Richard Hill was born and partly raised in Italy, where he attended high school. He later lived in the USA, where he graduated from MIT (BS) and Harvard (PhD). He has worked for MIT, Hewlett-Packard, A.C. Nielsen, University of Geneva, Orange Telecommunications, and ITU. He has extensive experience in most aspects of information and telecommunication technologies. He has been involved privately and professionally in telecommunications policy issues (including Internet-related issues) since 1995.