Michael Mansoor is the Chairman of FirstCaribbean International Holdings. He was previously president and CEO of CIBC West Indies Holdings. He is a chartered accountant and former partner at Ernst & Young in Trinidad and Tobago and has an extensive background in corporate finance and planning. He held senior executive positions with the ANSA McAl Group and was also an independent Senator of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago from 1987 to 1995. During his tenure in the Senate, he was often involved in legislation related to economic, finance and general business development.

 In 1966, he was awarded the Open Island Scholarship in languages for being top student in Trinidad. He then studied in Canada, receiving the Chartered Accountant designation in 1972, and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario in 1974, and was placed on the Dean's Honour List.

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Rolf Phillips has been the Managing Director, Retail Banking with FirstCaribbean International Bank for the past three years. Retail Banking encompasses responsibility for 67 branch operations in 16 Caribbean countries and includes Wealth Management and Small Business. He has more than 30 years of diverse banking experience.

He previously served as General Manager of FirstCaribbean's Mortgage business within Retail Banking. During his career with the Bank, he also held senior roles as Sales & Performance Director of Wealth Management and as Wealth Managing Director for the Cayman Islands Wealth Management business.

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Richard L. Sealy is a Civil Engineer by training and has been the Minister of Tourism for Barbados since January 2008.

Mr. Sealy holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. He has served on the Film Censorship Board, the Engineering Registration Board as well as the National Assistance Board in addition to being a member of the Barbados Cancer Society. 
  
His passion for politics is based on the premise that "To whom much is given, much is expected," and he firmly believes that every Barbadian who has been blessed with special skills and developed specific competencies would do well to use those gifts in service of their country.
 
 
Mr. Sealy was first elected as an opposition MP in May 2003. In that Parliament (2003-2008) he shadowed several portfolios including:

1. Industry and International Business
2. Foreign Trade
3. Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development
4. International Transport
5. Health

A former Vice President of the Democratic Labour Party he currently serves as:

• Member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
• Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Policy

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The Hon. Freundel Jerome Stuart, Q.C., M.P. was born on the 27th day of April, 1951 at the parish of St. Philip.

After receiving his primary education first at the St. Mark’s Boys’ and, later the St. Martin’s Junior School, he entered the Boys’ Foundation School where he received his secondary education.  On leaving the Boys’ Foundation School in 1969 he went to work as a teacher of Spanish and History at the Princess Margaret Secondary School.

While still a teacher, he registered as a part-time student at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in 1971.  He graduated in 1975 with the Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in Political Science and History.

In 1977, he entered the Faculty of Law of the University of the West Indies where he graduated in 1980 with the Bachelor of Laws degree with honours.  Between 1980 and 1982 he read for the Master of Laws degree in Public International Law where he specialized in the Nature and Sources of International Law;  Law of the Sea;  and International Law as it relates to Foreign Private Investment and the New International Economic Order.

Between 1982 and 1984 he read for the Legal Education Certificate at the Hugh Wooding Law School and was admitted to the Bar of Barbados.  He practised as a defence lawyer from 1984 until January, 2008.

The Hon. Freundel J. Stuart, Q.C., M.P., became a Member of Parliament for the Constituency of St. Michael South in January, 2008 and served as Deputy Prime Minister, Attorney General and Minister of Home Affairs until his appointment as Prime Minister on 23rd October, 2010.  Prior to this, Mr. Stuart served as a Senator during the period 2003 – 2007 and as Member of Parliament for St. Philip South during the period 1994 – 1999.

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Marcia Brandon  
Executive Director, Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT)

Marcia Brandon is a Jamaican who has lived and worked in Barbados for the past 17 years.  An experienced, professional youth business development practitioner, Marcia has been the Executive Director of the Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT) for the past twelve (12) years.  Marcia has worked innovatively and creatively over the years, with the support of the Trust’s Boards and many partners to build BYBT into a best practices model which is recognized nationally, regionally and globally. She is a youth entrepreneurship development trainer, advisor, researcher and writer and to date has authored numerous articles on youth entrepreneurship development.  Her expertise is always in demand and this demand has increased tremendously over the years as youth entrepreneurship development becomes the recognized non-traditional instrument which governments and countries are using to fight youth unemployment.

