Lecture Series to be held in honour of financial pioneer

A five-part public lecture series dedicated to the memory of a Vincentian financial pioneer will be held here, beginning next week.{{more}}

The lecture series, dedicated to the memory of Ormond Cyril Forde, will address issues relevant to the management and control of financial institutions, a release from Financial Alliance, the organizers of the series, said.

The lectures will be held at the Peace Memorial Hall and the first lecture will take place next Wednesday, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The featured speaker for the first lecture is Dr Robertine Chaderton. Dr Chaderton is a senior lecturer in Accounting and the management of financial institutions at UWI’s Centre for Management Development. She is also the CEO of the Caribbean Consulting Group. Dr Chaderton was recognised by the ACCA as one of the top 100 accountants worldwide during their centenary celebrations. She is a Fellow of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (FCCA) and received a diploma in Advanced Financial Crime Prevention Training in 2007. Dr Chaderton teaches a course at UWI called Fraud Examination and would present in the lecture series on the topic “Corporate Governance in Financial Institutions.”

At next week’s lecture, there would be a tribute to O. C. Forde and Luke Browne, a financial economist, would moderate the proceedings and provide a contextual statement.

Ormond Cyril Forde was the founder and first manager of the St Vincent Cooperative Bank, which opened for business in February 1945. He also founded the St Vincent Building and Loan Association in 1941.

According to the release, the other proposed speakers for the series are: René Baptiste, a corporate lawyer with almost forty years of experience in the field, who will speak on “The Laws Governing Financial Institutions in SVG”; Michel Williams, a former president of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union Bankers Association, whose topic is “Sou-Sou Organisations, Friendly Societies and Credit Unions in the Eastern Caribbean”; Ewart Williams, who is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. He will speak on “The Regional Banking System”; Judith Veira, who is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, will speak on “The Protection of Pensions and Retirement Funds”; Harry Abrikian, who is a senior lecturer in Finance at the Mona School of Business, has as his topic “The Operation of Insurance Companies in the Caribbean”.

The fifth speaker is Arthur Levitt who is the world renowned former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the USA and author of a book called “Take on the Street: How to Fight for Your Financial Future”. His topic is “Corporate Reform in America”.

Lectures two to five will take place on consecutive Thursday evenings, beginning on April 18 and ending on May 9.