Dr. Hamadoun Toure, a national of Mali was appointed as Founding Executive Director of SMART Africa Alliance and he took office in January 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda. He was Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to information and communication technologies from 2007 to 2014.

Dr. Toure was Member of the UN Chief Executive Board (CEB) and served as Chairman of the UN ICT Network. He was the founding member of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development and served as co-vice chair until his retirement from ITU. He was previously Elected Director of the BDT (ITU), a post he occupied from Jan. 1999 to Dec. 2006 until his election as Secretary General. He has also had a distinguished career in the satellite industry.