ITU Names New Secretary-General

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The International Telecommunications Union has tapped Houlin Zhao from China as its next secretary-general. He will assume the position for a four-year term starting Jan. 1, 2015. He will succeed Dr. Hamadoun Touré.

The new secretary-general was elected at the ITU Plenipotentiary conference in Busan, Korea. He drew 152 of the 156 votes cast, running unopposed. He has been deputy secretary general and is a telecom engineer who headed ITU's standardization bureau.

The conference is held every four years to "set the strategic direction of ITU and to develop policies and recommendations that address the evolving needs of the union's members."

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.