Barbados New Diplomatic Team

By Tony Best

The Thompson Administration is putting the finishing touches to its diplomatic team to serve in foreign capitals and a key position is going to John Beale, a Bridgetown banker.

Highly placed sources told the Carib News that Beale, President and Chief Executive Officer of RBTT Barbados Limited , is set to become Barbados’ Ambassador to the U.S. and the Organization of American States in Washington. At the same time, former Democratic Labor Party cabinet Minister, Evelyn Greaves, is to succeed Glyne Murray as the nation’s High Commissioner in Ottawa.

“Beale has unfinished business at the bank which will take some time to wrap up and so he is unlikely to take up his post before the end of the year,” said the source who requested anonymity. “Mr. Michael King, the current Ambassador in Washington, now serving as the rotating Chairman of the OAS’ Permanent Council, wants to return to Barbados and is therefore leaving his posting by the end of the year. He has been away from Barbados for more than a dozen years and really wants to return home.”

King is a career diplomat, meaning he is a senior civil servant.

Beale, a scion of a Barbados plantation family, was Uruguay’s Honorary Consul in Bridgetown and is a member of board of the Barbados Bankers’ Association. At different times he led the Private Sector Trade Team and was on the Board of Directors of the Barbados Shipping and Trading, the country’s largest conglomerate.

“He would serve the country well in Washington,” added the source.

Greaves, a former trade unionist who represented St. Lucy in the Barbados House of Assembly for at least a decade, was a member of the Sandiford Administration, serving as Minister of Trade. He didn’t seek re-election to parliament in 1994 and moved to Trinidad and Tobago shortly afterwards.

Murray who is due to leave Ottawa next month, was a Minister of state in the Owen Arthur Government between 1994-2003 before making the switch to Ottawa, which is considered a vital diplomatic position because of the long-standing cordial relations between Canada and Barbados.

In addition, Canada, the home of a large Barbadian community scattered across the country, from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver to Winnipeg and Alberta is a linchpin of Barbados’ offshore financial services sector.

Meanwhile, the Government is getting ready to announce that Leroy McLean is to become Consul-General in Toronto, replacing Wendy Straker; Lenox Price is succeeding Jessica Odle in New York and Colin Mayers is returning to his old job as Consul-General in Miami, taking over from Ed Bushell.

“Mayers was chosen because of his knowledge of the Barbadian community in Florida and the role of the Consulate-General there,” said the source. “In addition, after establishing the Consulate-General in the early 1990s, he had less than three months on the job before the Government changed and his appointment was terminated.”

Here, then, is the rest of the diplomatic line-up:

Tony Arthur is slated to be the High Commissioner in London while Trevor Clarke, Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva and Errol Humphrey, a former Consul-General in Toronto who has been at the helm of the nation’s Embassy in Brussels which serves the European Union are to remain in their positions, according to well-informed sources.

The Government is also expected to name a Deputy High Commissioner in London to replace Herbie Yearwood, who has been stationed there since 1994 and who in the words of a former Arthur Government official “did a great job with the Bajan community in England.”

Dr. Chris Hackett, who became Permanent Representative to the United Nations three years ago after retiring as a senior UN professional, is also to stay on. Major Charles Brathwaite, a civil servant, is to be the new Ambassador in Caracas, taking succeeding Keith Franklin.?

Sources indicate that the new Government had decided “quite early” that the top diplomats at multilateral organizations such as the WTO, the EU and the UN should remain on, at least for the time being to complete the “very important work” they had started.“Dr. Hackett came highly recommended to the Government to be allowed to stay on in his position,” was the way it was put. “So, the Government has decided that he would remain where he is.”

It is expected that in London, the government is to appoint a Deputy High Commissioner to replace Herbie Yearwood, who has been in that job since 1994 and in the words of an official in the former Arthur Government, “did a great job with the Bajan community” in the United Kingdom.

“From a humanitarian point of view all of the diplomats and consular officials who are being recalled or re-assigned were given enough time to wrap up their personal and profession business,” said a source.

“The Government didn’t move in and say ‘out you go’ immediately after the January 15th election.”

 

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