Following the recent shift in NCB Financial Group Limited’s (NCBFG) board of directors to include more Canadians, there is a further shift taking place as more regional and international leaders join the senior ranks of the financial conglomerate’s subsidiaries.

The latest C-suite change at NCBFG happened on December 4 when it was announced that Richard Look Kin was appointed head of group risk management for NCBFG and National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCBJ). Look Kin was the chief risk officer (CRO) for Belize Bank, Belize’s oldest and largest bank, with Look Kin only joining the bank in April 2023. He had prior work experience at Citibank, RBTT Bank, Caribbean Development Bank, First Citizens Bank and First Citizens Investment Services and holds chartered financial analyst (CFA) and professional risk manager (PRM) designations.

He replaces Allison Wynter, the existing group CRO for NCBFG and CRO for NCBJ who has been with NCBJ since September 2002. The release, which was posted on the Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange (TTSE), noted that Wynter would continue to provide support through a transition period. This is possibly indicative that Wynter will be retiring from NCBFG after joining NCBJ in September 2002 and spending 22 years as a senior officer of NCBJ. This is the latest senior executive to leave risk following Dr Karlene Bailey’s departure in April to join Massy Holdings as its CRO. Bailey joined NCB Capital Markets Limited (NCBCM) in January 2003 before leaving in October 2008 and eventually returning in June 2016 to NCBJ.

“If we want to make our country globally competitive, remember one framework. How was America built? America is built based on immigrants. What immigrants do is that they recalibrate standards. Immigrants build countries, immigrants keep countries from being stagnant,” said Michael Lee-Chin, chairman of NCBFG, at a recent Mayberry Investments forum.

Another development surrounds Ramon Lewis, NCBJ’s vice-president for the group information technology division, who was appointed to the role in November 2020. However, his name was absent from NCBFG’s fourth quarter 2024 shareholder report, and it has since been revealed that he left the bank in November. Saravanan Thangavelu, the former senior vice-president of enterprise IT at Hinduja Global Solutions, has taken over as the new head of IT. The last time NCBJ had an Indian national leading IT was in October 2007 when Srikanth Srinivasan left the bank as its general manager for IT.

Look Kin’s arrival will also tilt NCBFG’s executive team of six which was evenly split amongst genders to four men and two women. This also means that Group Chief Financial Officer Malcolm Sadler will be the executive with the longest tenure at NCBJ and NCBFG, which will stand at 35 years in 2025. The second longest-serving executive would be Group Chief Compliance Officer Misheca Seymour-Senior, who joined NCBJ in January 2003; Group General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Dave Garcia joined in the 2007 financial year and Group Chief Audit Executive Mukisa Ricketts joined in January 2008. NCBFG Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Robert Almeida formally joined the C-suite in July 2023 despite being on NCBJ’s board since April 2008.

NCBFG has undergone a significant facelift in its board and C-suite within the last year. Its board was effectively run by Jamaicans with former executives Patrick Hylton and Dennis Cohen leading the show. Now, five out of the seven directors are Canadians with Gary Brown, former CEO of CIBC Caribbean Bank Limited; Bruce Bowen, former CEO of Scotia Group Jamaica Limited and current CEO of NCBJ; and Howard L Shearer, son of former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, and current chief executive officer of Hitachi Canada, being elected or appointed in the first half of 2024.

In June 2023, NCBFG, NCBJ and other key subsidiaries were led by Jamaicans. Since the moves made in July 2023, two Canadians, Robert Almeida and Bruce Bowen, were tapped to lead NCBFG and NCBJ, respectively. Additionally, Trinidadian Angus Young was promoted to CEO of NCBCM and Swede Gustav Lanneström as head of regional investment banking.

Other notable departures from NCBJ during 2024 included Raymond Donaldson, former vice-president – corporate and commercial banking, and Jeffrey A Brown, former head of loan structuring and syndications, left in April to join Eppley Limited in May as CEO and chief investment officer, respectively. Nicole Campbell Robinson, former NCBJ head of group marketing and corporate communications, moved to Sagicor Group Jamaica Limited while Simone Hudson Bernard, former vice-president of alternatives & fund management at NCBM, moved to Toronto, Canada, to take up the role of CEO at Fiducia Investment Services Limited. Recently posted roles on
Caribbeanjobs.com for assistant vice-president (AVP) – trading at NCBCM, AVP – equity capital markets, senior vice-president – investment banking and vice-president – alternatives & fund management.

Despite some of these departures, there has been some level of promotion within NCBJ. Ky-Ann Taylor was promoted to general counsel, head of NCBJ’s group legal and corporate services division and company secretary of NCBJ on August 1. The NCBJ general counsel role was formerly held by Garcia whose responsibilities now extend to Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL). Also, of the 15 senior executives listed on NCBJ’s website, nine are women with Dr Karrian Hepburn Malcolm joining NCBJ in December 2023 after spending 13 years in Trinidad with different financial entities. There are also other notable senior leaders in NCBJ such as Sharon Williams, NCBJ’s group head of client experience, who has been with the bank since 1994.

NCBFG’s 2024 audited financials, which should have been published by November 29, have been delayed to December 16 as the conglomerate finalises the adoption of IFRS 17, a new accounting standard for recognising insurance contracts. NCBFG reported under IFRS 4, which was the old standard for their 2023 audited financials. The application of IFRS 17 now affects the 2022, 2023 and 2024 reporting periods. GHL is where NCBFG’s insurance exposure currently lies.