The latest round of board changes at NCB Financial Group Limited (NCBFG) has seen the board composition effectively becoming mainly Canadian, a possible reflection of where chairman and majority owner Michael Lee-Chin intends to take the financial conglomerate.

Howard L Shearer, son of former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, and current chief executive officer of Hitachi Canada, was appointed to the NCBFG board on March 13. This was preceded by the election of Gary W Brown and Bruce Bowen as directors of NCBFG at its annual general meeting on February 9. Sandra AC Glasgow was also re-elected as an NCBFG director at the same meeting where Professor Alvin Wint retired from NCBFG and its subsidiary boards.

However, in a notice published last Thursday, it was announced that Glasgow resigned as a NCBFG director on March 20, but would remain on the boards of National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCBJ) and Clarien Bank Limited. It was also noted that Sanya Goffe would resign from NCBJ’s board on March 20 but would remain as an NCBFG director. Gary Brown was also appointed as the new lead independent director of NCBFG while John Bailey was appointed as a NCBJ director on February 21.

“All these changes, including the previously announced appointment of Mr Howard Shearer to the board of NCBFG, are in keeping with ongoing efforts to enhance the independence, diversity and strength of the oversight of our boards as key to the governance structure of the Group,” stated the NCBFG release.

As a result of these changes, NCBFG’s board is now composed of Lee-Chin, Robert Almeida, Bowen, Brown, Shearer, Thalia Lyn and Goffe. The first five mentioned directors are all Canadians with Bowen being the former CEO of the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited (BNSJ) and Brown being former CEO of FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited (FCIB), two regional banks with Canadian parent companies. Lyn also spent some time in Canada and was a former investment dealer in that market. Almeida is the CEO of NCBFG and Bowen the CEO of NCBJ.

A year ago, NCBFG’s board was made up of Lee-Chin, Patrick Hylton, Dennis Cohen, Lyn, Almeida, Glasgow, Goffe and Wint. NCBJ’s board was also made up of Lee-Chin, Hylton, Cohen, Septimus ‘Bob’ Blake, Almeida, Glasgow, Goffe and Wint.

NCBJ’s board is now composed of Lee-Chin, Almeida, Bowen, Brown, Glasgow and Bailey. NCB Capital Markets Limited’s board is also composed of Bowen, who chairs the board, Michael Ammar Jr, Harry Smith, Dr Cecil Batchelor, and Shamena Khan, a Canadian who serves as managing director of AIC Global Holdings Limited.

It’s yet to be seen how these Canadian lead boards will impact NCBFG’s stock price and future growth potential, but NCBFG shareholders are likely happy with the return of quarterly dividend payments.

NCBJ is continuing to see several high-level executive changes with Dr Karlene Bailey, a senior vice-president in the group risk management division, announcing her resignation recently as she heads to Massy Holdings Limited, where she has been appointed as vice-president and group chief risk officer, effective May 6. Her move to Massy also comes at a time when the Trinidadian conglomerate is also undergoing its own changes. Massy President and Group CEO Elliot Gervase Warner is set to go on early retirement on April 6, the day of his 59th birthday, with David Affonso to take over Warner’s role on the same day. David O’Brien, Massy’s vice-president of global expansion, is also set to resign from Massy on June 8. These changes all come after Massy’s December 18 AGM where Angelique Parisot-Potter, executive vice-president in charge of business integrity and group general counsel, asked questions regarding a Florida retreat and the events that take place there. Parisot-Potter was sent on leave before she resigned on December 27.