Clovis Baptista holds an Electrical Engineering Degree (Telecommunications) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with advanced studies in Computer Science and Data Communication Networks.
He began his career as a microwave radio engineer at Furnas Centrais Elétricas, a major utilities company, and then went on to work for 21 years for EMBRATEL, a leading network operator, where he held important managerial posts.
Prior to becoming Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) in March 2000, Mr. Baptista was Special Advisor to the Minister of Communications of Brazil and, subsequently, Head of the Office of International Affairs of ANATEL, Brazil’s telecommunications regulatory agency.
He has been an active participant in international conferences and meetings, having represented Brazil on the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and in the WTO negotiations on basic telecommunications services, which led to the Fourth Protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in 1997.
Mr. Baptista has also served as OAS representative on the Hemispheric Advisory Board of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA), established in the framework of the Third Summit of the Americas, held in Quebec City in 2001 with the aim to promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help overcome barriers to socioeconomic development in Latin American and the Caribbean.
In May 2008 he was appointed Director of the OAS Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, a post he filled while continuing to perform his functions as head of the CITEL Secretariat until mid-2010.
He is married, with three children, and lives with his family in Gaithersburg, MD.
