ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Two of the three shareholder governments of the regional airline, LIAT, say they are not in favour of Dr. Jean Holder resigning as chairman of the airline.
Holder last week announced that he was stepping down after six years on the job. In a brief statement, LIAT said Holder had submitted his resignation as director and chairman to the Barbados government, one of the three shareholder governments of the airline.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who is chairman of the three-member shareholder governments, told Observer Radio today that he and his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart, Baldwin Spencer were not in favour of Holder stepping down.
“I really don’t want Jean Holder to resign as chairman. Incidentally neither does Baldwin Spencer. I was to speak yesterday to my friend Prime Minister Freundel Stuart of Barbados, did not get him, but I will try to do so today,” Gonsalves said, adding that Barbados is the leading shareholder in LIAT with 49 per cent of the shares.
“You have in this situation two prime ministers who don’t want Jean Holder to resign as chairman and I don’t know what the position of the Barbados Prime Minister though I will wager that he is satisfied with Jean Holder’s work also,” Gonsalves said, adding that he has told Holder to put the resignation on hold.
In addition, Gonsalves said that while Holder would have been within his right to tender his resignation as a director of LIAT to the Barbados government that appointed him in the first place, his letter of resignation as chairman would have had to be sent to him as chairman of the shareholders.
“I said to him in jest, my brother Jean if there is something that has troubled you for whatever reason I take your letter…as a kind of cleansing…let’s read it like that and let’s not go down the road of resignation we are satisfied with his work.”
Gonsalves said he also pointed out to Holder that the airline was at a critical stage of its development and it would be difficult to get a replacement with the work attitude and commitment that he has brought to the job.
“He is very much in the front with the strategic thinking for LIAT’s fleet renewal and for LIAT’s fleet expansion,” Gonsalves said, adding that there were also “some residual matters on the industrial relations front.
“Across the board people are satisfied with Jean Holder, “he said, adding that “there must have been something that jolted his resignation.
Gonsalves said he is not aware whether or not recent discussions in the region regarding the Barbados-based low budget carrier, REDjet, “would have made him…down pressed”. (CMC)