Board of Directors

Vincent Pereira was appointed to the Board of Republic Bank Limited in July 2019. He is the current President of BHP Trinidad and Tobago – an upstream oil and gas producer in Trinidad and Tobago – and has more than 35 years of energy sector experience, having worked in Trinidad and Tobago and the United States. In his present role at BHP Trinidad and Tobago, which he has held since 2005, Mr. Pereira leads the firm’s safe and reliable operations, working toward ensuring the growth of a legacy business in Trinidad and Tobago. Currently, the company operates the Greater Angostura Development and the Block 3(a) Ruby Oil and Gas development, which is in earlyproject development phase. BHP Trinidad and Tobago is also the sole operator of frontier Deepwater exploration acreage in the country. Under Mr. Pereira’s watch, the company has successfully executed two additional major offshore upstream development projects, continuing to make significant progress in the seamless transition from an oil-focused entity to a substantial gas producer and supplier. His focus remains on leading and maintaining the external stakeholder engagements required to ensure the long-run viability of BHP in Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Pereira is a Petroleum Engineer and holds an MBA from Houston Baptist University.
External Appointments
Mr. Pereira is a Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and a Board member of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago. He is the current Deputy Chairman of United Way Trinidad and Tobago, and serves on the Board of the Vitas House Hospice.

Nigel M. Baptiste, Managing Director, Republic Bank Limited and President and Chief Executive Officer, Republic Financial Holdings Limited since 2016, is a career banker with more than two decades of experience. Prior to his current position, he has served as Deputy Managing Director and Executive Director of Republic Bank Limited, General Manager Human Resources as well as Managing Director of the Group’s subsidiary in Guyana. Mr. Baptiste currently serves on the Boards of Republic Bank Limited, Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited, Republic Bank (Ghana) Limited, Cayman National Corporation and other subsidiaries within the Republic Group. He holds a BSc (Hons.) and an MSc in Economics from the University of the West Indies, is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme, holds a diploma with distinction from the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking (USA), and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (England).

Derwin M. Howell was appointed an Executive Director of Republic Bank Limited in 2012. He also serves as Chairman of Republic Bank (Barbados) Limited and Republic Bank (Suriname) N.V. Mr. Howell holds a BSc. In Electrical Engineering (First Class Honours) and an Executive MBA both from the University of the West Indies. He holds an MSc in Telecommunications Systems from the University of Essex and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program (AMP). He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (SMIEEE), a Member of the Engineering Council of the United Kingdom (Chartered Engineer) and a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET).

External Appointments
Mr. Howell is the Chairman of Habitat for Humanity Trinidad and Tobago and a Chancellor’s Representative on the UWI St. Augustine Campus Council.

Roopnarine Oumade Singh was appointed Executive Director of Republic Bank Limited in 2016. He currently serves on the Boards of London Street Project Company Limited, Republic Bank (Cayman) Limited, Republic Insurance Company (Cayman) Limited, Cayman National Corporation, Republic Bank Trinidad and Tobago (Barbados) Limited, Republic Securities Limited and Republic Wealth Management Limited. Mr. Oumade Singh is a former director of Republic Finance and Merchant Bank Limited and has served as the Trinidad and Tobago User Group Chairperson for the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT). He holds a BSc and an MSc in Economics from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, as well as an MBA, specialising in Finance and Operations research, from Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Shazan Ali was appointed to the Republic Group Board of Directors in 2010. He is the Chief Executive Officer of TOSL Engineering Limited and has a wealth of experience in the energy industry, having spent more than 3 decades developing TOSL Engineering into a world-class operation with interests in the wider Caribbean, the Guianas and Sub- Saharan Africa.

External Appointments
Mr. Ali is a Council Member of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago (ECTT). In this role, he aims to fashion a more proactive energy services sector that will redound more financial benefits to Trinidad and Tobago’s economy. He is also a Director of Republic Bank Limited and Republic Bank (Suriname) N.V.

Trevor Gomez was appointed to the Board of Republic Bank Limited in September 2020. He is the current Executive Chairman of Gravitas Business Solutions Limited and has more than 30 years of public accounting experience serving a diversified portfolio of clients with an emphasis on the financial services sector, consumer products, industrial products, retail and distribution, public companies, multi-nationals, and other large regional and domestic clients. Mr. Gomez has developed a robust understanding of critical business processes, financial accounting and reporting, and regulatory issues facing companies in several industries across the Caribbean. Over the course of his career in regional assurance operations, Mr. Gomez has used this understanding to the benefit of 15 partners and 300 team members who managed more than 500 audit clients.
Prior to his current position, Mr. Gomez served at Ernst & Young for 25 years (1991 – 2015). In that time, he served as a Partner (1999), an Assurance Regional Service Line Leader (2004), and a Country Managing Partner (CMP) (2008). He is also a former Chair of the Audit and Accounting Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Gomez is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of the UK and a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Trinidad and Tobago.

