Mr. Darwin Dottin
For Security
Mr. Darwin Dottin is a retired Police Commissioner of the Royal Barbados Police Force. During his career as a police officer he served in several executive and functional areas of the Royal Barbados Police Force. His command positions included Divisional Commander of the Criminal Investigation Division and the Bridgetown Division. From June,1995 to July, 1998 he served as Commandant of the Regional Police Training Centre.
After being promoted to Assistant Commissioner, he held the portfolios of Assistant Commissioner in charge of Administration and Assistant Commissioner in charge of Crime Management.
He had major responsibility for overseeing the preparation of the Barbados Security Plan for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup tournament (CWC) 2007. He also assisted in regional security planning for that tournament.
Commissioner Dottin was awarded a Bachelor of Law Degree (LL.B) (Hons), UWI, Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Criminology and Police Studies – Cambridge University and the MSc in Security and Risk Management with Merit – University of Leicester. He is a graduate of the National Academy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Police Staff College (Bramshill, UK).
He is a Past President of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) and the International
Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) chair for the Central American and Caribbean region.
Dr. Elizabeth Ferdinand
For Health
Dr. Elizabeth Ferdinand is a retired Acting Chief Medical Officer of Barbados. Born in Guyana, Dr. Ferdinand came to Barbados in 1979 and spent some of her earliest years working in the then Casualty Department (now the Accident & Emergency Department) of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
While serving as Senior Medical Officer of Health with the Ministry of Health, she was invited to take charge of epidemiology and the environment departments and later assumed responsibility for the clinical side, taking charge of all of Barbados’ polyclinics looking after immunisation.
During her tenure, Barbados achieved the eradication of polio and the country has been certified polio-free. She led the team in the elimination of indigenous measles, the elimination of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome, and completed documentation for the justification to have Barbados declared measles, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome-free.
Ms. Gaile Thompson
For Venues and Events
Ms. Gail Thompson’s career in the Barbados Foreign Service took an unusual route as her journey started and ended overseas. As she traversed the course, the experience gained provided knowledge and understanding of the nature of work and management of the Ministry and Overseas Missions, and also developed her strength and love for logistics and event planning.
The ‘foundation’ era began with recruitment from London and posting to Belgium to serve as Secretary to the
Ambassador from June 1981. Secretarial experience gained whilst locally employed in the High Commission at London and as Secretary to the Manager of the Tourist Board was great preparation for this part of the course. A major step in her learning curve resulted from the 1992-1994 structural adjustment years when she was propelled into assuming administrative, accounting and consular duties to facilitate the smooth operation of the Embassy. At transfer to the Ministry 16+ years later, she had graduated from the University of Maryland
(Government and Politics) and moved to Foreign Service status.
During her 13-year stint at Headquarters, after 21 months in the International Relations Section, Ms. Thompson realized that she preferred protocol matters and moved to that Section, where she spent the remainder of my stint at the Ministry. While developing efficiency in the procedure of accrediting Ambassadors/High Commissioners/Heads of International and Regional Organisations and dealing with privileges and immunities matters, she became adept at making logistical arrangements for meetings, conferences and official visits. Ms. Thompson gained a post-graduate diploma in Contemporary Diplomacy.
Her final assignment before retirement in 2019 began with a posting to the Consulate at Miami as Deputy Consul General in 2011.
Mrs. Cicely Walcott
For Accommodation and Hospitality
Mrs. Cicely Walcott has a wealth of tourism experience spanning forty years, in a well-rounded career both in the private and public sector. She started her career in the Prime Minister’s Office and was later promoted to the Civil Aviation and Tourism Division, which was the start of her career in tourism. As Chief Research Officer in the Ministry of Tourism, her responsibilities included developing and guiding the Government’s tourism policy.
Mrs. Walcott joined the private sector as the Assistant and then Executive Director of the Barbados Hotel Association (now Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association). She later served as Senior Vice President, Barbados Tourism Authority (now Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.). She was a founding member of the Tourism Development Corporation and served on its Board from 1987-1991.
In 1994, she created the company Alpha Corporate Services, Inc. Her specialty was event planning and tourism marketing, planning and development. Mrs. Walcott led the bid for the Cricket World Cup 2007 for the Accommodation and Immigration Segments of the successful Bid Document. She organized small to large conferences, including the two of the biggest conferences held in Barbados – Caribbean Tourism Conferences CTC-20 and CTC-24 held in 1996 and 2000 respectively. She was a crucial liaison in the successful securing and execution of the PGA Tour’s World Golf Championship in 2006 – the first world class event to be held in Barbados.
Mrs. Walcott also was also engaged in marketing consultancies for the ICC T20 World Cup (2010), the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (2011-2016), the Organization of American States (2019) and the Barbados Food, Wine and Rum Festivals (2010-2014).
Mrs. Walcott is a graduate of Queen’s College, Barbados, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus – Bachelor of Arts (Economics & French) – and Cornell University Summer Programme in event and conference management.
Mr. Ian Estwick
For Ground Transportation
Ian Estwick retired after 34 years with a leading Canadian commercial bank which saw him undertaking job stints in Antigua, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, St. Kitts, St, Lucia, St. Vincent and Barbados.
As a former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation in Barbados, he had lead responsibility for the production of the annual Crop Over Festival and was producer of the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts. He also led the Barbados contingent who performed at Trelawney, Jamaica for the Opening Ceremony of the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Additionally, he led the contingents which represented Barbados at CARIFESTA in Suriname (2003) and Trinidad & Tobago (2006) as well as at the African Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Arts Expo in Santo Domingo in 2006. In 1985, he co-founded the satirical Laff-it-Off production which celebrated its 35th anniversary on stage this year.
Ian is the current Chairman of the Transport Authority and is a Distinguished Lieutenant Governor and former Trustee of Kiwanis Eastern Canada and the Caribbean Region.
Dr. Sharon Marshall
For Media, Public Relations and Branding
Dr. Sharon Marshall is an award-winning broadcast journalist, author and public relations executive. She is a former television news anchor with the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in her native Barbados. Television audiences throughout the English-speaking Caribbean and the West Indian diaspora in London, Toronto, New York and Miami would also have seen her as one of the presenters of the regionally syndicated magazine programme Caribscope produced by the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU).
In addition to her duties in front of the camera, Dr. Marshall served in senior management positions as Director of News and Current Affairs with CBC, and as Manager, Programme Operations with the CBU. Since leaving journalism, she has headed public relations departments in the fields of telecommunications and financial services, most recently as Public Relations Executive with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.
She received an award for Best Television Feature/Documentary from the Barbados Association of Journalists (BAJ), and the Outstanding News/Feature Presenter TV award from the Caribbean Publishing and
Broadcasting Association. In 2013, she was awarded the Gold Quill of Excellence by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) for Communications Skills. She has served as President of the BAJ and the Barbados Chapter of IABC, as well as Deputy Chairman of CBC.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (summa cum laude) in Radio Production from Howard University, and was awarded a Master of Arts in English and a Ph.D. in History by the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill.