Business

Danny Williams replaces Miller as Sagicor Life chairman

R. Danny Williams has been appointed chairman of Sagicor Life Jamaica (SLJ), the country's largest insurance company. Williams' appointment took effect February 1, replacing Dodridge Miller, who resigned at the end of January.

But Miller, who is the president and chief executive officer of SLJ parent company, Sagicor Financial Corporation, will remain a member of the SLJ board of directors.

At the end of last year, another of SLJ's directors, Michael Fraser, quit the board after serving for eight years. No announcement of a replacement has been made so far.

Williams, the founding father of SLJ, served as the president and chief executive officer of the company, formerly Life of Jamaica, on two separate occasions. He gave up control of the insurance company more than a decade and a half ago when it faltered in the 1990s meltdown and was taken over by the Government's rescue agency, FINSAC.

FINSAC's holding in the company was eventually acquired by a Barbados-based consortium, with Williams remaining a director and shareholder through his company Ravers Limited.

Clarke takes over from Gordon at PIOJ

Dr Christine Clarke has been appointed director of the economic, planning and research at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), taking over from Dr Peter John Gordon, who quit as head of the division suddenly last April giving no reason for his decision.

At the time of Gordon's departure, the former director general, Wesley Hughes, could not say precisely when a replacement was to be named, but had noted that Taylor Spence, manager, social policy and planning, would have acted in the interim.

Prior to the appointment, Clarke was special adviser to Hughes, who left the PIOJ to take up the post of financial secretary at the finance ministry.

Clarke has been appointed in the post since last September. The economic, planning and research division is responsible for monitoring and evaluating economic performance and conducting economic research and analysis as a means of identifying constraints to growth and development, and providing advice for formulation of the appropriate policies to address these constraints at the macro, regional and sectoral levels.