Douglas R. Norton

Mr. Norton has more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, including twelve years of design and project management experience for large-scale telecommunications programs for both national and international customers. Prior to co-founding AccessPlus Communications, Mr. Norton was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for Equal Access Networks, LLC. During that time, Mr. Norton lead Equal Access Networks from the conceptual phase to a fully functional Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) which built and operated wireless based “carrier class” broadband networks to serve rural underserved regions. Equal Access Networks has now become a division of Global Crossing Ltd. In 2001, Mr. Norton was named Business West magazine’s “Entrepreneur of the Year”.

Previous to co-founding Equal Access Networks, Mr. Norton was Chief Technical Officer for New England Digital Distribution (NEDD), which is a wireless based system integration company. In addition to his CTO duties, Mr. Norton was also President of the NearTel Division, which was created to provide engineering consulting and professional services to the NEDD customer base.

Before joining New England Digital, Mr. Norton served as Vice President of Engineering for Henschel, Inc. Henschel, a division of L3 Communications, builds shipboard communications systems for Navy and Commercial Ships, and submarines. Prior to Henschel, Mr. Norton spent 12 years with GTE’s Spacenet International Division with responsibility for the design and implementation of complex satellite earth station communication systems for locations around the world. He began as an Applications Engineer and advanced to Project Engineer, Engineering Manager, and Director of Engineering. In his last year with GTE, Mr. Norton held the title of Director, Engineering and Program Management.

Mr. Norton attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), receiving both a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA).