Government is in the process of recruiting Cayman’s new US and Canada representative following the departure of Chris Duggan at the end of February.
Ministry of Financial Services and Commerce Chief Officer Dax Basdeo confirmed to the Cayman Compass on Friday that government has shortlisted candidates for the post.
“Having completed the shortlisting process, the Ministry is currently scheduling interviews for this position,” he said via email.
Duggan, who was instrumental in setting up the US/Canada office – the first for Cayman, tendered his resignation in December.
He had said of his departure that while there were “teething pains” in the early days in his new role for the government, there was “nothing that drove me away”.
He left the post officially at the end of February and is now the head of Caribbean banking for RBC, based in Nassau.
Basdeo declined to confirm how many candidates have been selected to move to the next stage in appointing the new head of the Washington, DC office nor how long the process will take.
He added there has been no disruption in the operation of the office in the absence of a formal US/Canada representative.
“The Ministry, with the assistance of our advisors in the US, has been managing our stakeholder engagement in the US. There have been several press releases to reflect this ongoing work,” Basdeo said.
The most recent of these engagements was in March when Deputy Premier André Ebanks led a government delegation in a series of meetings in the US capital.
During that visit to the US, the financial services minister also took part in a series of ’round table’ events organised by industry group Cayman Finance in Manhattan.
The Washington branch, which formally opened in January 2023, had been hit with delays under the former PACT administration as the once-contentious foreign offices had been initiated under the former Progressives administration.
The DC office, along with those in Brussels, for Europe, and Hong Kong, for Asia, was facing scrutiny at the time.
The significant changes last year at the offices including the appointment of Julie Campbell as government’s overseas representative for the EU, based in the London office.
She took over from Deborah Bodden, who passed away suddenly last September.
There was also the creation of a board of directors for Cayman’s Asia office, which is chaired by attorney and former MP Winston Connolly.
That office is being led by Gene DaCosta, who is government’s representative for financial services in the UK/EU, and in Asia.
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