The Coastal Quandary: Financing the future of coastal tourism

Dr. Samuel “Sammy” Joseph is a son of Richard ‘John’ Joseph and Yolande Joseph, of Harris’ Village, Montserrat.

Educated at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Baylor Unive…rsity in Texas, Dr. Joseph holds a PhD in Physics (2009), a Master’s in Computational Physics (2001) and first class honors in Mathematics (1999). He was one of the ten students accepted into the High Energy Physics postgraduate Diploma programme (2001) at the prestigious ICTP institution in Trieste, Italy and was the first black student to graduate with a PhD in Physics from Baylor University. Dr. Joseph credits his teachers at the St. George’s Primary School and the Montserrat Secondary School for laying the foundation of discipline and intellectual curiosity that allowed him to achieve academic success.

As a PhD student at Baylor University he became interested in fair treatment for graduate students and student workers and served as the Physics representative to the Graduate Student Association (GSA). In this capacity, he fought for and obtained the right for students to query their test results. Later, he was elected as treasurer of the GSA and during his tenure he was instrumental in successful negotiations in obtaining better health insurance coverage for graduate students.
Upon the completion of his doctorate in Physics, he was faced with the decision to stay in the United States and continue his contributions to academia or return to Montserrat and invest his energies there. Choosing to invest in the soil that nourished him, Dr. Joseph returned to Montserrat in 2010 as an educator at the Montserrat Secondary School (MSS) and the Montserrat Community College (MCC). While teaching courses in Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, he managed and coached the basketball team MSS Warriors and established a new basketball team, the Assassins. Over the past two years he served as Staff Sponsor and coached the Montserrat debating team, the champions of the Leeward Island Debating competition.

Believing that Montserratians could leverage their ICT skills to draw business from the global community, Dr. Joseph along with his brother Daniel Joseph and Manish Valechha, established Montserrat’s first software company, Lavabits. He later continued to invest in the development of ICT skills and businesses in Montserrat as a member of the National ICT Committee and as a teacher and mentor to the Young Enterprise business startup Dropkik Developers. In addition, he has served as a member of the committee responsible for organising Montserrat’s first national science fair.

Joseph unsuccessfully contested the 2014 general election for Movement fo Change and Prosperity (MCAP). Following the resignation of MCAP Leader and former Premier Reuben Meade, Joseph contested and retained the seat for MCAP in the 30 January 2017 by-election.

He was re-elected in the 2019 election and appointed Deputy Premier and Minister of Communications, Works, Energy, and Labour on 21 November 2019.

Silvia currently serves as the Royal Caribbean Group’s senior vice president and chief environmental, social and governance officer. She is responsible for designing an enterprise-wide Environmental Social Governance (ESG) strategy, crafting relevant goals, targets, policies and programs and engaging internal and external stakeholders to support the company’s business strategy, long-term license to operate and reputational capital. She oversees the company’s ESG disclosure strategy, ensures that the company follows the appropriate practices for board oversight and management of ESG risks and opportunities and supports the integration of ESG issues into the company’s governance and enterprise risk management.

Her previous experience includes executive and senior legal positions at Millicom International and Chevron Corporation, where she also led corporate responsibility, global issues and public policy teams, the implementation of an enterprise-wide ESG policies, shareholder engagement and the publication of their annual corporate responsibility reports.

She is a senior fellow and advisory board member of UC Berkeley’s Institute for Business in Society, the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Sustainable Tourism, the Ocean 100 Dialogues and the University of Miami Business School Sustainable Business Program. She has also served as an advisory board member at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, the UN Global Compact Human Rights and Labor Group, the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Center for Responsible Business, vice chair of the United States Council for International Business and as a member of the Harvard Kennedy School Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative. Silvia received her J.D. from the University of Miami, where she served as a member of the Law Review, and her B.A. from Boston College, cum laude.

Petero Manufolau is the Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism Authority of Kiribati (TAK). He is part of a team that is responsible for the sustainable development and promotion of tourism for Kiribati. Prior to joining TAK, Petero held senior management positions in both private and regional tourism organisations specializing in resort and destination marketing, with a passion for tourism SME promotion and sustainable tourism development. He is a graduate of the University of the South Pacific with a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Management & Public Administration and Tourism Studies, a Post Graduate Diploma in Diplomacy and International Relations and also completed a Pacific Islands Tourism Professional Fellows Program at the East West Centre in Hawaii.