Malcolm Johnson (born 19 June 1947) is a British civil servant. He is th
Deputy Secretary-General
of the ITU and former Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) of the ITU Standardization Sector (ITU-T). He was elected Director by the

ITU Plenipotentiary Conference The Plenipotentiary Conference (PP) is the supreme organ of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), it is a treaty-making conference. It is composed of all 193 ITU Member states and meets every four years. The Conference determines the ...

, 2006 in

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Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. He took office on 1 January 2007 and was re-elected at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2010. At the ITU

Plenipotentiary Conference The expression Plenipotentiary Conference (of conference of plenipotentiaries) is used to refer to some diplomatic conference integrated by diplomats invested with the full power of independent action on behalf of their country's government. In the ...

2014 in Busan, he was elected to a term as Deputy Secretary-General, and at the 2018 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai, he was reelected to a second term.

Early years and education

Born in Trallwng, a small town in the principal area

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. Attended

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

(

Bachelor of Science Degree A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

with 1st Class Honours; Master of Science Degree;

Chartered Engineer Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thr ...

; Fellow of

Institution of Engineering and Technology The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a multidisciplinary professional engineering institution. The IET was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), dating back to 1871,Engin ...

Career and work experience

Johnson represented UK in several international organizations, including the

International Maritime Organization (IMO) The International Maritime Organization (IMO; ; ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a UN conference held in Geneva in 1948 and the IMO c ...

Inmarsat Inmarsat is a British communications satellite, satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services. It provides telephone and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate with groun ...

, and the

European Space Agency (ESA) The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

. He was employed at the Telecommunication Regulations Division of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

between 1987 and 1992. Later on, from 1992 to 2003, Johnson was Director of the UK's Radiocommunications Agency. In 2003, Johnson joined the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) at its inception, he was International Coordinator with lead responsibility for UK in ITU and European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT). He remained in this position until 2006.

ITU

Johnson has extensive knowledge of ITU gained over 20 years. As Head or Deputy Head of UK Delegations to all ITU conferences, assemblies and advisory groups since 1991, he became well known to many of the key players in ITU with a reputation for conciliation, cooperation and innovation. During his first term Johnson has spearheaded increased ITU-T activity in areas including: cybersecurity; climate change; and accessibility to ICTs for persons with disabilities. His tenure has also seen a push for increased involvement of developing countries and academia in ITU's standards activities and a programme to address developing country concerns over lack of interoperability and conformity to ITU standards. Johnson was appointed

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

(CMG) in the

2023 New Year Honours The 2023 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to the United Nations, the Commonwealth and global information and communication technologies.

Major achievements

Johnson was responsible for many initiatives in the management, structure and functioning of ITU. Among these achievements are his proposal for the new Global Standards Collaboration (

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, 2001), chairing the Reform Group on standardization prior to Plenipotentiary Conference 2002 and initiation of many reforms in ITU-T to speed up the work and increase the role of the

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

. He also initiated the process for regional preparations for ITU conferences, established and chaired the first interregional group to prepare for an ITU conference (1995) and established the Commonwealth ITU group. In addition he further enhanced the CEPT preparatory process for ITU conferences which he promoted in other regions. This CEPT process, which includes European Common Proposals and co-ordination procedures was initiated by Jean-Louis Blanc (F) David Court (G) and Klaus Olms (D) at the Cardiff (1985) and subsequent meetings of CEPT's Radiocommunications Group, in preparation for ITU Conferences held in 1985, 1987 and 1988.

Other experience

In addition to his ITU experience, Johnson has four years’ experience working in the European Commission where he was responsible for the projects and legislation supporting the development of the

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

and

DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) is a cordless telephony standard maintained by ETSI. It originated in Europe, where it is the common standard, replacing earlier standards, such as CT1 and CT2. Since the DECT-2020 standard ...

technical standards. He also represented the European Commission in CEPT and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Malcolm International Telecommunication Union people 1947 births Living people People from Welshpool Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George