CCELD Speakers
Mrs. Lisa Bell
Managing Director, National Export-Import Bank of Jamaica
Mistress of Cermony, Opening and Closing Events
Mrs. Lisa Bell is a qualified and proven professional with over twenty years of experience in providing financial, analytical and managerial expertise in both the private and public sectors. Having held key management positions in the Jamaican financial services sector and with Jamaica's National Investment and export promotion agency (JTI) and now as Managing Director of the National Export Import Bank of Jamaica, she brings to bear a unique combination of technical skills needed to provide expertise at the macro, meso and micro-level in areas relating to the business environment and improvement in the overall competitiveness of the country.
Having worked in the United States and with other multinational and multilateral organizations she holds an international perspective relevant to providing benchmarks and best practices required for business competitiveness. With sound interpersonal and communication skills and a positive public and professional image Mrs. Bell has been successful in developing, maintaining, and leveraging strategic private and public sector stakeholder relationships.
Lisa is an alumni of CCELD 2011
BRUCE BOWEN
Director, Duke of Edinburgh's Emerging Leaders' Dialogues Canada
Presentation Panelist
Over a 26-year career with Scotiabank International, during which he lived in Cayman Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico and Jamaica, Bruce Bowen rose to be Senior Vice President of Scotiabank's Caribbean operations from 2013 - 2016. In this capacity he had responsibility for banking, insurance and wealth management business lines across 20 countries.
During his time in the Caribbean Bruce has been active in promoting economic and social development in the region, serving on numerous financial industry, private sector and non-profit boards in a variety of countries. Based today in Toronto, he continues to support private sector clients and governments in the Caribbean
Dr. Andrea Clayton
Principal Lecturer, The Caribbean Maritime University
Facilitator for MODULE 3: Greening the Blue Economy
Dr Andrea Clayton is Principal Lecturer of Sustainable Development and Academic Research at the Caribbean Maritime University, Jamaica. Her research focuses on the Blue Economy and the future of work. She is currently an Association of Commonwealth Universities Fellow at Dalhousie University, Canada, where she is undertaking a policy-oriented study on preventing plastic pollution of the world's oceans. This involves examining environmental behaviour in order to design and implement effective behavioural shaping strategies. She has a number of publications on applications of systems thinking and human capital development. She holds degrees in economics and business management, a doctoral degree from Temple University, and is a trained facilitator.
Royann Dean
CEO, Royann Dean Consulting
Alumni Engagement speaker, Certificate Ceremony
Strategic Marketing Communication at the Intersection of Business + Creativity
Royann Dean is a strategic communication consultant and director at Royann Dean Consulting. She has two decades of experience in marketing, branding and PR, creating communication strategies for premium organizations like Heineken and Baha Mar, a USD $4.2 billion resort in Nassau, Bahamas.
She is a board member at the National Training Agency and a director at the Caribbean Institute of Certified Management Consultants (Bahamas). She is a former member of the Ease of Doing Business and Competitiveness and Innovation committees at the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers' Confederation.
Royann holds a bachelors in marketing from the University of Georgia and a masters in design management (HONS) from University of the Arts London. She holds certificates in Art as a Global Business and Alternative Investment from Sotheby's Institute of Art, and Storytelling for Business Influence from Ideo, a design firm.
Royann is an alumni of CCELD 2015
Agnes Di Leonardi
President, Emerging Leaders' Dialogues Canada
Welcome Address, Closing Dinner
Agnes is an alumna of the 1998 Canadian Duke of Edinburgh Study Conference and the current President of the Emerging Leaders' Dialogues Canada. Agnes Di Leonardi is an executive who has spent most of her career in the automotive industry assuming increasing levels of leadership responsibility. Agnes is General Counsel of Sym-Tech Dealer Services, Toronto Canada and formerly General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Mazda Canada Inc. with overall responsibility for legal compliance, corporate governance and government relations matters and a member of the Executive Team.
In June 2018, Agnes was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her leadership in the automotive industry and for her commitment to mentoring and supporting Canadian women leaders through her work with the International Women's Forum of Canada, a global organization with a mission to advance women's leadership. In 2016, Agnes was recognized as one of Canada's most respected GCs by The Legal 500 Canada GC Powerlist.
