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JAM | Dec 1, 2021

Gordon Shirley to lead new CAP Board

/ Our Today

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Professor Gordon Shirley. (Photo: The University of the West Indies)

Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke has announced that Professor Gordon Shirley is to take charge as chairman of a new board of directors at Clarendon Alumina Production Limited (CAP), also known as Jamalco, after the previous board was dissolved amid the scandal around the renewal of a consultancy contract with CCPA Capital Partners.

Addressing the House of Representatives last evening (November 30), Clarke noted that the Government’s vision is to eventually own its 45 per cent stake in an incorporated Jamalco that it would proceed to take public on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

“Since the emergence of the bauxite industry in the 1960s, no Jamaican has ever had a direct economic interest in a bauxite/alumina plant in Jamaica. This Government will change that,” Clarke said.

“Jamaicans will have the opportunity to directly own a piece of a major industrial asset operating in our bauxite/alumina industry. This vision is within reach.”

“I am confident that Professor Shirley can lead the board towards achievement of the policy objectives we have set.”

DR Nigel Clarke, minister of finance and the public service

He added that, to implement this vision by working along with the Government’s partners, Noble Corporation, in his capacity as the responsible minister – since CAP was stripped from Transport and Mining Minister Robert Montague – and with the approval of Cabinet, he has appointed a nine-member board with Shirley at the helm.

“Professor Shirely’s credentials and experience are widely known,” Clarke said.

“What is often forgotten is that Professor Shirley is first and foremost a mechanical engineer who started his career in the 1970s and early 1980s at ALCAN Jamaica, a major bauxite/alumina company in Jamaica at that time. I am confident that Professor Shirley can lead the board towards achievement of the policy objectives we have set.”

Alok Jain

Joining Shirley on the board will be:

  • Alok Jain, former head of the corporate finance and advisory business of PWC for the Caribbean. He is a chartered accountant with an impressive track record in that field. Jain is now an advisor at the OPM.
  • Patrick McIntosh. McIntosh is an engineer who spent 20 years at WINDALCO, a major bauxite/alumina the last six of which were as the managing director of WINDALCO. Among other things, McIntosh is expectd to bring skills and experiences that will be useful in the reconstruction effort.
  • Dr Dana Dixon. Dixon is chief business development officer and chief m arketing officer of JN Group. She is a seasoned management professional with experience in both private and public sectors.
  • Winston Hayden. Hayden is a former managing director of CAP. With an abrupt change of boards at such a strategically critical juncture and the need to get up to speed quickly, it is believed the board will benefit from Hayden’s reservoir of institutional knowledge
  • Moira Williamson. Williamson is a civil engineer with project management and procurement expertise garnered from senior assignments at the National Works Agency. Her experience and understanding is expected to be useful in the reconstruction effort.
  • Gerry Johnson. Johnson is the former Caribbean head of the Inter-American Development Bank. He is an experienced finance and development professional whose expertise is expected to assist CAP in the strategic choices it confronts.
  • Roxaine Smith. Smith is an attorney at law with an MBA in public sector management who brings legal skills to the board.
  • Stephanie Abrahams is a senior analyst at the finance ministry with an MBA who can take on analytical work that may be required.
Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke. (Photo: JIS)

In his only comment on the CCPA Partners debacle that resulted in the downfall of the previous board and pushed Prime Minister Andrew Holness to remove CAP from Montague’s control, Clarke said the contract at the centre of the dispute among former CAP board members expired in October and that it would not be renewed.

“I will be focused on moving forward with achieving the strategic objectives for CAP. This is a macro critical mission of tremendous fiscal importance to Jamaica,” he said.

READ: Nigel Clarke | The macro criticality of CAP

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