We are very excited that we have been able to engage the services of some of the best international and local speakers to motivate, educate and entertain for our general sessions and optional workshops. 
Our speaker's include:

Senator Hon. Lisa Cummins

Whither Tourism
Friday November 13, 2020 at 8:35 am

Senator and Minister of Tourism and International Transport. Honourable Lisa Cummins has served as a diplomat and as Executive Director of the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries. During her 10-year diplomatic career, she worked at the Headquarters of the Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade as well as in the Barbados Embassy in Washington D.C.  She also served as Trade Adviser for the Commonwealth Secretariat to the Government of Uganda and the wider East African region, as Uganda’s lead technical adviser on trade in services. In that capacity, she was a member of the negotiating team for services in the East African Community trade talks with Europe and the EAC Common Market and has worked on projects in East and Southern Africa for several development partners including the World Bank, UNCTAD, the European Union and Trade Mark East Africa. She also serves on multiple boards regionally and internationally, in Barbados and across the region.

On 31 May 2018, Ms. Cummins was appointed a Government Senator. 

On 23 July 2020, Ms. Cummins was appointed Minister of Tourism International Transport.

Dr. Patrick Njoroge

Digital Economy
Thursday November 12, 2020 at 9:30 am

Dr. Patrick Njoroge is the ninth Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), and has been in office since June 19, 2015. He has overseen a significant overhaul of the banking system in Kenya, including the launch of the first Kenya Banking Sector Charter. He also led the country in the launch of the new generation currency banknotes and coins, thus fulfilling a much-anticipated constitutional requirement. Dr. Njoroge has been keen on facilitating the growth of the Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (MSME) sector, which has been the engine of growth of the Kenyan economy.
Dr. Njoroge joined CBK after a twenty-year career at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC. Prior to his appointment as Governor, Dr. Njoroge was Advisor to the IMF Deputy Managing Director from December 2012, where his responsibilities included assisting in overseeing the IMF’s engagement with a large swath of IMF members. He also served as Deputy Division Chief in the IMF’s Finance Department (2006-2012), IMF’s Mission Chief for the Commonwealth of Dominica (2005-2006) and in other capacities since 1995. Prior to joining the IMF, Dr. Njoroge worked as an Economist at the Ministry of Finance (1993-1994) and as a Planning Officer at the Ministry of Planning (1985-1987).
He holds a PhD degree in Economics from Yale University (1993), a Master of Arts degree in Economics (1985) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics (1983) from the University of Nairobi. Dr. Njoroge’s professional and research interests lie in Macroeconomics, Economic Policy, International Finance, Development Economics, Econometrics and Monetary Policy.
Dr. Njoroge began his second four-year term in June 2019. He was appointed to the UN Task Force on Digital Financing by Secretary General Antonio Guterres in November 2018.

Chad Davis

Transforming Business to Address Disruption:
How One Canadian CPA Runs His Firm Virtually
Thursday November 12, 2020 at 10:30 am

Chad Davis is the Co-Founder of LiveCA LLP, a Canadian CPA firm that has operated without an office since 2013. LiveCA serves some of Canada's most interesting companies and has experimented with multiple ways to serve them over the years.

Sylvia Dohnert


Thursday November 12, 2020 at 11:50 am

Dr. Sylvia Dohnert is a Private Sector Lead Specialist at the Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation Division of the Inter-American Development Bank and Compete Caribbean Executive Director since November 2012. The Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility (CCPF) is a multi-donor facility of US$22.5 million in support of the development of business climate reforms, cluster initiatives; and technology adoption and innovation in the private sector across the Caribbean. The objective is to stimulate economic growth by increasing productivity within organizations. The CCPF is the second phase of the Compete Caribbean program, which Sylvia led between 2012 and 2017.
Prior to her assignments in the Caribbean, Sylvia worked as a researcher and private sector development consultant across Latin America. She also created, and over four years led an economic development agency in the third largest municipality in Venezuela. Sylvia has done extensive research on industrial policy and is an editor of the recently published monograph: “Exploring firm-level productivity and innovation in developing countries: The perspective of Caribbean Small States”.
Dr. Dohnert holds a Ph.D. in Economic Development and Regional Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Zia Paton

Data Intelligence
Thursday November 12, 2020 at 11:50 am

Zia Paton is a Partner in PwC Trinidad with over 24 years of experience working with clients in the public and private sectors locally and regionally. As a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Zia started her career in the accountancy field working on audit and accounting projects for major companies primarily in the Oil and Gas sector.
Today, Zia leads the Consulting Practice in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. She plays a lead role in delivering Digital Service across the Caribbean Region and is deeply connected across the PwC Global Network. Zia’s specific delivery focus is in People and Change aspects associated with Digital Transformation working closely alongside deep digital technical experts and software vendors. Zia is currently working with multinational teams on a number of ICT initiatives in the Caribbean across a range of sectors.
She is the Chair for the Digital Transformation Committee of the American Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago. In addition to being a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Zia holds a Master of Business Administration from the Heriot-Watt University in the UK.

