In a matter of just over a week, the presidency of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will change hands with the St. Lucian national, Dr Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon succeeding Dr William Warren Smith as head of the regional development support institution.
Back in January, the Board of Governors of the CDB elected the former senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official to the position, his credentials having included more than 24 years, serving as Mission Chief in the Gulf States of Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in The Bahamas, Jamaica, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.
Dr Smith’s decade-long tenure as the CDB’s Chief Executive Officer comes to an end with the Bank having grown in terms of its contribution to supporting development in a Caribbean Community that includes a number of tiny, impoverished island states.