1. ANTHONY DE BONO – MALTA - EUROPE
Ambassador De Bono presenting his credentials
to King Abdullah II – Jordan 8
th
December,
2010
In 2010, Anthony (Tony) De Bono was appointed Malta’s first Ambassador to Jordan.
This appointment followed an earlier successful nomination submitted by the
Government of Malta in 2007 for De Bono to take up the position of President of the
European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations which post
he had secured for two years and held office in Copenhagen. Ambassador De Bono
presented his Credentials to King Abdullah at Basman Palace in Amman on
Wednesday, 8
th
December 2010.
Mr De Bono, a former CEO of Telemalta Corporation, the Maltese Telecommunications
Services Provider, is also Chairman Emeritus of the Commonwealth
Telecommunication Organisation (CTO) and a perpetual Ambassador of the
organisation. He has served for more than 15 years as Malta’s Special Envoy to the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and was Malta’s candidate to contest
the post of Secretary General of the United Nations Agency, the International
Telecommunication Union. He is also Chairman of the Telecommunication Executive
Management Institute of Canada (TEMIC) Chapter for Europe, Middle East and North
Africa.
From 1971 to 1983 Mr. De Bono held the post of private secretary to three Ministers
of the Maltese Government with policy and executive level experiences in portfolios
ranging from Telecommunications, Health, Environment Industry, Agriculture,
Fisheries and National Infrastructural Development. During these twelve years De
Bono was instrumental in the rapid development and modernisation of the National
Health services. A notable achievement to the credit of Anthony De Bono during this
period was the organisation of Malta’s most renowned State Funeral for former
Prime Minister Dr George Borg Olivier. An assignment that had been delegated by
Prime Minister Dom Mintoff and Minister of Health Dr Vincent Moran.
He served as CEO of Telemalta Corporation from 1983-1997, with a brief to
modernise the telecommunications infrastructure of the Maltese Islands and to
project Malta in the International Telecommunications Arena. During his term of
office as CEO, Malta was singled out as the role model for telecommunications
development at the ITU World Telecommunications development Conference at
Buenos Aires in 1994. During this period he functioned as a director on the
Vodafone-Malta board of directors after having successfully introduced mobile
services in Malta in 1989, with Malta besides becoming the first country in Europe to
have a homogeneous 100 % digital switching and transmission network was also
the first country that Vodafone invested with, outside the UK. Ambassador De Bono
was a main protagonist in the 1989 Bush Gorbachev Summit in Malta, the Queen’s
Elizabeth and Pope John Paul’s visit in 1990 with personal responsibility for all local
and international communications and Broadcasting.
From 1997-2002, Mr. Anthony De Bono served as the Personal Consultant to the
Chairman of Maltacom (successor of Telemalta Corporation) and was concurrently
appointed as Deputy Chairman and Chairman of Maltapost, the National postal

2. services.
In 2002 and 2003 Mr. De Bono held the position of a Chairman of the European
Telecommunications Network Operators (ETNO), the strongest lobby for the industry
with the European Commission in Brussels.
In his tenure of office (2004-2006) as Chair of the CTO the organization has secured
the highest ever recognition by the Commonwealth Heads of Government at the
2005 Summit held in Malta, by virtue of which, the CTO is now a full member of the
Steering Committee tasked to implement the Commonwealth Action Programme for
the Digital Divide (CAPDD). De Bono was a key player in securing the UN’s World
Telecommunications Development Conference in 1998 and the CHOGM in 2005.
Mr De Bono was appointed Consultant to the Minister of Communications from 2006
to 2008 and eventually to the Prime Minister in 2012-13 with a remit to rescructure
the I.P.S.L.
Ambassador De Bono established his own Management Consultancy firm Anthony De
Bono & Associates serving prestigious local and international firms, including the
Tumas Group of Companies, Investcom Holdings, the Mikati Group in Lebanon,
Goldwater Italy, Recoma Group – Italy.
He is currently the Special Envoy of the Government of Ghana’s Minister of Trade and
Industry and Chairman of Handsonsystems, the leading Telemetric company in Malta
He is a founder Member and a Board Trustee of the Tumas Fenech Foundation for
Education in Journalism. For more than 15 years Mr De Bono was a regular
contributor in The Sunday Times of Malta on international telecommunications
development.
Anthony De Bono is a certified post graduate in Business management (University of
Brunel / Henley Management College) and an international telecommunication
consultant who travelled widely on special trade and diplomatic missions.
For four years (1986 – 1990) he has served as a Member of both the Engineering
and the Management faculty Boards of the University of Malta.
De Bono has had strong links with Sport. For six years (1989-1995) he was President
of the National Team Supporters Club when the Ta’ Qali stadium used to be the
centre of attraction during national football games.
For 20 years he was Chairman of the Community Chest Fund’s Sports Commission,
and Board Member of MCCF, working under four Presidents of Malta.
He is also the Honorary President of the Inter Club of Malta, but his close 10-year
association with the President, Victor Tedesco, during the historic and glorious era of
Hamrun Spartans ranks high in his notable achievements.
For eight years (2000-2008) he was Council Director and Secretary General of the
Malta Racing Club, enabling horse racing to reach its highest level of international
visibility. This achievement must have played a determining role for Mr De Bono to
be voted as the runner-up Sports Official of the Year in 2007.
In 2011 Mr De Bono was elected as Director of the Maltese Olympic Committee and
during his tenure established the Malta Lawn Bowls Federation which secured two
historic medals at the World Lawn Bowls Championships in Cyprus and Australia.
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