As a social development practitioner Marcia is involved in many voluntary activities, a role she enjoyed in Jamaica and continued on relocating to Barbados.  She spends time working with persons in crisis; mentoring regional young entrepreneurs and youth business programs managers; HIV/AIDS affected and infected individuals, ex-offenders and with the youth in general.  She was a member of the management committees for both The Block centre and The Samaritans. 

Other social development positions include:

• Committee member – Canada Caribbean Disaster Risk Management Fund
• Consultant –  Youth Entrepreneurship Development
  
• Consultant – Business mentoring
  
• Regional Business Labs Trainer – Young Americas Business Trust
  
• Advisory Board member – SEED Project- UWI-Cave Hill Campus
  
• Judge – BIDC Business Plan Competition
  
• Judge – TIC Americas Business Plan Committee
  
• Member – OAS Scholarship Committee
  
• Regional Coordinator – Caribbean Group of Youth Business Programs – IADB Regional project
  
• Past Director – Small Business Development Venture Capital Fund
  
• Past Judge – Prime Minister’s  Innovation Competition
  
• Founding Director - Caribbean Microfinance Network         
• Barbados Association of Non-Governmental Organizations’ Coordinator for Youth Enterprise and Grant Funding for Civil Society
  
• Student Liaison Officer for Jamaica Association of Students at Cave Hill, for the Jamaican Association of Barbados
• Member of the Micro-Enterprise Working Group for the OECS
• Member- Career Road Show- Tourism Education, Awareness and Me (TEAM)

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Wismar A. Greaves
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL)

Mr. Wismar A. Greaves is Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL), the largest property and casualty insurer in Barbados.  He managed  the institution through its transition from a State Corporation  through its privatization to being a publicly held company listed on the Stock Exchange of Barbados today. In the last two years he has applied his unique style to the introduction of  the writing of individual life insurance business  at ICBL. Previously, Mr.  Greaves served as  Deputy Chairman  of the National Insurance Board of Barbados and the Barbados National Bank.In addition to his post at ICBL,  he serves as a Director  of several Captive Insurance and Reinsurance Companies based in Barbados and Vermont.

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Indra Haraksingh (Ph.D.)
Lecturer, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago

Dr. Indra Haraksingh has distinguished herself as a Caribbean specialist in Solar Energy and one of premier women in the Energy Sector. She lectures in the Department of Physics at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad and her focus is in Pure Physics, Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, including Geophysics, Earth Materials, Earth Processes and Seismology. She has recently started a research group in Geothermal Energy.

Dr. Haraksingh is a founding member and President of the Caribbean Solar Energy Society, the Trinidad & Tobago Solar Energy Society, and a member of the Steering Committee of the World Renewable Network. She is member of the Cabinet appointed Renewable Energy Committee of Trinidad and Tobago and Renewable Energy Committee of the University of the West Indies. She has conducted training workshops in renewable energy technologies to a wide cross-section of professionals in the region, including teachers, accountants, hoteliers and electricity utility specialists. She is a proposed member of the Environmental Commission of Trinidad & Tobago.

On numerous occasions Dr. Haraksingh has represented the Caribbean region at international fora, such as the Overseas Countries and Territories Association (OCTA) conference in Brussels, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) organization, serving as a Specialist at the “International Conference: Social Cohesion and Sustainable Development” in Cancun, Mexico. She recently participated in the “European Union – Latin America and the Caribbean Forum – Technology Cooperation, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency – Frameworks, Strategies, Perspectives” on invitation by the German Government. This was a preparatory meeting for the EULAC Summit in Madrid in May 2010.

Dr. Haraksingh is part of collaborations with several universities, including Florida State University, Universities of Auckland, Flensberg, Bangladesh and others. She heads the Organisation of American States (OAS) project on Alternative Energy Education Dissemination involving Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Belize.

