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Tom Milo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; was educated at the VossiusGymnasium, Amsterdam; followed by 4 years of Slavic Studies with OldChurch Slavonic, Russian, Bulgarian & Macedonian at the Universityof Amsterdam, 6 years of Turkish Studies with Ottoman Turkish, ModernTurkish, Azeri & Yakut Turkic at the University of Leiden withadditional Arabic Studies including Modern Standard Arabic as well asEgyptian, Lebanese and Moroccan Arabic at the University ofAmsterdam.

Obtained HGV (heavy goods vehicle) driving license and worked inSaudi Arabia in aDutchtrucking company 1976-77. This turned out to be an excellent way toimprove conversational and driving skills in both Arabic and Turkish, asthe firm mainly employed Turkish drivers on the roads between the NorthSea and the Gulf.

Served as a captain in the Royal Netherlands Army and did two toursof duty as anArabic speaking officer in theUnited Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Worked as a freelancer producingMoroccan dialect translations for the Amsterdam City Council InformationOffice. Taught courses of Turkish and Moroccan colloquial Arabic.

Incorporated DecoType (associatemember of the Unicode Consortium) in 1985 together with two partners:Mirjam Somers, an architect andPeterSomers, an aircraft engineer. DecoType were the first in theindustry to developArabic script solutions based on thorough research into the IslamicCalligraphic Tradition. DT contributes fonts and Arabic Calligraphyapplications to Microsoft Office Arabic Edition and to Adobe PageMakerMiddle East, DT provides a special interface for Calligraphictypesetting; to the MacOS 9 it contributes Arabic fonts. Upgrades forAdobe InDesign and MacOSX are in the pipeline. DecoType works closelytogether withTradigital (UK,Germany, Egypt) to whom DT provides research and development.

Has been involved with Unicode since 1988, when, as aconsultant for Adobe Systems, he mapped all the regional and historicalvarieties of the Cyrillic alphabet. In the next year he joined the ISO10646working group of the Netherlands Standardization Institute, contributing onCyrillic and Arabic script issues. Has participated in and contributed to theInternational Unicode Conferences since 1991. Was three times given the honourto do the Keynote Address (IUC14Boston, MA 1999, IUC15San Jose, CA, 1999) and, directly following the dramatic events in September 2001, at IUC19. Hosted the16^th IUC in Amsterdam.

Tom holds aUnicodeBulldog Award - looking for a good place to put it.