Candidates

Dear Readers:

We believe that you should have as much confidence as possible, in those in whom you are placing your trust to manage national affairs. It is for this reason why we plan to provide you with as much relevant information about ourselves as you may request, for rigorous scrutiny, in order to earn your trust. Our singular request is that you limit the boundaries of such scrutiny to ourselves. Thank you in advance for respecting the privacy of our families and friends.

You may click on our candidates’ names to read their introduction to their constituents.

KENNETH LEWIS

ROBERT TOUSSAINT

PATRICIA COX

ANGELA EDEY

VICTORINE WILSON

FALLON BEST

RONALD LORDE

KARINA GOODRIDGE

SUSAN CORBIN

JACQUELINE ALLEYNE-WORRELL

Meet our Leader:

Dr Phillips was the first to expose himself to public scrutiny.  His CV is provided below.

EARNED TITLES
BSc, BEng, MASc, MURP, EngD, CEng, FIStructE, FCIHT, MAPM, MCIArb, FBAPE

POST-GRADUATE ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Doctor of Engineering, 2022
• Master of Applied Science (Environmental Engineering), 1998
• Master of Urban and Rural Planning, 1998
• Bachelor of Engineering (Civil/Structural), 1991
• Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, 1988
• Diploma in Engineering, 1988

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Chartered Engineer (UK)
• Fellow, Institution of Structural Engineers (UK)
• Fellow, Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (UK)
• Member, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• Member, Association for Project Management (UK)
• Registered Professional Engineer in Barbados
• Fellow, Past President, Barbados Association of Professional Engineers

LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

Mr. Phillips has successfully led multidisciplinary teams with diverse and sometimes divergent goals. For most of his career, Mr. Phillips was unanimously elected and re-elected where applicable to lead various organisations, including the following:

• President of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (3 terms – 2000 to 2002) representing the diverse objectives of the different engineering disciplines, including: civil, structural, environmental, chemical, electrical, mechanical, computer, and industrial engineering.
• Chairman – Barbados Professional Services Export Committee (2002) identifying the requirements that Barbadian professionals (of 25 professional organisations) will have to comply with in order to operate within the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the Government’s actions that hinder economic growth.
• Deputy Chairman – Ministry of Economic Development Advisory Committee (2003) that advised the Minister.
• President of the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries (2 terms – 2002 to 2004) representing the divergent interests of 35 professional and non-professional organizations, and implementing the action plans developed by the Export Committee.
• Institution of Structural Engineers’ Representative on the team accrediting the Civil Engineering degree programme at the University of the West Indies (2004).
• Secretary of the Institution of Structural Engineers, Caribbean Division (2 terms 2006 to 2008) representing the interests of structural engineers from all of the Caribbean islands, plus Bermuda, Belize, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname and Florida.
• President of the Combermere School Old Scholars Association (2 terms – 2008 to 2010), representing the various interests of past and present students and staff.
• Director – Consulting Engineers Partnership Ltd (2004 to 2011), in addition to his normal activities, he helped CEP to become the first services company in the Caribbean to achieve ISO 9001 certification in 2005, and to achieve BIDC’s Exceptional Quality award.
• President – Walbrent College (2010 to present), training builders to construct safe and durable houses.
• President – Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (2016-2017) representing the diverse objectives of the different engineering disciplines, including: civil, structural, environmental, chemical, electrical, mechanical, computer, and industrial engineering.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE EXAMPLES

Mr. Phillips has prepared and implemented competitiveness strategies and action plans at company, professional association, national and regional levels, including the following:

