Fifteen Caribbean nationals were among 17 outstanding persons honoured last Wednesday night in New York by the American Foundation for the University of the West Indies.

The annual gala reception, held in the ballroom of the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, was this year sponsored by media giant, AOL/Time Warner and was also used to celebrate ‘Great Women of Modern Culture’, whom the organisers named as Mathilde Krim, founding chairman of the American Foundation for AIDS Research; Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland; and Johnnetta Cole, president of Bennett College.

Cable and Wireless (West Indies) Ltd was this year’s Corporate Honouree, while those honoured in the Caribbean Luminaries Class of 2003 included:

. Jamaicans Michael Lee Chin, chairman and CEO of AIC Ltd; Angela King, UN special adviser on gender issues; Lennox Lewis, world heavyweight boxing champion; Patrick Robinson, international law expert and a judge on the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia;

. Barbadians Senator Anne Cools; Eric Holder Jr, former deputy attorney-general of the United States; Ernesta Procope, founder of E G Bowman Company, America’s largest minority-owned insurance brokerage; and Jersey Joe Walcott, former heavyweight boxing champion;

. Trinidadians Stokely Carmichael, civil rights activist; Lawrence Duprey, executive chairman of C L Financial Ltd; and Michael Mansoor, chairman of FirstCaribbean International Holdings;

. St Lucian Michael Chastanet, prominent businessman and that country’s goodwill ambassador;

. Grenadian Lord David Pitt, former president of the British Medical Association; and

. Vincentian Sir Dwight Venner, governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.

Harry Belafonte, the gala’s honourary patron, and his wife Julie were among those attending the function which was chaired by UWI chancellor Sir Shridath Ramphal, UWI vice-chancellor Professor Rex Nettleford and Karl Rodney.

Elizabeth Buchanan-Hind, director in the UWI vice- chancellor’s office, was one of the main organisers of the event.