The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has a new president.
A release from the bank announced that its Board of Governors yesterday elected Daniel Best, a native of Barbados, as the seventh President of the institution, underscoring the CDB’s commitment to visionary leadership and sustainable development across the Caribbean region.
According to the release, Best brings a wealth of experience and a deep understanding of the region’s development challenges and opportunities with a distinguished career spanning over 20 years in development finance, policy planning, and infrastructure investment. As such, he is well-positioned to lead the CDB into its next chapter of impactful regional transformation.
As President, Best will oversee the Bank’s strategic direction, focusing on its core mandate to reduce poverty and inequality while fostering inclusive and sustainable growth. Under his leadership, the Bank aims to build on its legacy while addressing emerging challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing global landscape.
Best has worked with the CDB for over 15 years holding progressively senior positions, including Director of the Projects Department and currently serves as Senior Infra-structure and Development Advisor to the Prime Minister of Barbados, on secondment from CDB.
He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Durham in England, as well as a Master’s degree in Construction Enginee-ring and Management, and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. He is also an accredited Project Management Professional.
The incumbent president takes over from St Lucian-born economist, Dr Hyginus ‘Gene’ Leon, who had unexpectedly tendered his resignation in April “with immediate effect” after being sent on administrative leave in January for reasons that were never made clear by the bank. His lawyers did indicate however that their client held the view that “he will never be treated fairly” upon his return.
The entire affairs raised more than a few eyebrows across the region given the lack of any substantial information from the bank, with St Lucia’s Prime Minister Phillip J Pierre, blaming a “conspiracy” for the removal of Leon.
Yesterday, the Trinidad Guardian reported that Best edged out the T&T candidate, Gregory Hill, following discussions that, sources said, took place between T&T Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley. The two prime ministers were among regional leaders who were in Bridgetown last Saturday for a meeting with a bipartisan US Congressional delegation. Rowley supported the T&T candidate, while Mottley supported her countryman.
The discussions between Prime Ministers Rowley and Mottley on the issue of the selection of the CDB president were suggested by the board of governors of the CDB, as a means of breaking the deadlock between the two candidates following the November 21 polling for the presidency.
That deadlock meant neither candidate could be elected without a tie-breaking mechanism because the CDB’s rules provide that the board of governors elects the institution’s president and that the president “shall be elected by a vote of not less than 66 per cent of the total number of the governors representing not less than 75 per cent of the total voting power of the members.”
The CDB’s two largest shareholders are Trinidad and Tobago with 17.31 per cent and Jamaica with 17.31 per cent. Canada and the United Kingdom hold 9.31 per cent each, while Italy and Germany are 5.58 per cent shareholders.
Hill currently serves as the CDB’s vice president, finance and corporate services, while Best is the senior infrastructure and development advisor to Prime Minster of Barbados, Mia Mottley. That followed over a decade of employment at the CDB, during which he rose to be director of projects.
A third candidate, Bahamian Therese Turner Jones, who is the CDB’s acting vice president of operations, was withdrawn from the election in November.
