David Ferguson is the director of the Center for Development Innovation in USAID’s U.S. Global Development Lab. Prior to joining USAID, he spent five years as an independent consultant at the nexus of technology, development and the private sector. His practice focused on providing analysis of telecommunication challenges and management of complex projects in both the Federal Government and the private sector.

Ferguson served 27 years with AT&T, his last nine years as a senior executive, where he created and ran AT&T’s Networking Professional Services Division, which developed into a $200 million entity. When he was based in Hong Kong for seven years, he focused on the developing markets of China, India and Indonesia for telecommunications investment opportunities. He built seven joint ventures during this period and established the first officially sanctioned foreign investment in China’s telecom services market in Shanghai.

His technical expertise includes telecommunications and Internet strategy; network architecture and design, including satellite, national backbone and undersea fiber cables/networks; mobile telecom infrastructure and services; Internet network design and applications; and access network technology, particularly WiFi and WiMAX in rural settings. Ferguson’s business expertise includes private sector business development and management, regulatory structures, and government policy formulation and implementation focused on improving economic growth through the IT and telecom sectors.