BASSETERE, St. Kitts – CAROL EVELYN, newly-appointed Chairman of the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) has outlined his first order of business having taken up that position.
Evelyn spoke exclusively with SKNVibes concerning his appointment, which he said took place on February 1, 2012.
His Board consists of Fidela Clarke, Dennis Phillip, Sam Ng’alla, Diannille Taylor-Williams, Claudia Williams, Fitzroy Warner, Geoffrey Hanley and Austin Williams.
The Chairman served on the previous Board for the past three years and, according to him, this along with his experience in the field of corporate governance are the tools he would use to his, the Board’s and SCASPA’s benefit.
“Being the Plant Manager for Harowe Servo Controls for the past 17 years, and being president of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, having worked regionally as the president of CIC and all the training I have had towards corporate governance, I think that I definitely can do this job with a tremendous amount of success. I’ve been on the board for three years so I do understand the working of the board. I know the issues and I know what areas we have to address at this time.”
In highlighting his first order of business as Chairman, Evelyn explained that, now that SCASPA has gotten to the point where it is operating at a profit, he would be addressing operational issues.
He said his Board Members – who have a two-year mandate - would be placed over various sub-committees in order to effectively and efficiently address these issues.
“There are some concerns as far as operations, and my first order of business will be to put in place some sub-committees of the board which will address certain areas of responsibility at SCASPA. I will put in place an audit/finance committee, an operations sub-committee, a safety and security sub-committee and an HR sub-committee of the board. Here we can dig into more details as to what is happening so that we are more involved in what is happening and even to drive policy on a timely basis to ensure the continuous improvement at SCASPA.
“…we must quickly work towards preventative maintenance programmes for SCASPA. We will look at issues like the elevator and the escalator, the lighting on the runway being out at night. These are issues we must quickly address in order to ensure that we serve the general public in the highest way possible.”
The new Board meets for its first meeting on February 15 and Evelyn informed that these issues, along with the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), would be discussed.
The current CEO, Terrence Crossman, has indicated that he would be resigning from SCASPA - which would become effective in less than two months - and Evelyn told this publication that the CEO position would be advertised before a replacement is made.
Evelyn succeeds Lincoln Maynard as Chairman, whom he commended for his service.
He also expressed thanks to “the government for appointing me to this position…I feel really honoured to serve at this time”.
The new Chairman said members of the public are welcome to approach him with their concerns and ideas relative to SCASPA, as he would maintain his open-door policy.
“I will listen to our customers, I will listen to the general public and I will assure everyone that wherever I can drive immediate positive impact on any issue, I will do that.”
