Shaw adviser jumps to banking
Published:Friday | September 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
Former adviser to the ministers of finance and agriculture, and former World Bank representative in Jamaica, Dr Wayne Henry, has been recruited by Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica as vice-president of government affairs.
Henry previously had a different relationship with the banking group as a board member of former subsidiary Scotia Jamaica Investment Management Limited, which he demitted six years ago.
Scotia Group Jamaica said Wednesday that Henry "will play an important role in strategically managing and supporting the group's relationships with Government at different levels, ensuring that our interests are monitored, articulated at appropriate levels, and helping the group to maximise opportunities directly and indirectly from the public-sector relationship."
Henry declined to be interviewed for this story.
Scotiabank said that since his September appointment, he has been meeting with "various stakeholders internally and externally to facilitate the formulation of strategy".
Scotia Group said the post was created to ensure "that our interests are monitored, articulated at appropriate levels".
The bank is known to do business with and is a lender to Government entities; and the move to "strategically manage and support the relationships between Scotia Group and government at different levels" comes after Scotia and other banks have been bruised by declining sentiment over their fee policies and the pricing of loans.
Finance Minister Audley Shaw and former Industry Minister Karl Samuda were central in the push against the banks to adopt more client-friendly practices.
Prior to joining Scotia Group, Henry, who is an economist by training - qualified to the doctoral level in agricultural and development economics at Ohio State University - held the position of chief technical adviser to Shaw between May 2009 and August of this year. The year prior, he advised the agriculture minister.
Henry, who also holds a BSc in economics and management from the University of the West Indies (UWI), and an MBA in finance from Howard University, previously spent several years as a lecturer at UWI.
He also worked in the private sector earlier in his career as financial analyst with GraceKennedy, before going on to advanced studies.
Until August 2011, Henry was a member of the board of directors of Statistical Institute of Jamaica, the Student Loan Bureau, CARICOM Development Fund, Caribbean Development Bank, Air Jamaica Limited and Air Jamaica Holdings Limited.