Graeme Tennick

Resilient Accountants
Thursday November 12, 2020 at 11:50 a.m.

Graeme Tennick having initially trained within a similar small practice for over five years before moving on to roles within PricewaterhouseCoopers and senior roles with public sector he formed the practice Graeme Tennick & Co. Accountants in 2012.
Graeme is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, is on the North East Counties Members Panel of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has vast experience of having working alongside some of the largest companies in the world whilst also assisting start-ups.
It was these very different experiences that led Graeme to identify a gap in the market whereby people wanted to deal with people in language they understood when it came to accountancy.  They wanted a pro-active modern approach that would in monetary terms improve their lives and this was the foundation with which Graeme built the existing practice.

Ian Durant

Securing a More Resilient Future Through a Diversified Economy
Friday November 13, 2020 at 10:50 a.m.

Ian Durant is currently Director (Acting) of the Economics Department of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and was previously Deputy Director and Economist on the Bank. He has done research on debt sustainability and debt restructuring and has worked on policy-based loans for Caribbean countries that involved debt restructuring. Prior to joining CDB, Ian worked in the Research Department of the Central Bank of Barbados. He also worked at the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Center (CARTAC) as Macroeconomics Advisor, where he managed technical assistance and capacity building in the area of macroeconomic programming and policy. Ian has a B.Sc. from the University of the West Indies, Barbados and a M.Sc. from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.        

Sheena Mayers-Granville

The Future of Work - Embracing Change
Friday November 13, 2020 at 10:50 a.m.

Sheena Mayers-Granville assumed the leadership of the Barbados Employers' Confederation (BEC) as Executive Director, on September 1, 2017. The first female to hold this position.
Shenna is a human resources and industrial relations professional with over 10 years of experience who is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence. Her passion for people development is pursued through teaching in the Executive Diploma programme at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business. Sheena’s diverse portfolio of projects includes conducting labour market research, writing newspaper and magazine articles, chairing tripartite committees, preparing guidance on various labour issues and leading organisational development initiatives.
During the period March 2011 – May 2015, Sheena held the position of Labour Management Advisor with the BEC, which saw her heavily involved in the management and negotiation of Collective Labour Agreements amongst other responsibilities.
Sheena holds a Masters in Labour and Employment Relations, a BSc in Management and a Level 4 CVQ in Assessment. She is a member of the Society of Human Resources Management and the Human Resources Management Association of Barbados.

Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace

Tourism in the Caribbean: The Way Forward
Friday November 13, 2020 at 10:50 a.m.

Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace is the Principal Partner of the Bedford Baker Group which provides advisory services on travel and tourism to governments and travel and hospitality related companies.
He has served as co-president of Resorts International, then the largest private company in The Bahamas, as Director General of Bahamas Tourism, as Secretary General & CEO of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and most recently as Minister of Tourism of The Bahamas.
He has also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Central Bank of The Bahamas and as Chairman of the Hotel Corporation of The Bahamas. He currently serves on the University of Miami’s Business School Latin American & Caribbean Advisory Board and is a Member of the Executive Committee and Board of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association. 
In 2009, he was awarded a CBE as a part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his contributions to Tourism. He is a graduate of Harvard University (BA) and the University of Miami (MBA) from which he graduated at the top of his class. 

Raphael Saul

Resilience and Managing Change
Friday November 13, 2020 at 11:35 a.m.

Raphael Saul is business consultant, motivational speaker, corporate trainer, Attorney and entrepreneur with a passion for helping people achieve their full potential and helping businesses exceed their targets.
Born in beautiful Barbados, Raphael achieved academic excellence during his High School tenure and graduated with distinction with his Associate Degree in Business Studies from the Barbados Community College. He has always been a natural communicator and advocate, which lead him to pursue a Bachelor of Laws degree, which he successfully completed with honors in 2009.
After spending a number of years as legal counsel for the multinational telecommunications corporation Cable & Wireless Communications, Raphael began speaking and consulting for companies in the financial services, insurance, retail, automotive and hospitality industries.
With a global perspective, Raphael has lead enterprise change management and integration projects in volatile merger & acquisition environments, including program design and implementation.
Over the last 5 years, Raphael has become a sought-after speaker and trainer in Barbados and across the Caribbean, working with several large conglomerates to train teams in Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Belize and Trinidad & Tobago. He is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner and uses both the ADKAR change management model and various Agile approaches to champion the leadership of the people side of change. Raphael is presently pursuing his PMP (Project Management Professional) designation, which is projected to be completed in late 2020.
Raphael is also the Co-Founder of Transcend Technology, a Barbados-based Virtual Reality company, exploring the application of VR to local industry.

His favorite quote is by Nelson Mandela:
It always seems impossible until it gets done!