M.I.T.’s Computing Media Labs Director Michael (Mihalis)Bletsas and unofficial personal technology advisor to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has been proposed by the Greek Government, on June 23 2010, to head The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, or OTE.
Michael Bletsas was born in Crete in 1967 and holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and an MSc Degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University.
Michael Bletsas and Media Labs
Bletsas, a veteran of the information and media technology sector is chiefly known for his work at MIT Media Labs, alongside Dr. Nicolas Negroponte, where he was involved in the lab’s extensive research initiatives. Bletsas was primarily responsible for the design and deployment of the lab’s infrastructure including its fiber optic communication network which Bletsas at one time referred to as the “life blood” of Media Labs.
Bletsas was also involved in the One Laptop per Child Project or OLCP. The One Laptop per Child Project was developed by Dr. Nicolas Negroponte and used innovative state of the art software, hardware and build technologies to make affordable laptops that would aid as education tools in developing countries.
Dr. Negroponte was also a strong proponent of unlicensed free access WLAN technology and along with the Media Labs team installed in 2005 one of the first hotspots in the biblical island of Patmos.
The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization ( OTE )
The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, or OTE, is the dominant telecommunications service provider in Greece, and one of the key telecommunications forces in South Eastern Europe.
OTE, which was formerly a state owned monopoly, was initiated into the process of partial privatization as of 1998, a process which continued until July 2009 where the large chunks of shares that were previously bought by the Marfin Investment Group (MIG) were sold to Deutsche Telecom. Today Deutsche Telecom is the largest shareholder of the OTE group of companies which include OTE’s mobile arm Cosmote, Globul and various other Balkan and Greek subsidiaries.
OTE President and CEO
The Greek government has been on the hunt for a new President and CEO for The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization since 2009, and the challenge has been to find a capable manager that is acceptable both to the government, as well as to co-owner Deutsche Telecom.
The proposal for Bletsas to take over the role as President of the organization, while leaving the present CEO function intact, for the time being, implies that all parties agree to delegate the role of President and CEO to different individuals. The Greek Government through the Minister of Finance has however expressed many times its desire to allocate the positions of CEO and President to a single individual.
Michael Bletsas is currently member of The Hellenic Telecommunications Organization’s ( OTE ) board of directors as well as board member in various other high tech startups and technology companies.
Mr. Bletsas is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers ( IEEE) as well as the Technical Chamber of Greece.
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