Anne Bouverot is Director General of the GSMA and a Member of its Board.
Anne brings to the GSMA a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success in the highly dynamic mobile industry. With a deep understanding of the opportunities and the challenges facing mobile operators today, she leads the GSMA as the essential industry partner for its operator members around the world, enabling their continued success through driving innovation, providing thought leadership and advocating for the industry.
Before joining the GSMA, Anne was Executive Vice President for Mobile Services for France Telecom Orange, where she defined the strategic transformation programmes for a business serving more than 120 million customers and revenues of more than 14 billion euros at the time.
Prior to France Telecom Orange, Anne led a 600-person business unit of Equant and was responsible for developing IT services for Equant’s multinational business customers. She began her career in telecommunications as project manager for Telmex in Mexico in 1991.
Anne holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics and computer science from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris and an M.S. degree from Telecom Paris. Anne was appointed as a member of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development in 2013. She also serves as a non-executive director of Capgemini, a leading global provider of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, and as a non-executive director of Edenred, the world leader of prepaid corporate services.
What would you say are the most challenging and the most satisfying aspects of your work?
I have spent my career in telecommunications, and most recently, in mobile, and I don’t think I could have selected a more exciting, dynamic industry in which to work.
The developments in these areas just over the past two decades have been staggering. The first GSM call was made in 1991, and now, twenty years later, there are more than 6 billion mobile connections worldwide. And over the next ten years, mobile will connect everything in our lives, with tens of billions of connected devices.
This rapid pace of change also creates challenges for our industry, as we look to harness the power of mobile to deliver new services and capabilities to billions of people around the world, in developing and developed markets.
What qualifications or certifications did you attain in order to reach your professional goals?
I received advanced degrees in both computer science and mathematics, as well as in telecommunications, so my education was quite technical in nature, and this gave me a very solid foundation for the roles that have shaped my career since.
This background prepared me for not only the technical roles that I held early in my career, such as project management, but for the business development and management positions that I have taken on since.
If there is one message you would like to convey to young women to encourage them to consider a profession in the ICT sector, what would it be?
ICT is one of the most vibrant sectors of our global economy today, and one that affects the way people around the world work, live and play. ICT has a very broad-reaching impact, with important economic, social and even environmental ramifications.
For instance, if you look at mobile specifically, research has shown that a 10 per cent increase in mobile phone use has led to a 1.2 per cent increase in gross domestic product (GDP) in low- and middle-income countries. That is a pretty amazing impact.
How is mobile changing the world?
- It’s connecting millions of people in remote locations to the power grid for the first time;
- It’s helping doctors and patients manage life-threatening diseases such as diabetes;
- It’s helping companies across many industries reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower their carbon footprints;
- It’s providing critical agricultural information and resources to farmers in the developing world.
These are just a few of the powerful examples of how technology is positively impacting the lives of millions.
By pursuing a career in ICT, you have the ability to create change, every day.
