[June 01, 2005] Cedar Point Communications Founder George Kassas Appointed to U.S. Small Business Administration National Advisory Council Tweet DERRY, N.H., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- George Kassas, founder and executive vice president of Cedar Point Communications, Inc., the leader in integrated packet-based voice switching technologies for the cable industry, has been named to the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Kassas, who recently was announced as a finalist in the New Hampshire High Technology Council's Entrepreneur of the Year competition, has been appointed for a two-year term to the SBA's National Advisory Council. The Council is a group of 144 appointed volunteers, all business leaders from around the country, who provide expert advice, sound ideas and diverse opinions on current small business issues and on the effectiveness of small business programs to the SBA, the President and the Congress. "In my view, the success of the SBA's programs depends significantly on the contribution of the dedicated business leaders and concerned citizens who serve on our advisory councils," wrote Hector Barreto, administrator of the Small Business Administration, in naming Kassas to the position. "More than half of the employment and the gross domestic product of this country comes from the small business sector," said Kassas. "As Cedar Point has grown beyond the startup phase to the leader in its market space, we have gained experience and insights that could be of value to small business owners around the country. I'm pleased and equally honored to be able to contribute that knowledge to President Bush's efforts to strengthen the economy by promoting the interests of small businesses." A 20-year veteran of cable and telecommunications, Kassas founded Cedar Point in September 2000 to meet the cable industry's need for a simple, cost- effective telephony switch. Over the past year, the company has agreements with major cable operators throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America for deployment of its innovative, integrated SAFARI C(Cubed) Multimedia Switching System. As a board member of the New Hampshire High Tech Council and of two Industrial Advisory Committees at New Hampshire Technical Institute, Kassas has been active in promoting the Granite State as a technology incubator. He spoke on the positive effects of the Bush administration's economic policies during a stop last year by the President, and hosted FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Sen. John Sununu, Gov. Craig Benson and the governors of Hawaii, Ohio and Rhode Island at Cedar Point's Derry headquarters. Kassas worked at Lucent Technologies prior to founding Cedar Point, leading the formation and establishment of the global business operations and e-commerce of the Lucent InterNetworking division and overseeing divisional marketing activities in Europe and the Middle East. Kassas has a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research with a minor in large-scale mathematical programming. He also holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts. About Cedar Point Communications Cedar Point Communications' totally integrated voice and multimedia switches provide cable system operators with cost-efficient, less complex voice-over-IP alternatives to distributed soft-switching cable telephony options. Cedar Point's SAFARI C(Cubed) Multimedia Switching System is a PacketCable(TM)-qualified, Carrier Class Cable (C "Cubed") solution that supports legacy circuit and PacketCable(TM) voice services, as well as video telephony and non-traditional SIP-based devices. The company is based in Derry, NH. For more information, please visit http://www.cedarpointcom.com/. PacketCable(TM) is a trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Cedar Point Communications, Inc. CONTACT: Paul Schneider, PSPR, Inc., +1-215-702-9784, [email protected], forCedar Point Communications, Inc. Web site: http://www.cedarpointcom.com/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]