He ran Haiti’s first cellular network, which he saw as a way of raising the voices of ordinary citizens, in Haiti and the United States. He died of the novel coronavirus.
Bernard Fils-Aimé was a left-leaning activist and a corporate cellphone tycoon, and inhabiting those seemingly contradictory roles was a mark of his commitment to his home country, Haiti.
As an organizer of refugees in Miami, he fought for poor migrants fleeing poverty or political violence. And as a founder of Haiti’s first cellular network, he saw connectivity, which was previously out of reach for most Haitians, as an engine of democracy...
Mr. Fils-Aimé finished his bachelor’s degree and earned a master’s in education at Florida International University. He took a job as an administrator at Miami-Dade College, where he started a new student center in the early 1990s.
In 1995, a group of American investors wanted to launch a cellular network in Haiti and needed a local partner to satisfy regulators. They chose Mr. Fils-Aimé for his contacts. Though his initial role was to help acquire the license for what became Communication Cellulaire d’Haiti, or ComCEL, he rose to chief executive.
