Mr. Tom Soja

As President, Tom Soja oversees the strategic direction of the company. He also is intricately involved with the company's research process and has completed market demand studies for the Pacific Crossing, East Asia Crossing, Global Access Ltd., Africa ONE, Bahamas Internet Cable System (BICS), and Pangea-1 cable networks. Earlier, Mr. Soja also conducted a feasibility study for the Mid Atlantic Crossing and Pan American Crossing systems and several terrestrial fiberoptic networks in the United States. With TSA's assistance, over $7 billion has been raised in financing by various parties.

   Mr. Soja has ten years experience as a Senior Analyst in the fiberoptics industry and as a Director of Submarine Cable Research. In these capacities he conducted feasibility and market demand studies for projects such as Atlantic Crossing (AC 1, Global Crossing Ltd.), the first independent investor-owned carrier's carrier submarine cable system. In the Pacific region, Mr. Soja completed a market study for the Hawaii-Americas (HIAM) and Western Hemisphere (WH) submarine cable systems (GST International).

In addition to producing submarine cable studies, Mr. Soja has written several innovative studies in areas such as global production and deployment of optical fiber and cable, high-temperature coating, long-distance communications, plastic optical fiber systems, and undersea fiberoptic systems and components.

He has written many articles on the fiberoptic and submarine cable industries. His work, bylines, and opinions have been published in more than a dozen publications worldwide including: Lightwave, Communications Week International, Telecommunications, Wire Journal International, The New York Times, Exchange, Telenews Asia, tele.com, Der Spiegel, Photonics Spectra, Fiber Optics News, Money On-Line, thestreet.com, Pacific Telecommunications Profile, Laser Focus World, Asian Communications, Wired, Business 2.0, Soundings, Real Time and proprietary research in the investment banking community. He has provided numerous industry briefings on a variety of fiberoptics and international telecom related markets to clients worldwide.

Prior to his involvement in the submarine and terrestrial telecommunications industries, Mr. Soja was a research associate at the Harvard Business School.

He is a member of the New England Fiberoptics Council and a member of the SPIE's International Technical Working Group on Fiber Optics. Mr. Soja has chaired the Forecasting and Finance session of the Submarine Networks 1998 and 1999 conferences (London) and helped to organize the first Pan American Submarine Fiber Optics Communications Systems conference (AiC Conferences, New York), which was held in Orlando, Florida in June 1998 and a similar conference on Asia Pacific markets held in September 1998 in Singapore. Mr. Soja is a frequent speaker on industry trends and opportunities in the international telecom arena.

Mr. Soja holds an MBA from Babson College and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rochester.