Germán Darío Arias Pimienta

Germán Darío Arias Pimienta is an Expert Commissioner for Commission for Communications Regulation of Colombia. He has acquired experience in the public and private sectors to building the telecommunications regulatory policies in Colombia.

His professional career started in 1995 with Empresas Públicas de Manizales in Colombia (Public utility companies of Manizales), where he played a key role in restructuring the institution, as a result of the entry into force of the Public Utility’s Act.

In August 2003, Mr Arias joined the Sector’s Development Directorate team of the Ministry of Communications. In that tenure, he contributed to the achievement of various regulatory challenges, namely: the opening of the long distance market, the interconnection between operators; the allocation of additional spectrum to mobile operators as a response to the growing service demand and to the freeing of frequency bands for the use of wireless access technologies, such as Wi-Fi.

Mr Arias returned to the private sector between 2007 and 2013, as Regulatory Affairs Manager with Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá (ETB), (Bogota’s Telecommunications Company), where he led the definition of a comprehensive regulatory strategy combining economic, legal, financial and technical elements and their implications on the company´s business strategy.

Mr Arias also served as Manager of the ICT and Agro Initiative at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies, intended to ensure that ICTs improve the quality of life of peasants while they help increase land productivity in Colombia.

Mr Arias is an Economist with a Masters Degree in Information Technology Management from Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey and Specialisation in International Business Management.