2018 ANNUAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE
Developing Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology for Global Competitiveness

The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) hosted the 2018 Annual Research Conference themed “Developing Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology for Global Competitiveness” on Thursday, September 27, 2018 from 8:30am to 2:30pm at our Main Campus at 17 Worthington Avenue in New Kingston, Jamaica.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Message delivered on behalf of the Most Honourable Prime Minister Andrew Holness

Hon. Floyd Green, MP
Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth & Information

This son of St. Elizabeth has an outstanding academic track record with his foundation being laid at Munro College, then further nurtured at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus.

At UWI Mona he read for a degree in History and a minor in Political Science. While there he was able to combine academic pursuit with his love for service and served the students in the capacities of Cultural and Entertainment Affairs Chairman of the Guild of Students and Vice President of the Guild of Students.

KEYNOTE THEME PRESENTATION

Ambassador Ralph Thomas, JP
Senior Teaching Fellow,
Mona School of Business, UWI

His Excellency Ambassador Ralph Thomas served as Jamaica’s Ambassador the United States until April 2016 and prior to that, Ambassador to China. He has also held the following positions: Non-Resident High Commissioner to the Republic of Singapore, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Designate to Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Kingdom of Cambodia; Lao People’s Democratic Republic; Islamic Republic of Pakistan; People’s Republic of Bangladesh; and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

He was also Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States, in Washington D.C.

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PLENARY SESSION 1
ThemeEvolving Prospects for Economic Growth and Development in Jamaica

Dr. Constant Lonkeng Ngouana
IMF Resident Representative for Jamaica

Dr. Constant Lonkeng Ngouana, a Cameroonian national, is the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Resident Representative for Jamaica since July 2016. Dr. Lonkeng Ngouana joined the IMF in 2010 through its young professional program and has since worked in the African Department, the Institute for Capacity Development, and in the Fiscal Affairs Department.

During 2014–15, he was the fiscal economist on the IMF Jamaica team. He has also participated in IMF technical assistance to Jamaica and Malaysia, as well as at the IMF-Singapore Training Institute.

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Ambassador Aloun N’dombet Assamba
CEO, COK Sodality Co-Op Credit Union

 
  • An Attorney-at-Law & Mediator for over 30 years, admitted to the Bar in 1981.
  • Ambassador has held Key positions in public, private enterprise as well as in the Diplomatic Corp.
  • A Supreme Court appointed Mediator and Trainer in Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • A positive thinker who takes her responsibilities seriously; she believes that human capital is the number one asset and makes every effort to connect with and engage those she leads.

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Mrs. Mariame McIntosh Robinson
President & CEO, First Global Bank

Mrs. Mariame McIntosh Robinson joined First Global Bank in Jamaica as President & CEO in 2016 to lead the Bank’s transformation and strategic pursuit of Financial Inclusion. Prior to this, Mariame was a private equity investor for 7 years where she was a Partner at Portland Private Equity, the largest private equity fund management company focused on the Caribbean region which successfully raised two US$200M+ Funds.

Mariame also worked as a Strategy Consultant for 8 years with McKinsey & Company, Atlanta office and Bain & Company New York office where she was a Manager prior to joining Portland.  Mariame currently serves as a Trustee on United Way Worldwide Board and several private and public Boards in Jamaica and Barbados. Mariame is also the Board Chair of TEACH Caribbean, an educational NGO she co-founded in 2006 with seed financing from Rhodes Trust to provide access to quality education for economically disadvantaged youth.

Mariame has a BSc in Electrical Engineering from MIT, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar. She is married and has a son.

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ModeratorMr. John Robinson, CD, JP
Senior Deputy Governor, Bank of Jamaica

Mr. Robinson was appointed Senior Deputy Governor, Bank of Jamaica in December 2013. He is the Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Jamaica Board of Directors, member of all policy making committees – Supervision, Economic Policy, Financial Stability and Trustee of the Bank’s Pension Scheme.

He is experienced in the analysis and resolution of a range of policy issues – monetary policy formulation and implementation; exchange rate regime choice and management; financial sector reform, structural adjustment, macroeconomic modeling and forecasting.

PLENARY SESSION 2
Theme: Cultivating Leadership, through Innovative Teaching and Research

Dr. Peter Ndajah
Head of Mathematics Department, UCC

Dr Peter Ndajah received a Ph.D in Information Science and Engineering from Niigata University, Japan in 2011. He is currently Head of the mathematics Department at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Kingston, Jamaica. Dr Ndajah has worked extensively in the areas of mathematics, physics and computer science and has a wide academic and industrial experience. He is also the recipient of several international scholarships in the course of his studies. These include scholarships from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and the Mombukagakusho Japanese Government Scholarship (Monkasho).

Dr Ndajah has done ground breaking work in the theory of total variation for which he was approached to write a book in 2012. At the moment he continues to deepen research in total variation. His other research interests currently range from wireless communication and security, robotics, image and video processing, variational calculus to nonlinear functional analysis.

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Dr. David Bennett
Lecturer - Human Resource Management, UCC

Dr. David Bennett is a Full-time lecturer in the School of Business and Management at University of the Commonwealth Caribbean. He received a doctorate in Organizational Development in 2014 from Grand Canyon University (Arizona, USA).

Among his research interests are: leadership in organizations particularly traits and behaviors of effective leadership, organizational culture and development, and employee engagement.

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Mr. Dominic Allen
Chief Information Officer, CTRL-IT

Mr. Dominic Allen stands at the forefront of the country's technology industry evolution. He’s spent the past twelve years evangelizing industry-wide digital transformation and has positioned CTRL-IT as a leader in the technology consulting space. A calculated risk-taker with deep tech industry knowledge, Dominic has championed radically improving the experiential design of products and services for enterprise, government and consumer customers.

Dominic is recognized for designing, landing, and leading the Automated Digital Customer Onboarding Solution for the largest Commercial bank in CARICOM, First in Market Programmatic Marketing E-commerce Mobile Application for Grace Kennedy's HiLo Supermarkets, and fraud prevention tools for National Commercial Bank. Throughout his 13-year tenure with Microsoft, Dominic has built a reputation for developing business strategies and incubating moonshot ideas. With core values of integrity, innovation, and growth,

Dominic is well respected among his peers and in business. He is a married Microsoft Certified Professional with one six-year-old daughter and another on the way.

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Moderator: Dr. Claudette Coote-Thompson
Dean of Undergraduate Studies, UCC

Dr. Claudette Coote-Thompson completed doctoral studies in Curriculum and Instruction at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Literacy Specialization at Columbia University. With over 30 years cumulative experience  as an educator, Dr. Thompson has successfully lead Professional Development School (PDS) model teacher preparation programmes and contributed to course design and delivery of Literacy, Academic Writing, Technical Writing, World Views and Organizational Communication undergraduate and graduate curricula for North American and Jamaican higher education institutions.

An advocate for engaging and innovative teaching, she has published works on: peer tutoring in technology instruction and integration, teaching for critical thinking, two-text analysis for promoting writing depth among middle-school students and multicultural literature as a prompt for conversations about social justice.

In her current capacity as UCC Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Thompson manages faculty, curriculum and programme development.


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