Diego Molano Vega is the former Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of Colombia (2010-2015). Molano created the "Plan Vive Digital", a national technology plan that transformed the Country and led Colombia to obtain in 2012 the GSMA Government Leadership Award. He is now a Senior Advisor to McKinsey and Company, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Wilson Center in Washington DC. He is the Chair and Ambassador for its Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS) initiative at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris. Molano is also Board Member of Multinational Companies and is the President of Area Andina, a 30-thousand student university for low-income segments in Colombia, focusing on creating the talent for the digital economy.
Mr. Molano worked in international technology companies such as Telefonica in Spain, Ascom in Switzerland, and Bellsouth (now AT&T) in the US. He is electronics engineer and an economist from the Javeriana University in Colombia and has an MBA from IMD in Switzerland.
Mr. Molano is included in the list of world’s 100 most influential people in digital government in in 2018 by Apolitical, and the 20 most influential people in fintech in Latin America by TyN Magazine.
During his tenure as Minister, he transformed his Country with his policy plan “Vive Digital”, which aims to reduce poverty and create jobs through the use of technology. Colombia dramatically expanded Internet coverage in low-income segments and rural areas. 4G-LTE, Fiber optics and high-speed networks were expanded to all municipalities, even those in the middle of the Amazon jungle. Every rural community with more than 100 inhabitants had an Internet community center. Education, health and government services were transformed with ICT, increasing their availability, reach and efficiency. One of the strongest points of Mr. Molano’s plan is achieving universal inclusion in the use of ICT, not only including the low-income population, but also people with disabilities, the elder, and those in remote areas. As an example, in Colombia nowadays the hearing-impaired can communicate over the phone and the visually impaired can attend the movies and use the Internet.