites. He works in the areas of education, research, and social change, with emphasis on stakeholder engagement in policy development. He has worked with national and international agencies and global and local non-governmental organizations including the UNDP, UNCTAD, World Bank, and currently ICANN, the Ambedkar Centre for Justice and Peace (Mumbai), and the Society for the Advancement of Science in Africa. He has held leadership positions in academia and in non-governmental organizations
Carlos Afonso, IITF Co-Founder
Carlos Afonso is the Director of Instituto NUPEF; he was previously the Head of Technological Development of RITS. A co-founder of the Brazilian Chapter of Internet Society and of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Mr. Afonso is an expert in the field of Internet Governance.
Career History
- Carlos played an important role in democratizing the access to communications in Brazil.
- With Herbert de Souza co-founded IBASE.
- He also had a leading role in designing and implementing AlterNex, the first internet service open to the public in Brazil.
- In 1991, Mr. Afonso proposed and supervised the deployment of the Internet network for UNCED ’92. in Rio de Janeiro.
- Carlos Afonso co-founded APC as a formal institution in 1990.
- From 1997-1998, he served as APC’s first chair.
- He worked at RITS from 1998 to 2009 as technology coordinator. Publications
He has written many books and articles for internet development in different languages.
Mr. Sam Pitroda, IITF Co-Founder and Secretary
Mr. Sam Pitroda is an internationally respected development thinker, policymaker, inventor, and entrepreneur who has spent over 57 years in Telecom & IT.
Credited with having laid the foundation of India’s Technology revolution in the 1980s, he was advisor to the Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1980s and Dr. Singh in 2010s with a cabinet minister’ rank. He invented the electronic diary in 1974, mobile wallet in 1996, and set up C-SAM Inc., acquired by Master Card in 2013. He was Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, National Innovation Council, Smart grid task, Railway modernization, & Public broadcast reforms.
Mr. Pitroda holds over 100 patents, 20 Hon. Ph.D.s, and has published and lectured extensively globally. He is a member of the American Academy of Engineers. His biography was published in 1992, autobiography “Dreaming Big” in 2015 & “ Redesign the World” in 2021.
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