For over fifteen years Dr. Haraksingh has been serving as Chair of the Trinidad and Tobago Mathematics Olympiad and during this period she led Trinidad and Tobago National teams to the International Mathematics Olympics (IMO) in many countries in the World, the most recent being Kazakhstan, where one of the students won a Silver medal, the first ever for Trinidad & Tobago, having won four Bronze medals at previous International Mathematics Olympiads.

She has been specially featured in the Earth Conscious magazine as Champion of the Earth and in the Inaugural issue of CARICOM Energy programme newsletter: Featured Personality of the Quarter. In July 2002 Dr. Indra Haraksingh was honoured as the Recipient of the Outstanding Scientist Award at World Renewable Energy Congress in Cologne, Germany, and in July 2008 she was presented with the International Pioneer Award for Solar Energy at the Tenth World Renewable Energy Congress held in Glasgow, Scotland.

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Robert Le Hunte
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Barbados National Bank Inc. Group

Mr. Le Hunte has worked in the financial services sector for over 20 years, many of which were spent with Republic Bank Limited, parent company of the Barbados National Bank Inc. At Republic, Mr. Le Hunte served in several capacities including Group Treasurer and Senior Corporate Manager, Trade Finance. Mr. Le Hunte is currently President of The Barbados Bankers’ Association and Immediate Past Chairman of the Caribbean Association of Indigenous Banks. Mr. Le Hunte is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Manchester and a Masters of Science in Accounting from UWI St. Augustine. He also recently completed the Advance Management Program at Harvard Business School in May 2010.

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Colin E. Jordan
President, The Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA)

Colin is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and Revans University/International Management Centres Association, where he gained his Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Accounting with Upper Second Class Honours and his MSc. Tourism Management, respectively, Colin Jordan is no stranger to the tourism industry.

His career in tourism started in 1993 when he joined St. James Beach Hotels, now Elegant Hotels Group, as Senior Accountant at Tamarind Cove Hotel and then Controller at Colony Club Hotel.

He subsequently moved to Asta Beach Hotel, now Amaryllis Beach Resort and part of the Palm Beach Hotel Group, where he held positions of Financial Controller, Director of Finance, Administration & Human Resources, and ultimately Chief Executive Officer. In January 2007, the former Harrisonian joined Presto Caribbean Group (Dover Beach Hotel/Refrigeration & Electrical Services Ltd) as Managing Director, where he also assumed responsibility for developing and leading the marketing and environmental initiatives for the hotel and played a major role in the re-positioning of the hotel after major renovations.

During the last eight years, Jordan has also played an active role in the BHTA, serving as Vice-President Finance/Board Member for seven years and for one year as President-Elect. He has also served on the Association’s Government Affairs and Labour Relations Committees.
Married to Charmaine and the father of Chelsea and Courtney, the Director of Business Development at the Mango Bay Group, says his business objective is to use his passion for business and economic development and his accounting and hospitality experience to assist in developing and improving business organisations within the tourism industry in particular, and the Barbados economy in general.

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Ambassador Gail M. Mathurin
Director General, Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN)

Ambassador Gail M. Mathurin, CD succeeds Ambassador Henry Gill as Director General of the Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) of the CARICOM Secretariat, formerly the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM). Prior to this, Ambassador Mathurin was Permanent Secretary, and Head of the Foreign Service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica.

Ambassador Mathurin was educated at the University of the West Indies and in subsequent years also attended the Hemispheric Trade Issues and the Trade Policy courses at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.

A career Foreign Service Officer in the Jamaican Foreign Service since 1979, Ambassador Mathurin has undertaken several key diplomatic assignments including: Permanent Representative to the United Nations and its specialised agencies at Geneva, and the World Trade Organisation where she was also Coordinator of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group in the WTO Doha Negotiations, Geneva, and concurrently Ambassador non-resident to Austria, Greece, Egypt, Italy and High Commissioner to Cyprus. Other assignments included: Senior Director and later Under Secretary Trade Division and Ambassador for External Negotiations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Jamaica, Ambassador non-resident concurrently to the Federal Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Argentina and the Republic of Uruguay, High Commissioner of Jamaica to the United Kingdom and concurrently Ambassador non-resident to Portugal, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Spain, Minister, Deputy Permanent Representative Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the OAS, Washington D.C.