Dr. Carolyn Hayle
Senior Programme Officer, in the Office of Graduate Studies and Research, The University of the West Indies
MODULE 5 Creating Sustainable and viable culture-based tourism in the Caribbean
Dr. Hayle holds a PhD in Sustainable Development from the University of the West Indies with special emphasis on Sustainable Caribbean Tourism as well as a master's degree in business administration from Howard University in Washington D.C. She is a tenured Senior Lecturer at The University of the West Indies and a former Executive Director of Tourism Action Plan Ltd., Jamaica Heritage Trail Ltd. and HEART/NTA. Her eight-year placement with the World Bank and extensive residencies in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados combined to afford her a unique view of the Caribbean context of business.
Dr. Hayle was part of the consulting team that developed a regional Disaster Risk Management Strategy for the tourism sector in the Caribbean. She was also a member of the team that developed the Carrying Capacity Study for Jamaica's Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism. She has also developed guidelines for community tourism and market research on agro-tourism in Jamaica.
Prof. Sonia Laszlo
Director, The Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
Facilitator for MODULE 1: Fundamental principles for a Green Economy: from theory to practice
Prof. Sonia Laszlo is Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for the Study of International Development.
Her research expertise covers many aspects of applied microeconomic analysis in economic development. Specifically, she is currently working in two broad research areas: decision-making under uncertainty (namely concerning technology adoption among subsistence farmers) and the micro-economic effects of social policies and conditions (in the area of education, health and labour markets), with a focus on women.
Prof. Laszlo has conducted her research in Peru, Kenya and in the Caribbean, using laboratory experiments, surveys or randomized controlled trials.
She is also a member of the Centre Interuniversitaire de Recherche en Organizations (CIRANO) and the Grupo de Analysis para el Desarrollo (GRADE). In 2005 she co-founded and has since been an executive member of the Canadian Development Economics Study Group (CDESG), which groups both academic and policy development economists in Canada.
Her Excellency Laurie Peters
High Commissioner of Canada
Presentation Panelist
Laurie Peters has been Canadian High Commissioner to Jamaica and Bahamas with accreditation to the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands since September 2017.
Previously, she served in the Embassy of Canada to Japan, with responsibilities at different times for public affairs, international education and the culture industry.
She is an experienced public affairs leader, having served as Executive Director, Public Affairs in Ottawa and having held several directorships in that field, including with the Aga Khan Foundation Canada and Heritage Canada.
Dr. Andrew Spencer
Executive Director, The Tourism Product Development Company Limited
Tourism and Culture speaker, Opening Dinner
Dr Andrew Spencer is the Executive Director of the Tourism Product Development Company Limited, the agency responsible for the maintenance, development and enhancement of the tourism product in Jamaica.
Dr Spencer was the Director of the Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management (CHTM), University of the West Indies, Nassau Bahamas. Dr Spencer has given over 15 years of service to tertiary education in the Caribbean region. He was a lecturer in Tourism Management at the Mona School of Business and Management, and prior to this, was the Programme Coordinator for the M.Sc. National Security & Strategic Studies.
Dr. Spencer has published extensively in international journals and presented at conferences on the areas of the travel supply chain, tourism advertising effectiveness, small hotel competitiveness, and gender issues in the hospitality sector. His research interests also include drivers of technology adoption in developing countries, Critical Theory in adoption research and leadership
in the Caribbean tourism industries.
Dr. Éliane Ubalijoro
Professor of Practice, The Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
Facilitator for MODULE 2: 21st century: local harnessing of current and future challenges and opportunities
Eliane Ubalijoro, PhD, is the founder and executive director of C.L.E.A.R. International Development Inc., a consulting group harnessing global networks for sustainable systems development. She is a professor of practice for public and private sector partnerships at McGill University's Institute for the Study of International Development, where her research interests focus on innovation and sustainable development for prosperity creation.
Eliane teaches and advises in Leadership programs to help equip executives in international development with tools that support inner and outer sustainable transformation towards global prosperity. She was a facilitator in the International Health Leadership Development Programme (IHLDP) commissioned by the Kenya Red Cross and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance offered by Lancaster University's Management School. She teaches leadership in the International Parliamentary Executive Education program run by McGill University (in English) and by Universite Laval (in French) in conjunction with the World Bank Institute.
She also recently took part in several panels at the 2018 Next Einstein Forum Global gathering and the Gender Summit 14 Climate Change through the Gender Lens: Focus on Africa.
