The Honourable Pennelope Beckles—commonly referred to as Penny—is a Trinidad and Tobago diplomat, politician and attorney-at-law.  From March 16, 2022, she has been serving as Minister of Planning and Development and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arima in East Trinidad.

Minister Beckles has an expansive political career, entering the Trinidad and Tobago Parliament in 1995 as an Opposition Senator. She has also served as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Arima and has held ministerial portfolios of Minister of Public Utilities and the Environment; Minister of Culture and Tourism; Minister of Social Development as well as Minister of Housing and Urban Development. Minister Beckles also served as the leader of Opposition Business in the Senate between June 2010 and December 2013 and on December 17, 2007 was the first female in the history of the Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to be elected as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In 2016, Minister Beckles was appointed Trinidad and Tobago’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Isaac Solomon is the Vice-President (Operations) at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). In that position, he provides leadership and direction to the Economics and Projects Departments and the Corporate Strategy Division. In addition, he spearheads the Bank’s engagement with its borrowing members and development partners.

Dr. Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon is the sixth President of Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the regional development finance institution based in Barbados. He was elected at a Special Meeting of the CDB Board of Governors held on January 19, 2021 for a five-year term, and assumed office on May 4, 2021.

Dr. Leon has over 30 years of experience in economic development and has directed macroeconomic and financial policy support to government authorities in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Caribbean.  He worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for more than 24 years, serving as Mission Chief for Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, The Bahamas, and the Gulf States of Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates, as well as IMF’s Senior Resident Representative in Jamaica and Nigeria.

Prior to his engagement with the IMF, Dr. Leon was an Associate Professor at State University of New York at Old Westbury in the United States. He has also served as Director of Research at the Central Bank of Barbados and Country Economist at CDB.

Dr. Leon holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Economics from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom (UK) and a Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc.) in Economics from the University of London also in the U.K.

Daniel Best is Director of the Projects Department at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). In this role, he is accountable for the management, pipeline development, appraisal and implementation of the Bank’s lending and technical assistance programmes across multiple sectors.

Since becoming Director in 2015, Daniel has been credited for consistently leading his team to deliver strong results, significantly contributing to the Bank’s achievement of its critical targets. Before being promoted to his current position, Daniel held various leadership roles within the Projects Department, through which he led teams to achieve impact through infrastructure development across the Caribbean Region.

Prior to joining CDB, Daniel was the Regional Project Manager for a multinational commercial financial institution, where he successfully led the implementation of the organisation’s regional infrastructure strategy. 

Daniel is a Civil Engineer with a Master of Business Administration from the University of Durham and a Project Management Professional with over 24 years of experience.

Away from the office, Daniel has become a central figure in Barbados’ performing arts scene, appearing in a number of stage, television and movie productions.

Janine Felson is an Ambassador of Belize and a senior advisor to the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on climate and ocean matters. For more than two decades, she has been a leading voice for small island developing states (SIDS) in key negotiations including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the intergovernmental conference for a new high seas treaty on marine biological diversity, with the aim of tailoring global policy to the specific needs and circumstances of SIDS. Janine is concurrently completing a fellowship with Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne-Australia  where she is focused on integrated approaches to global policy on climate, oceans, and sustainable development. 

Dr. Colin A. Young, a Belizean national, is the Executive Director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC) headquartered in Belize SINCE January 2020. Prior to his appointment at the CCCCC, Dr. Young served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Social Security Board, a parastatal entity that administers Belize’s Social Security Fund from 2017 to 2019 were he championed contribution reform, technology transformation and numerous legislative changes. Dr. Young also served as the CEO in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, the Environment, Sustainable Development where he had overall responsibilities for all of the portfolios, including climate change, other than agriculture as well as the CEO in the Ministry of Energy, Science and Technology and Public Utilities from 2012-2015. Dr. Young has served on numerous boards including the Green Climate Fund, a financial mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He holds both a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Connecticut in the United States.

Assumed the post of Director General, of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in May 2014.  In this capacity he is responsible for driving the regional integration thrust towards a single economic and social space involving ten Eastern Caribbean States.

Dr. Jules has had extensive regional and international experience, most of it focused on education, social policy and organizational transformation.  He served as Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Examinations Council (2008-2014) leading a thorough modernization of the Council.  He has also served as Vice President Human Resources Cable and Wireless St, Lucia (2005-2008); Permanent Secretary for Education & Human Resource Development St. Lucia (1997-2008) as well as Permanent Secretary for Education and Chief Education Officer in revolutionary Grenada from 1981-1983.

He has provided consultancy services to national governments, regional and international organizations in the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and North America.  He chaired the World Bank’s Vision 2020 Committee on Education in the Caribbean and has served on many private sector, educational, and philanthropic boards.  He holds a BA (hons) from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill, an MSc in Curriculum & Instruction and a PhD in Educational Policy and Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a MBA from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill.                      

He has authored numerous articles on educational policy, educational reform and adult education in the Caribbean and in small island states as well as other publications on public sector reform, organizational transformation and cultural studies.  His work includes chapters in several books published by Routledge (1991, 1994, 2010), SUNY Press (1993), Nova Publications (2006).