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Dr. Winston Moore
Lecturer, The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill

Dr. Winston Moore is a Lecturer in Economics at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus (2006–present).  He currently also serves as the President of the Barbados Economics Society.  Dr. Moore’s research has focused on three major areas in economics: Industrial Economics, Tourism Economics and International Macroeconomics, publishing more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals and books.  His research has appeared in major tourism journals such as Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Economics and Tourism Analysis.  Dr. Moore holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Surrey; a MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick, and; a BSc in economics from the University of West Indies, Cave Hill (First Class Honours).

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Francesca Shaw
Chief Financial Officer, FirstCaribbean International Bank

Ms. Shaw serves as Regional Chief Financial Officer for FirstCaribbrean International Bank. Prior to FirstCaribbean, Ms. Shaw spent nearly two decades of her banking career at CIBC in various senior roles across multiple divisions, including retail lending, Canadian project office and finance. She became Chief Accountant in 2004 and was at the centre of managing CBIC through several of the most challenging times the bank has faced in its long history. When CIBC acquired FirstCaribbean, she played a key role during the integration and consolidation process. Ms. Shaw began her career at the chartered accounting firm, Ernst and Young. Ms. Shaw received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto. She is a chartered accountant.

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Dr. Basil G.F. Springer

Dr. Basil G. F. Springer is a Barbadian who trained as a mathematician, statistician and operations research scientist in Jamaica, Wales and London, England. He obtained his PhD at Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London.  He practiced as a Biometrician in the Faculty of Agriculture, UWI, Trinidad; the Caribbean Community Secretariat; Food & Agriculture Organization; and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, between 1968/77.

He was a Management Consulting pioneer (1977) in Barbados and established Systems Caribbean Limited which was sold, in 2000, to local interests as the largest indigenous business development consulting firm in the Caribbean.  During this period he specialized in Project Management primarily in the areas of Agricultural Development and Tourism Linkages to other sectors in Caribbean economies.

Dr. Springer, as a Consultant with the Caribbean Development Bank (1998-2001), had a mandate to establish an initiative to diversify the economies in the Caribbean by developing what are now called ‘sunrise’ enterprises to replace the fading ‘sunset’ industries such as commodity sugar and bananas.  To this end he established and now leads the charge, as a change-engine consultant, with the private sector-led Caribbean Business Enterprise Trust Inc. (CBET).

Dr Springer has been lead facilitator at many Strategic Visioning Retreats and was lead consultant in developing several business plans for the sugar cane, cotton, agri-business, renewable energy, recreation, enterprise development, media, sports, ICT, financial services, health, education and film sectors. He has been recently involved with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry in facilitating a Strategic Visioning Retreat and subsequently an Action Plan for the Bridgetown Revitalisation Initiative to create a new Bridgetown Barbados Brand based on Centres of Excellence.

CBET has repositioned itself to promote The CBET Shepherding Model™, www.cbetmodel.org, as a necessary and sufficient strategy for sustainable economic development in any given emerging nation. CBET is legally domiciled is in St. Lucia.

Now that the CBET model has been demonstrated to be a useful model, Dr. Springer is leading CBET into an Enterprise Development mode. This initiative is characterised by the effective optimal partnership between CBET, the Government and the Private Sector of a sovereign country. The model combines the entrepreneurial opportunity, business systems, shepherding and quick response seed and venture capital as the entrepreneur embarks on a journey from business concept to sustainable business success. The prototype of this model is being tested in Barbados, Barbados Business Enterprise Corp. (BBEC or Bimventures www.bimventures.com.), before it is aggressively promoted in the Caribbean and beyond. The Barbados Quick Response Venture Capital Fund was launched in November 2009 and there are ten emerging businesses which are now part of the Bimventures family and 50 others waiting in the pipeline.

In September 2010 he received a Community Award from the Barbados Small Business Association for his introduction of the Shepherding model to be business landscape of Barbados; the formation of a venture capital entity; as well as his long standing contribution to the small business sector as evidenced by his various lobbying and educational activities.