Professor the Hon. Ambassador Richard L. Bernal OJ
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Affairs, The University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies Welcome, Opening Dinner and Presentation Panelist
Ambassador Bernal is a senior associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC. He has worked in economic policy at the national, regional and international levels.
Dr. Bernal was Jamaica's ambassador to the United States and its permanent representative to
the Organization of American States. Prior to his diplomatic posting, Dr. Bernal was CEO of a commercial bank. He has also worked in the Bank of Jamaica (central bank) and
the Planning Institute/Agency of Jamaica
In addition to his extensive policy experience, Dr Bernal has published over 100 articles in scholarly journals, books, and monographs, as well as opinion editorials in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and the Miami Herald.
He is the author of three books, and he has appeared on The McNeil-Lehrer Report, CNN, PBS and BBC radio, and has been quoted in the prestigious Financial Times and the New York Times.
SIR TREVOR CARMICHAEL KA, LVO, QC
Director, Duke of Edinburgh's Emerging Leaders' Dialogues Canada
ELD Canada Welcome, Opening Dinner
Sir Trevor Carmichael KA, LVO, QC, is a member of the International Bar Association, the InterAmerican Bar Association, the International Tax Planning Association, the International Fiscal Association, a former Deputy Secretary General of the International Bar Association, a Life Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies in the United Kingdom and a Life Member of the commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association.
He serves as a Panel Member of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes of the World Bank in Washington, the Founder Chairman of the Barbados Youth Business Trust and the Chairman of the United World Colleges Selection Committee for Barbados. A former Visiting Professor of Caribbean Foreign Investment Law to the Florida State University Summer Programme at the University of the West Indies, he is a Trustee of Europhil in the United Kingdom, and sits on the Legal Affairs and Properties Committee of the International Council of Museums in Paris, France and is a Trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Association.
Prof. Anthony Clayton
Alcan Professor of Caribbean Sustainable Development in the Institute for Sustainable Development, University of the West Indies
Facilitator for MODULE 3: Innovation, social transformation and the future of work
Prof Clayton has been a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Environmental Strategy in the School of Engineering at the University of Surrey and the Institute for Studies of Science, Technology and Innovation in the School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the Adjunct Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Development in the Faculty of Business and Management and Special Advisor to the President at the University of Technology (UTECH).
Professor Clayton is the member of several advisory groups serving the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2009. He is also on the UK Government Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Chevening Scholarship Panel for Jamaica.
Christopher Denny
CEO, CARIBEE
Orientation Facilitator
As the CEO Consultant of the Mundo Finance Ltd, Denny has responsibility for establishing a new strategy and putting the company on a profitable footing. He is also the Chief Executive Officer at CariBEE where he offers focused 6-week training programs and project management solutions and support for medium to large corporations.
Denny has over 17 years in motivational training and training the trainer in Professional Sales, Public Speaking, Customer Experience Management and Leadership Development.
He developed five manuals and course outlines for the course schemata of Professional Training Systems course offerings. He was the Vice President for The Victoria Mutual Building Society and has worked at the Citi Bank and he completed a master's in business administration from Nova Southeastern University.
Senator Kavan A. Gayle, C.D.
President General Bustamante Industrial Trade Union
Presenter & Presentation Panelist
A strategic and visionary leader, Kavan Gayle has been at the helm of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, Jamaica's largest and most prominent Trade Union, since November of 2007. Commencing his Trade Union career in 1986 when he joined the BITU, his growth and development in the movement rapidly took him through many positions; from Research Officer, to Senior Negotiating Officer, then Assistant Island Supervisor, which preceded his appointment as Assistant General Secretary.
His vocation also includes working with Global Union affiliate Union Network International both regionally and internationally where he presently serves as an executive member of the Regional Committee of the Americas and a member of its Regional Management Committee.
Mr. Gayle is currently a member of several Administrative Boards, including the Jamaica Productivity Centre, Labour Advisory Committee, Labour Reform Commission and is an executive to the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions.
Joanne Hughes
Executive Director, Duke of Edinburgh's Emerging Leaders' Dialogues Canada
Opening Remarks, Orientation
Joanne Hughes is an innovative leader of non-profit organizations and as the Executive Director for Emerging Leaders' Dialogues Canada, brings her expertise in organizational development, project implementation, revenue diversification and stakeholder partnerships. Joanne is also a Director on the Association of Emerging Leaders' Dialogues.
In 2015 and 2016, Hughes was the Festival Producer for Ottawa Capital Pride, where she established the new organization's administrative office, received municipal and provincial grants, and offered 15 signature events, including the creation of the first QueerCon, featuring a diverse range of national queer performing and visual artists.
She has managed the operational requirements of an international secretariat, The Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management, and in this position liaised between foreign national ministries, the private sector, civil service organizations and donor agencies at senior levels in the planning and implementation of conferences and projects on public administration across the Commonwealth. This included the management of two biennial conferences in New Delhi and Malta, which included the Commonwealth Secretariat Minister's Forum.
Joanne is the founder of two cultural festivals; Fernfest which was created in 1995, and the Ottawa Lumière Festival, started in 2004, which was voted one of the summers best festivals by the National Post in 2009.
Jermaine D. Nairne
Policy Researcher at The University of the West Indies, Mona
Presentation Panelist
Jermaine D. Nairne is a Policy Researcher at The University of the West Indies, Mona in Kingston, Jamaica. He also teaches Political Science and Criminology at the University College of the Caribbean and the Management Institute for National Development, respectively.
He is a Justice of the Peace and serves on two Boards of Management, one for which he is the Chairman. Additionally, he is the Vice Chairman of the Youth Board at Church on the Rock, Kingston.
He is an avid lover of photography and gardening, both of which he considers therapeutic. His interests also lie in education, criminal justice, governance and public policy. He is also an Alumni Ambassador of The University of the West Indies. Jeraine is an alum of CCELD 2015.
Abhik Sen
Head of Innovation and Partnerships, Commonwealth Secreteriat
Guest Facilitiator for Modules 1 and 3
At the Commonwealth Secretariat, the inter-governmental organisation for 53 Commonwealth member states, Abhik is responsible for fostering innovation and digital transformation in partner- ship with governments, international organisations and others to enhance sustainable development in Commonwealth countries. Previously, as Head of Policy and Research with a focus on the development of young people, he helped develop evidence-based national policies and action plans, and frameworks for monitoring and evaluating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals in Commonwealth countries. Abhik is the lead author of the Global Youth Development Index and Report 2016, a ground-breaking evidence-based study on the state of young people in the world.
Abhik has also been a Managing Editor at The Economist Group as well as a newspaper editor in India. His analysis and commentary have been featured in The Economist, BBC, Guardian, The Times, and The Asian Age. He is a World Fellow at Yale University and a Policy Fellow
at the University of Cambridge.
Omar Sweeney
Managing Director, The Jamaica Social Investment Fund
Vote of Thanks, Opening Dinner
Mr. Sweeney currently holds the post of Managing Director at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) which is a lead project management arm for the Government of Jamaica. In his capacity as Managing Director, he has portfolio responsibility for the execution of several impactful social intervention and infrastructural projects within vulnerable communities across Jamaica. These Projects are funded by the Government of Jamaica, the World Bank, the European Union and the Caribbean Development Bank. Prior to his appointment at JSIF, Mr. Sweeney had served in senior leadership roles at the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
Mr. Sweeney also serves as the Deputy Chairman to the Prime Minister of Jamaica for the Zones Of Special Operations (also referred to as ZOSO) in Jamaica. In his capacity as Managing Director for the JSIF and Deputy Chairman for the ZOSO, he has spearheaded several successful social intervention initiatives which have helped to empower communities in the ZOSO areas of Jamaica.
Omar is an alum of CCELD 2011
Commodore Antonette Wemyss - Gorman
Commander of the Maritime, Air and Cyber Command, Jamaica Defence Force
Keynote Speaker, Opening Dinner
Wemyss-Gorman is the Commander of the Maritime, Air and Cyber Command, with oversight responsibility for the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard, the JDF Air Wing and the Military Cyber Corps.
In her previous appointments, Wemyss-Gorman served as Commanding Officer of the JDF Coast Guard, where she has spent the majority of her career, becoming the first sea-going female officer to serve in the JDF, and served as Navigating Officer onboard HMJS Paul Bogle from 1994 to 1997. In 1998, she was seconded to the Ministry of Transport and Works, where she was appointed deputy director of marine transport. Upon her return to the Coast Guard, Wemyss-Gorman was appointed to command an 82ft point class vessel in July 2002 and later, a 42m county class vessel ( HMJS Surrey).
In 2014, she became the first female in the JDF to attain the rank of Commander and later Captain (N) in May 2018. Antonette is an alumni of CCELD 2015.
