New faces at the top in Belize Bank

And in news from financial institutions, changes have been announced at the top echelon of the local Belize Bank. A new chairman assumes post today in the person of Lyndon Guiseppi who also gets the added rank of director replacing Philip Johnson who is being named President of the Bank. Guiseppi is from Trinidad and Tobago and has eighteen years experience under his belt in the financial services. Last August he was named C.E.O. of the Bank’s parent company, BB holdings Limited and previous to that he was with the RBTT Merchant Bank. According to a Belize Bank release, he has served on several Cabinet committees and is currently a director on the Board of the Caribbean News Media Group in Trinidad.

The Belize Bank also announced the appointment of economist Dr. Euric Bobb as Deputy Chairman and Director. He is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago who has held several senior positions with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. In 1994, Bobb was awarded the Chaconia Medal, the second highest honour for service to Trinidad and Tobago.

Bobb was recently appointed by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago as Chairman of the Board of CLICO, one of Trinidad’s largest financial conglomerates, in the wake of the Government’s intervention into CLICO

Also joining the Bank is former director of the FIU, Geraldine Davis-Young and Ms. Cheryl Jones as non-executive directors. Jones has been on the Board of Directors of BB Holdings Limited since 2003, and formerly with OneSource Holdings Inc and is currently Chair of Impellam Plc, a recruitment and services company with revenues in excess of US one point five billion dollars.

The remaining composition of the Board includes John M. Searle as Non-Executive Director and Jose Cardona, Michael Castillo, Christopher Coye, Michael Coye, Martin Marshalleck, Efrain Martin, and Louis Swasey as Executive Directors.

According to the new chairman, Guiseppi, “over the past few years, the Bank has sought to diversify from its traditional dependence on Belize and the Belize dollar into other areas of the Caribbean and into the US dollar. The new appointments are intended to strengthen the composition of the Board as the process of diversification, expansion and growth continues.”