Vanessa Gray

Speaker Bio

Vanessa Gray works for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN Agency in charge of digital technologies. She heads the Division on Climate and Emergency Telecommunications within the Telecommunication Development Bureau’s (BDT) and is responsible for developing and overseeing projects and technical assistance on disaster preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Ms Gray leads the work on the Disaster and Early Warning Connectivity Maps (DCM/EWCM) and is the ITU focal point for the UN’s Early Warning for All (EW4all) initiative where she coordinates the initiative’s pillar 3 on Warning Dissemination and Communication, to ensure that alerts reach people at risk.

In the area of the environment, Ms. Gray coordinates the BDT's work on the circular economy and green digital transformation, which includes monitoring industry emissions, energy use and climate commitments from tech companies, and supporting countries in tracking ICT sector GHG emissions. This includes the publication of the Greening Digital Companies Report. In the area of circular economy, Ms. Gray manages the work on e-waste policies and data, which includes the publication of the Global and Regional E-waste Monitors.

Ms.Gray holds a master’s degree in political science and economics from the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland.