ANTIGUA & BARBUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY

Prime Minister Spencer with Ambassador Joan Underwood  photography by Maurice F. Merchant

The Office of the Prime Minister today announced the appointment of Ambassador Joan Underwood to the position of Regional Project Manager with the Caribbean Leadership Project (CLP). Ambassador Underwood takes up the three-year position later this month in Barbados.

The CLP is a seven-year, Cdn$20 million, CIDA-funded project that aims to develop a sustainable, regional public sector leadership development programme for 12 participating Caribbean countries – i.e. Jamaica, Belize, St. Kitts & Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, and Antigua & Barbuda. The project office will be hosted by the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD). As the Regional Project Manager, Ambassador Underwood will report directly to the CLP Director at the Canada School of Public Service which is the project’s executing agency.

Commenting on her appointment, Prime Minister Dr. Winston Baldwin Spencer said: “That a national of Antigua & Barbuda has been selected from a competitive field to head this ambitious project is not only a singular honour for our country, but an endorsement of Ambassador Underwood’s outstanding abilities and qualifications.

“As nationals and residents would know, Ambassador Underwood has earned a reputation for excellence in several professional fields, including the sciences; corporate administration; tertiary-level studies; and human-resource management; and unqualified respect as a diplomat in the service of the nation. She has been instrumental in securing for our people a number of scholarships opportunities in Mexico; was pivotal to critical negotiations and diplomatic relationships with our Latin American partners, particularly with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; and was essential to our pioneering efforts to establish the use of alternative energy here at home.

“Accordingly, I invite the nation of Antigua & Barbuda to join me in congratulating this daughter of the soil, this patriot, on her appointment as head of the Caribbean Leadership Project and in wishing her every possible success in her new endeavour. I am confident that she will continue to make a name for herself and, in doing so, make our beloved country even prouder than she already has.