He is a member of the E-Team, a group of ten local and international volunteers, which was established in 2009 to promote Barbados as the #1 Entrepreneurial Hub in the World by 2020 through a series of eleven Summits and Award Ceremonies.  The inaugural event in this context is the Barbados National Entrepreneurship Summit in November 2010.

He was Co-Executive Producer of “Hit for Six” a full length feature film produced by the Barbadian company Blue Waters Productions Inc. which had its world première in April 2007. Hit For Six!  – a Caribbean film about Love, Scandal and Triumph over adversity, won three awards at the Bridgetown Film Festival (May 2007), was screened at the American Black Film Festival (Oct 2007) in Hollywood; received rave reviews in Washington DC at the prestigious American Film Institute (Nov 2007); and was an official selection at the Pan African Film Festival at the Magic Johnson Theatre in Los Angeles (Feb 2008). The film, which has attracted much international interest, was chosen as an official selection at the 20th anniversary of the prestigious National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta (July 2008).  It was showcased by Caribbean Tales Worldwide Distribution Inc. at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2010.

He was a founder of the Smart Partnership Business Link for the Commonwealth and beyond. In this context, he has shared ideas and reviewed experiences in many Smart Partnership International Dialogues and on other occasions in London, South East Asia, Africa and the Caribbean over the last 15 years.  In June 2010 he was awarded CPTM’s highest honor the “2010 Companion of CPTM”.

Dr. Springer was Chairman, Barbados Agricultural Marketing Corporation (1981/4).  He was Chairman, Barbados National Productivity Council (1996/2001), was Deputy Chairman, Barbados National Bank (1994/2003) and a member of other public and private sector boards.

In 1999 he received the Jubilee Award from the Guild of Graduates, Barbados Branch, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill; and in 2004, the Kwanzaa award as an Exemplar for the Principle of Self Determination from the Barbados Commission for Pan African Affairs.  
He was founder President of the Barbados Cancer Society and served in that capacity over the period 1980-2000.  He served on the Council until 2006. He was a founding director of The Caribbean Institute of Certified Management Consultants (CICMC) which is a full member of the International Certified Management Consultants Institute (ICMCI). He is Immediate Past President of the Barbados Society of Technologists in Agriculture.

He is a regular public speaker, a weekly newspaper columnist (since 1993). In 2008, after 21 years of service through the Rotary Club of Barbados South, he was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world. He is a founding Trustee of the Barbados Queen Elizabeth Hospital Trust (Jan 2007). He attended the 8th World Scout Jamboree at Niagara on the Lake in 1955 and was awarded the Queen’s Scout Badge in 1958.

He was founder Chairman of The Future Centre Trust in 1995 following the UN SIDS conference in Barbados in 1994 out of which came the Barbados Programme of Action. The Future Centre Trust promotes The Future Centre as a fully fledged educational and recreational tourism attraction that will foster holistic environmental (spiritual, physical, economic, social and cultural) sustainability in the years to come (www.futurecentretrust.org).  He retired from the Chairmanship in 2009.

Dr. Springer is a Director of  the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) which has hosted 19 international events, organized by his son Bevan, since its inception in 2001 (www.caribbeanmediaexchange.com and www.cmexmedia.org).   In the 2000 Independence honours, Dr. Springer was awarded the Order of Barbados, Gold Crown of Merit (GCM).

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Donna Wellington
FirstCaribbean International Bank

Donna Wellington is the Industry Specialist – Hospitality, for Investment Banking at FirstCaribbean International Bank. Donna joined the Bank five years ago, and has been tasked with providing financing to large hospitality projects, and acting in an advisory role to assist those in the industry who approach the Bank for financing. The deals contemplated by Donna’s clients have ranged from project financing and construction of new builds to hotel acquisitions and refinancing. To date Donna has worked on deals financed by FirstCaribbean totaling over US$250M with development costs of approximately US$600M. Donna successfully arranged these deals through direct bank funding as well as syndicated lending.  Most recently Donna has been involved in several restructuring assignments for clients facing difficulty in the region’s difficult economic environment.

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