NEWPORT-born Philip Clarke, pictured, is helping to lead the re-building of the World Trade Centre's Telex system at its new location in Wall Street.

It is just one of several major contracts throughout the world that his company, Network Telex, has clinched since it was started from virtually nothing with help from the Prince's Trust.

He and his head of marketing, Stephanie Brehem, dined with Prince Charles and Mexican president Vicente Fox at the port of Vera Cruz's 100th anniversary celebrations.

At a meeting with young entrepreneurs there, the Prince said Mr Clarke was a man who has "made my whole year". The Prince was speaking at the launch of a new scheme to help young Mexi-cans start up in business and Mr Clarke was part of a UK trade delegation to Mexico that had earlier met the Prince.

"We started him off in business 12 years ago with a Telex machine and a typewriter," said Prince Charles. "Now he employs 83 people worldwide and was part of this high-powered delegation.

"That, ladies and gentlemen, made my whole year. It gives me a whole sense of reward and encouragement."

Network Telex - which supplies PC-based Telex systems and software - was invited to be part of the delegation after clinching a £33,000 deal with Mexico's largest company, oil giant Pemex. Network Telex has hundreds of installations throughout Wales including at the major ports of Cardiff, Newport , Milford Haven, Holyhead and Pembroke and at the Llanwern, Port Talbot, Ebbw Vale and Shotton steel works.

Telex remains a vital form of communication for shipping and oil companies and banks because - unlike some of its successors - it is a legal document. It is effectively an advanced form of Morse code

"You can't hack a Telex," said Mr Clarke. "You can't get at the data in the same way you can with an e-mail."

The firm has updated Telex with software that makes it compatible for stand-alone and networked PCs, instead of using a dedicated Telex machine.

The Vera Cruz celebration coincided with Network Telex's work on Wall Street for the World Trade Centre.

Its systems are also installed in the Sultan of Brunei's palace and are used by the President of Senegal and the British Antarctic Survey.

Mr Clarke was born in Newport in 1968 and moved to Bournemouth in 1990, as friends were in college there from Newport.

His parents ran Lliswerry post office and his mother's parents before that, until a couple years ago when they retired.

"I lived on a sofa at first in Bournemouth with a Newport friend , then got a job selling telecom equipment locally," he said. "I was asked about Telex by shipping customers and realized no one sold them but I could buy them, so I left to set up Network Telex in 1991 on my own with a part-time engineer.

"Sales went really well as we had the unique idea of sending Telex messages from a PC using a Telex modem across a PC network. We developed software and modem and sold it very well in the UK from Shetland to Cornwall. We also attended trade shows internationally."

The company then began selling through agents abroad. An office was opened in Dubai in 1999, from which the company has grown to supply 8,000 systems in 159 countries. Australia (Sydney) opened this January and South Africa (Johannesburg) last November.

"It keeps getting better," said Mr Clarke. "We supply many telecom companies who re-sell to their customers - for example Bahamas Telecom, Antigua Telecom and Brunei Telecom - so I have travelled to over 100 countries myself, which has always been a marvellous bonus to my work as I have been able to see the world and be paid for it."

He said meeting Prince Charles was a "brilliant" experience and a milestone in the 13th year of the company.