By Jeff Trotman
The long-delayed seven-member Board of Directors of the Linden Enterprise Network (LEN) was inaugurated yesterday in the Macaw Conference room of the Region Ten Business Centre, Linden by Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh.
LEN is intended to facilitate start-up funding for businesses and commercial ventures in Linden through borrowing from a revolving fund and those entrepreneurs that meet their payments on time can also seek further funding. It is a successor entity to two previous funding mechanisms – the European Union-financed Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) and the Linden Economic Advancement Fund (LEAF) – that had been set up to promote entrepreneurship in Linden and Region Ten following the decline of the bauxite industry.
The LEN Board of Directors comprises Dustan Barrow, former CEO Guymine, who was absent at the inauguration exercise; Andrew Forsythe, Deputy CEO, Linmine Secretariat; Nolan Walton, a member of the Linden Chamber of Commerce; Youlanda Hilliman, REO, Region Ten; Tarachand Balgobin,