Ministerial Roundtable – Economy and Sustainability for Global Islands

Francesco Sindico is the Founder and Co-Director of the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. There he heads EILEAN, an initiative that explores how island communities engage with legal and political processes to promote resilience and sustainability. Francesco has collaborated with Scottish Government in the implementation of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 and has contributed to the first ever National Islands Plan in 2019. In 2020 he has coordinated with Island Innovation a global survey on Islands and COVID-19 with responses from islands in 52 countries worldwide. Francesco leads Island Explorers, an education programme for primary schools that introduces sustainability using islands as a geographical context. Building on Island Explorers, Francesco leads the youth and school component of the One Ocean Hub, a five-year multi partner research for development project focused on global ocean governance.

Mr. Curtis L. Dickinson was elected to the House of Assembly on June 7, 2018 to represent Constituency 25 – Warwick North East. He is currently employed as the Group Head of Private Banking at Butterfield Bank. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Finance. He furthered his studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business where he received a Master of Business Administration degree. Prior to his return to Bermuda in 2006, Mr. Dickinson worked in the United States and the United Kingdom as an investment banker raising capital for companies in the media & telecommunications and consumer & retail industries with Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corporation, Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation and Wells Fargo Securities. Mr. Dickinson currently serves as the chairman of the Bermuda Hospitals Board and is a trustee of the Montessori Education Trust. Previously he served as chairman of the Board of Education, deputy chairman of the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation and director of the Bermuda Land Development Company.

H.E. Rui A.Gomes was recently appointed asthe Minister of Finance of the VIII Constitutional Government. Minister Gomes was also the Minister of Planning and Finance during the VII Constitutional Government. Prior to this, Minister Gomes was the ChiefofStaff andEconomic Advisor to the then President of Republic, who is the current PM of the VIII Government H.E. General Taur Matan Ruak. Minister Gomes was the Economic Advisor to the current President of Republic H.E. Dr. Francisco Guterres “Lu-Olo” from 2018-2020. Minister Gomes was the Economic Specialist at UNDP Resource Center based in Bangkok and Assistant Country Director ofUNDP Timor-Leste. Most recently, Minister Gomes was the President of the Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) Commission within the realm of Covid-19 pandemic upon nomination by H.E. Prime Minister and the ERP was approved by the Council of Ministers. Minister Gomes has over 25 years of experience in working and researching in the areas of economic development, poverty reduction and human development. Minister Gomes earned his PhD in Development Economics from the London South Bank University in London, England, UK.

Dr. Gale T C Rigobert obtained her first degree in Government with first class honours from the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, and was awarded a Swiss scholarship in 1996 to pursue a post-graduate diploma in at the Institute of International Relations, St. Augustine. During that period, she won a National Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship and pursued a Master of Philosophy in International Relations at the University of Cambridge (1998) where she was awarded the title of Sir Patrick Sheehy Scholar. In 2007 she received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in International Relations from UWI St. Augustine and is the author of the book, Bridging the Digital Divide? Prospects for Caribbean Development in the New Techno-economic Paradigm. Dr. Rigobert has previously lectured at the University of the West Indies, served as a member of the Senate, and as an advisor on National Development to the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and National Development. Dr. Rigobert’s “call” to politics long preceded her actual entry into the arena in April 2011, literally on the expiration of her one year’s secondment to the Government of Saint Lucia as Advisor on National Development. After a gruelling seven-month campaign, Dr. Rigobert emerged victorious in a three-way fight, beating two other women, incidentally! Dr. Rigobert made history by becoming the youngest and first female Leader of the Opposition in Saint Lucia on 1 February 2014. Following the success of her party (The United Workers Party) at the June 2016 national polls, she was appointed Minister of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development in Saint Lucia. Dr. Rigobert is passionate about infusing the formal curriculum with gender-sensitive learning, with the view to raising a new generation of citizens who have a heightened sense of gender awareness, gender-appropriate behaviours and the importance for the healthy co-existence of the genders. Dr. Rigobert is very cognizant of the overarching goal of sustainable development and what that means especially for small islands states (SIDS) such as Saint Lucia. In that regard, Education, Gender Relations and Innovation are intimately interwoven, and strategic to the quest to leverage science, technology and critical thinking to devise creative and innovative ways to improve the Saint Lucian economy and the wellbeing of the people.