Rich Fuchs served as IDRC’s first Director of Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) from 2001-06. During his tenure he led the major growth of the ICT4D programming there, with major new externally financed initiatives including the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas, Connectivity Africa, and Telecentre.Org- a partnership that continues to this day with the Microsoft Corporation. Rich has worked with ICTs and Development for more than a quarter century. He led the establishment of the first rural telecentre system in North America, beginning in 1988 in Newfoundland, Canada. In 2001 his small consultancy won Canada’s Export Excellence Award, principally for his work with telecentres in Africa and Asia. 10 years later, in 2011, he received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” for his work in this area. Rich’s recent publications include “The New Digital Divergence (2010)”, “So Few Lessons Learned: Quality Assurance in Training for the Global Telecentre Movement (2011) and the “The New Digital Divergence” .He is also a co-editor and contributor to the book “Taking Digital Stock: The Role of Information and Communications Technology in International Development” which was launched just this week in Capetown.

A Sociologist, he is regularly called upon to speak and lecture. Rich is now the CEO of Futureworks Consulting Inc. (www.futureworks.ca). He and his wife, Claire, currently work from their “global home office” overlooking the Bay of Fundy in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Canada. Their most recently completed project was to produce a Knowledge Management Plan for a major international development agency. Among other new initiatives, he will undertake a new project with the United Nations University early in 2014.