Feb. 11, 2002 – Local businessman Cornelius B. Prior Jr. was elected chairman of the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations at the organization's 18th annual meeting held last month in Trinidad.
Prior is the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. and the chairman of the board of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Co., both publicly held companies.
CANTO is an internationally recognized trade association that serves a significant proportion of telecommunication organizations in the Caribbean. It has 45 members in over 30 countries, and affiliations with the International Telecommunication Union, the Inter-American Telecommunications Commission and the Caribbean Telecommunications Union.
Prior was elected unanimously by senior executives of the region's telephone companies, according to a report in Guyana's Kaieteur News.
CANTO's mission, according to its Web site, is to provide an important forum through which telecommunication organisations exchange information and share expertise in order to provide Caribbean telephone customers with quality telecommunication services.
Prior has actively participated in CANTO general meetings and conferences for fifteen years, in his current role as CEO of GT&T and ATN, as well as when he was chairman of Vitelco.
Prior, who is also one of the owners of Coral World Marine Park on St. Thomas, is a Harvard Law School graduate and Fulbright Scholar.
He has made significant contributions to the community as member of the Antilles School and the Peter Gruber Foundation boards.
Prior succeeds Thomas Perez Ducy of CODEL, the phone company of the Dominican Republic.