It was recently announced that Richard Byles is going to succeed Brian Wynter as the governor of the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) in August of this year.

Immediately there was a unanimous chorus that Byles was an excellent choice for the job.

After all, he had a very successful career at Pan Caribbean, Pan Jam, and Sagicor, where he successfully led all three organisations.

It was while at Sagicor that Byles secured his legacy as one of the leading business personalities in the Caribbean, and led Sagicor to become a financial goliath.

Still his real recognition wasn’t at Sagicor, but the way he skilfully helped to chart the course for the rebound of the Jamaican economy, as co-chair of the Economic Policy Oversight Committee (EPOC).

At the time, while he was head of EPOC, I had the good fortune to be the chief executive officer at the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica and worked alongside Byles when he was a vice-president of the PSOJ, under President Chris Zacca.

Byles was a leading business personality, even among the leading personalities at the PSOJ, of which there were many. So much so, that in 2017 he was elected by his peers to receive the 2017 – PSOJ Hall of Fame award.

There is no doubt that Byles has left an indelible mark on the private and public sectors in general, but even more specifically he was instrumental in guiding the Jamaican economy through the turbulent waters from 2013 to where we are now arguing about how much the economy is growing, and not if it is going to crash, as was the talk at that time. He had the respect needed to broker the disagreements at that time and lend respectability to the programmes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and being close to the action at that time, I know how difficult a time it was.

In many respects, it reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, where the author speaks to talent and circumstance coinciding to make someone an outlier. In other words, the crisis of the period 2013 to 2017 gave some of us the opportunity to make a contribution to Jamaica, and Byles grabbed hold of the crisis and turned it into an opportunity.

As a result of these accomplishments, everyone has stated that Byles is going to be an excellent BOJ governor.

I have heard persons even say that he is a “nice” person.

The truth, however, is that someone’s accomplishment in one area, or being a “nice” person, doesn’t qualify one to be a central bank governor and no one should be selected on that basis.

My personal view is that Byles is an excellent choice for BOJ governor, and my reasons are based on what I think the job requires, and the characteristics I know he possesses.

What we must first understand is what is the role of a central bank governor, and what does Jamaica require at this time of a BOJ governor?

I ask this because both Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke were good central bank governors, but could Bernanke do as well at the time Greenspan was fed chairman and vice versa. In other words, we have to also assess whether Byles is the right person for this time.

The first question then is what do we need in a BOJ governor, and particularly at this time?

There is no doubt that Jamaica has made a lot of progress economically, and specifically we have made great progress in our fiscal management. This has caused us to achieve significant fiscal and monetary stability, which has seen much lower and stable interest and inflation rates; reduced debt to GDP ratio, resulting in room for increased infrastructure spending; expanded consumer and private sector credit; reducing unemployment levels; increased consumer and business confidence; and long periods of economic growth, among other achievements.

What we have not been able to do is achieve exchange rate stability, which although over longer periods the rate seems stable, the fact is during the short-term planning process, there is too much movement up and down.

What we also have not been able to achieve is greater levels of productivity and importantly, we have not been able to achieve greater financial flexibility, as our regulatory and tax environment around the financial sector still remains too onerous.

A central bank governor needs to concern himself with all these things. He needs to be able to bring greater stability to the exchange rate market (this is not mutually exclusive with inflation targeting as it sometimes seems), maintain interest and inflation rate stability, maintain an optimal money supply (so while controlling inflation it doesn’t stifle market liquidity), and complement fiscal policy decisions, while very importantly maintaining independence in substance and perception. These are necessary to ensure continued improvement in the economy.

Achieving this requires the following characteristics in a central bank governor:

• Someone who the market has confidence in and their ability to manage and lead ( tick for Byles).

• Someone with the necessary skill set and qualifications to understand what needs to be done ( tick for Byles).

• Independent and impartial in making decisions — some persons have questioned whether Byles closeness to Sagicor will lead to partial decisions. My experience as outlined at the start is that Byles will remain impartial in his decision-making. ( tick for Byles).

• Steady hands to make the correct and necessary decisions when things get turbulent ( tick for Byles).

• Someone who will create an effective team, hold their team accountable, and put a proper succession plan in place ( tick for Byles as we saw in his transition out as Sagicor CEO).

• Someone who understands the needs of the private sector, and can complement that need with the right policies to drive positive private sector behaviour ( tick for Byles).

• Someone who the private sector, Government and Opposition have the utmost confidence in ( tick for Byles).

These qualities can be seen at the start of this article, and they are the reasons why I chose to make my link between my own experience and what I think is required of a BOJ governor.

In my view, the choice of Richard Byles for governor is not because he was a successful private sector leader, as I know many who have been who would not be suited. It is not because he is a “nice” person, as many “nice” persons have led us in the wrong direction.

In my view, he has proven to have the characteristics, skill set, and respect required for the position of BOJ governor.

The mistake made too many times in choosing a leader is no understanding who is the right man for the right time for the job.

At this time, Richard Byles is the right man for BOJ governor.