The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) and the National Commercial Bank Group (NCB), will on Wednesday (April 14), host the inaugural UCC/NCB Memorial lecture in honour of the late Dr Rickert Allen, a former senior executive at both institutions.

The Dr Rickert Allen scholarship to a deserving student of the UCC will also be presented at the event, which gets underway at 10:00 am.

The virtual lecture under the theme “Transformational Leadership and Readiness For Change” pays homage to Allen, who served with distinction as Chairman of the Board of the UCC and Senior General Manager in charge of Human Resources at NCB, before his untimely death in April 2020.

A citation to him will be read by Dr Donald Roomes, a member of the UCC Board and presented to a family member of the honouree.

Professor Dennis Gayle, President of the UCC said, “It is fitting that we host an annual lecture series to memorialize the contributions and achievements of Dr Rickert Allen. He was an outstanding and visionary leader.  He personified effective governance, helping the university to move towards national and international institutional accreditation, thus adding value to the academic achievements of UCC graduates.”

“We enjoyed his recurrent comment that we were all living in volatile, uncertain, confusing and ambiguous times and his consistent advocacy that it was essential for an organization seeking to position itself for success to be very agile and to take a long, strategic view of the business environment, rising above the pressure and calm our of the moment.”

“Dr Allen believed that the quality of a nation’s manpower resources is a critical factor in determining national development and competitiveness and dedicated his life to paying it forward through community service and mentorship. He was a man of integrity, ambition, courage and honesty,” Professor Gayle declared. 

The President and Group CEO of the NCB Financial Group, Patrick Hylton, said, “It is an honour for us to partner with the UCC to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Rickert Allen, through this memorial lecture. He was the epitome of a transformational leader, whose ideas and methods were grounded in innovation and forward-thinking. As such, we will be delving into thought-provoking discussions on pivoting through change and leadership practices to enable and empower team members to succeed. Rick always encouraged us as an organization to strive for excellence and to find opportunities through the challenges and we believe his perspective can help many other persons take their businesses to the next level.”

At the memorial lecture, Hylton will speak on “Dr Rickert Allen, Profile of a Transformational Leader”; Dr Noel Cowell, Senior Lecturer at The University of the West Indies will speak on “Dr Rickert Allen the Scholar” and UCC Board Chairman Audrey Sewell will make special remarks.

A panel discussion “Pivoting in a Global Pandemic and the Role of Transformational Leadership”, will be moderated by Kevin Powell, Director of the Department of Student Affairs at the UCC. Presenters will include Sandra Grey, Asstistant General Manager, NCB; Dr Che’ Bowen, CEO, MD-link Limited; and Managing Director Body Contouring by Ven Posh, Vinette Facey.

Christopher Allen, son of the honouree, will deliver the vote of thanks.

Rickert Allen was a fellow of the chartered institute of personnel development and a number of other organisations and their stakeholders benefitted greatly from his active membership. Among them are the: Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Education Committee, The University of the West Indies (UWI) mentorship programme, Society for Human Resource Management, Human Capital Institute, Heart Institute of the Caribbean and Jamaica Employers’ Federation (JEF).

He is highly regarded for his work in the field of change management, explored through the lens of corporate restructuring in the Caribbean and which formed the core of his highly commended DBA thesis entitled “Towards the development of a Model for Improving Employee Readiness for Corporate Transformation”.