biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1882–1957)
|
| biography:
| Businessman, born in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands, USA. After education in Paris, he emigrated to the USA in 1898, but immediately left to join his brother Hernand Behn in opening a brokerage house in Puerto Rico. In 1914 the sugar crop failed, and Behn Brothers Inc acquired the local telephone system as security against a crop loan. The brothers expanded, adding the Cuban telephone system (1916) and linking the Cuban system to Florida (1919). In 1920 they incorporated the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp (IT&T) in Maryland, and Sosthenes served as president until 1948 and then as chairman of the board (1948–56). There followed a period of rapid growth as IT&T built a network of international cable and local systems throughout the world. As world conditions deteriorated in the 1930s and 1940s, Sosthenes sold local telephone companies to governments and consolidated operations in Britain and the USA. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the French Legion of Honour for service in the US Army Signal Corps during World War 1. |
|
|