External Appointments
Mr. Gomez serves on several boards, spanning a wide range of businesses in the fields of financial services, consumer products, industrial products, and the automotive industry. He currently serves on the boards of Agostini’s Limited, Unilever Caribbean Limited and four subsidiary companies within the Massy Holdings Group.

Alison Lewis was appointed to the Republic Group Board of Directors in 2014. A former Governor of the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, Ms. Lewis has served as an Advisor in the office of Executive Director, World Bank, as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, and as a former Commissioner on the Securities and Exchange Commission. In August 2015, Ms. Lewis was awarded the Public Service Medal of Merit (Gold) by the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for meritorious and outstanding service. Over the last two decades, Ms. Lewis has served on several Boards, including the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad Cement Limited, the Sovereign Wealth Funds Group, the Economic Development Advisory Board and she is the former Chairman of the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.

External Appointments
Ms. Lewis is a Director at Niquan Energy (Trinidad) Limited and Niquan Energy LLC.

Kristine Thompson was appointed to the Republic Group Board of Directors in 2011. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Sunshine Snacks Limited, a member of the Associated Brands Industries Limited (ABIL) Group. She is also a founder of the Chuck E. Cheese’s family entertainment restaurant franchise in Trinidad. Prior to this, she was involved in project development, particularly in the energy sector, and has extensive experience in the fields of strategy, finance, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and general management. The early years of her career were spent in management consulting with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where she advised Fortune 500 companies with stints at BCG’s Toronto, New York, Buenos Aires, and Melbourne offices. She later headed the Business Development function at Guardian Holdings for many years. Mrs. Thompson holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University in Canada and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

External Appointments
Mrs. Thompson currently serves as the Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Maple Leaf International School, Industrial Rubber Products (IRP) Ltd, and the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business.

Gregory I. Thomson was appointed to the Republic Group Board of Directors in 2014. He served as the Deputy Managing Director of Republic Bank Limited for seven years before retiring from this position in 2012. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Republic Bank (Grenada) Limited. Mr. Thomson has more than 35 years of experience in Banking and Finance and holds a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

External Appointments
Mr. Thomson is currently on the Board of Directors of One Caribbean Media Ltd.

Edward Ince was appointed to the Republic Bank Group of Directors in 2016. Mr. Ince is currently Senior Partner/Co-Founder with Frontlight Ventures, a regional investment and consulting firm. He was formerly Managing Director of Prism Services, a payments and operations outsourcing company that he co-founded in 1993, which has subsidiaries throughout the Caribbean and Central America and prior to that General Manager of Fujitsu-ICL Caribbean Eastern Caribbean. Mr. Ince has extensive knowledge of the Caribbean region, coupled with a background in technology, payments and back-office processing. Mr. Ince is a graduate of York University, Canada where he obtained a BSc. (Hons) in Computer Science and is a National Aubrey Collymore Scholarship recipient for sciences.

External Appointments
Non-Executive Director of Prism Services Holdings. He also serves as a non-executive director of Foster & Ince Cruise Services, Cave Shepherd & Co Ltd and the Barbados Sugar Industry Ltd.

Jacqueline Quamina. is a former Executive Director, of Republic Bank Limited and former Group General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Republic Bank Limited and Republic Financial Holdings Limited. Ms. Quamina has extensive experience in corporate law as well as banking, finance and mergers and acquisitions in the Caribbean. Her experience in the Group also included responsibility for communications, governance, risk and compliance. An Attorney-at-Law with more than two decades of experience, she holds an LL.B. from The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine and was called to the Bar of England and Wales where she is a member of Grays Inn. Ms. Quamina holds a MA from the University of London, an Executive MBA from the University of the West Indies, and is a graduate of the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme. She has participated in the Corporate Governance, Executive Education Program, Stanford University, and has completed the Institute of Chartered Secretaries of Canada Director Education and Accreditation Programme and the Certificate in Corporate Governance at the Caribbean Corporate Governance Institute. In July 2016, Ms Quamina was awarded the “Fellow of the Institute of Banking and Finance of Trinidad and Tobago for Distinguished and Meritorious Service to the Banking and Finance Industry”.

External Appointments
Ms. Quamina is the Chairman of the National Insurance Board of Trinidadand Tobago, she also serves on the board of Republic Bank(Barbados) Limited, Republic Finance and Trust (Barbados) Corporation, Republic Funds Incorporated and Trinidad and Tobago National Gas Limited. She is a member of the International Womens Forum.