Press release: OLPC expands Asian presence

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organization focused on providing educational tools to help children in developing countries "learn learning," is strengthening its presence in Asia with the appointments of Anthony S K Wong as President of OLPC China and Satish Jha as President of OLPC India.
"With 40 percent of the world's children located in China and India, these two countries are obviously important targets for OLPC," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child. "Tony Wong and Satish Jha both bring tremendous experience to the goal of expanding OLPC's penetration in Asia and we look forward to their contributions to our progress."

Anthony S K Wong, President OLPC China
Tony Wong has worked in the Hong Kong Government for his entire career. As the Commissioner for Innovation and Technology, he was responsible for the promotion and development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong. Major initiatives included: supporting applied research and development and technology transfer; facilitating the provision of technology support infrastructure and development of human resources; fostering technological entrepreneurship and an innovation and technology culture in the community; furthering technological collaboration with Mainland China and other places; and promoting internationally accepted standards and conformity assessment services to underpin technological development and international trade.
Wong was the Director-General of Telecommunications and the Telecommunications Authority of Hong Kong from March 1997 to August 2003. One of his major achievements was the liberalization of the telecom services and facilities markets in Hong Kong. He also contributed towards the development and promotion of the information infrastructure in Hong Kong and the convergence of the computing, broadcasting and telecommunications industries.
In the international arena, Wong served as Chairman of the World Telecommunication Policy Forum in 2000, Chairman of the Annual Global Symposium for Regulators in 2001 and Chairman of the Policy and Legal Committee of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in 2002.

Satish Jha, President OLPC India
For 18 years Satish Jha has worked at the intersection of technology and management, particularly in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and strategy consulting sectors. He has served as a global CIO and executive with two of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and as CEO of a consulting firm.
Jha has also founded, mentored and seeded a couple of dozen social projects with a focus on technology, business strategies and public policy in the areas of universal access to education, healthcare and bridging the digital divide. He is a member of the UN-GAID (United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development), Special Advisor to the Kofi Annan Center and co-chairs the World IT Forum (WITFOR).
Earlier in his career Jha co-founded the Indian daily Janasatta and was the Editor of The Times of India Group. He has been a National Scholar in India, a Hubert Humphrey Fellow, Ford Fellow, Netherlands Fellow and was granted scholarships for management education by France Telecom and BNP. His co-edited work with Leon Strous on "ICTs for Development and Prosperity" was published by IFIP in late 2007.
About One Laptop per Child
One Laptop per Child (OLPC at http://www.laptop.org) is a non-profit organization created by Nicholas Negroponte and others from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. These XO laptops are rugged, open source, and so energy efficient that they can be powered by a child manually. Mesh networking gives many machines Internet access from one connection. The pricing goal is $100.

SOURCE: One Laptop per Child
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Jackie Lustig, 781-487-4664
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