Marcelo Garcia

Founder of BroadLights.org

Marcelo Garcia has a distinguished career of more than twenty years in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) industry - from being a member of the core team which helped build one of the largest TV studios in the world back in 1995 to participating in several pioneering Digital TV and Broadband deployments worldwide. 

Leveraging that strong base he began focusing on the Technological Transformation of Cities, associated with the United Nations as a Smart Cities Expert of the UNECE International PPP Centre of Excellence - established in partnership with the IESE Business School of Barcelona. 

Marcelo's family has been closely involved in the TMT sector for almost a century - starting with his grandfather, who was a Wireless Telegraphist with the Brazilian Navy in the 1920's, built the first news radio station in the country in the 1930's and remained its Technical Director until his retirement. That tradition continued with Marcelo's father, who was an Analogue TV pioneer and owner of a broadcasting equipment company in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970's.

Marcelo's latest and by far most ambitious endeavour is an homage to this family TMT tradition: he wants to leverage his professional background and extensive global network to bring affordable WiFi access to the "Lost Billion" - the most vulnerable people in the world when it comes to Digital Divide connectivity gaps.

This group is mainly comprised of individuals living in poorly connected communities such as native tribes, refugee camps and in many of the 92 member countries of the OHRLLS UN agency - which encompasses the Least Developed, Landlocked Developing and Small Island Developing Nations. 

Having visited 115 countries so far and lived in ten of those, Marcelo was fortunate to learn nine languages along the way with varying degrees of fluency and consequently being in a position to connect at a deeper level with their native speakers through a better understanding of their unique cultural heritage.

Marcelo is a frequent public speaker and moderator on topics related to Smart Cities and the use of ICT for development and humanitarian purposes. He is always delighted to connect with like-minded souls in person or remotely via his LinkedIn profile: