There will be a new man at the helm of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) from May 1.
William Warren Smith officially assumes office as the fifth President of CDB, the regional development finance institution based in Barbados. Smith was elected at a special meeting of the CDB Board of Governors held on October 29 , to succeed Dr Compton Bourne, who officially demits office on April 30.
At the time of his election, Dr. Smith was acting in the capacity of Vice-President (Operations) at CDB. His substantive position on taking up that acting appointment from August 16, 2010, was Director, Finance and Corporate Planning. Smith first joined CDB in 1985 and was seconded by the Bank in 1987 to set up the corporate planning function at the regional airline, LIAT (1974) Limited. He subsequently served as Chief Executive Officer of LIAT, before returning to CDB in 1998.
A national of Jamaica, Smith has also held high-level positions at a number of other institutions. These include Director of the Economics and Planning Division at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica; Acting Director of the Investment Analysis Division of the Jamaica National Investment Company; Chief Executive Officer, Prudential Stock Brokers Ltd.; and Vice-President, Investments at Life of Jamaica Limited, which was then the largest life insurance company in the Caribbean.
Since 2008, he has been a Director of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility. (PR)