• As an active Director of Consulting Engineers Partnership Ltd (CEP), Mr. Phillips was acutely aware of the challenges of managing a brand with a history of approximately 50 years, while successfully competing with significantly larger multinational companies around the Caribbean. As the Director responsible for, among other things, strategic planning, the company developed increasingly more efficient and effective procedures, developed new competencies, and actively pursued strengths.
• As President of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE), Mr. Phillips studied the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services in order to strategically position Barbados based engineers to compete in the global marketplace. Mr. Phillips developed a Continuing Development Programme program which was subsequently adopted by BAPE and recognised by the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK). He also led from the front to become the first engineer to pass the Chartered Structural Engineer examinations in 15 years in Barbados. He then held a workshop to prepare Caribbean based engineers to take the examination – most of the workshop’s participants passed the examination that year and became chartered structural engineers.
• As Chairman of the Barbados Professional Services Export Committee, Mr. Phillips assessed: the capacity of 25 different professions in Barbados to exporting their services, the Government actions that hindered them, and the actual trade barriers in the intended markets. The actual trade barriers were identified for Canada (Toronto), the US (California and New York), and Mexico by attempting to export services to these countries.
• As President of the Barbados Coalition of Service Providers, Mr. Phillips actively facilitated the implementation of the Strategy’s action plans to increase the competitiveness of approximately 5,000 service providers through their representative organizations. As a result, he was presented with the Visionary Award by the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries in 2009.
• Phillips was one of a six-member team that prepared a comprehensive regional competitiveness strategy for the construction and installation services sector in the CARICOM region, for the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.
• For over a decade Mr. Phillips has represented Barbados’ service providers in numerous market access meetings in the region in preparation for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services treaties. He was also Barbados’ services representative at the United Nations’ (UNCTAD) Expert Meeting on “Trade and Development Aspects of Professional Services and Regulatory Frameworks” in Geneva in 2005.
• Phillips developed the “Regional Code of Practice for the Construction of Houses” (2005) in collaboration with the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ). He also developed an associated course for regional technical schools. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he rewrote the course to address the structural engineering lessons learnt from post-2005 natural disasters around the Caribbean and common maintenance complaints.

AWARDS

• Visionary Award, Barbados Coalition of Service Industries, 2009
• Winner, National Innovation Competition, 2014

PUBLICATIONS (Select List)

• Regional Code of Practice for the Construction of Houses (Principal Author), 2005 – How to build a strong and durable houses in the Caribbean.
• Brothers Kept Apart, 2008 – An honest comparative analysis of the Bible and the Qur’an which found harmony between their principal teachings, without compromising any teaching or damaging the integrity of any verse in either book. However, almost irreconcilable differences were found between the traditions of Christianity and Islam.
• Solving the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 2009 – A resolution of the religious reasons for the conflict, which have forced both sides to negotiate in bad-faith in order to avoid the fatal consequences of making unpopular decisions.
• Colliding with Truth, 2011 – A review of Jesus’ method of determining what is true.
• What do these Cracks Mean? 2012 – A reference manual to diagnose cracks in buildings.
• Attraction is a Feeling, Love is a Promise, 2013 – Marriage can be a satisfying and exciting life-journey for a man and a woman who love each other. However, the significant number of divorced and separated persons indicates that there is a fundamental problem with their marriage preparation. The dreaded phrase “I just don’t love you anymore” is common among those who mistook their intense feelings of attraction as love. A resource to identify whether a person is ready for marriage.

CAREER PATH (Summary)

During most of his secondary school years at Combermere Secondary School, Mr. Phillips worked as a farmer, responsible for raising chickens, and managing sheep, goats and a cow. He also planted and reaped beans. Towards the end of his secondary school education, he was employed as a labourer in the construction industry, cutting sight lines for a surveyor. He later also functioned as a surveyor’s assistant.

Mr. Phillips next employment opportunity was as a draughtsman for an engineering firm during several summers of his university education. For the next two decades after his graduation, he was employed as an Engineer-in-training, Engineer, Senior Engineer, Associate, Partner and Director of Consulting Engineer’s Partnership Ltd.

Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Mr. Phillips volunteered to be deployed to Haiti. During his first 1-month deployment, he recognised the need for a regional college to train construction supervisors to build houses properly. Upon his return to Barbados, he promptly founded Walbrent College.  Mr. Phillips deployed to Haiti a further 10 times between 2010 and 2016. Walbrent College has trained hundreds of senior artisan and construction supervisors around the Caribbean on how to build strong and low-maintenance (durable) houses.

ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE

For the past 30 years, Mr Phillips has worked on a wide range of project management and engineering projects in the Caribbean region. His experience includes:

• Project management of roads, bridges and buildings;
• Structural engineering design of timber, masonry, structural steel, and reinforced concrete structures;
• Structural condition and vulnerability assessments of buildings to natural hazards;
• Environmental engineering design of sewerage and solid waste collection and treatment facilities;
• Highway engineering design and evaluation of roads, bridges, aircraft runways and taxiways;
• Coastal engineering design of seawalls, dolphins, and outfalls.
• Preparing and managing development planning applications;
• Preparing and managing consultancy and construction contracts;
• Resolving construction disputes and fairly determining construction claims; and
• Training building designers, contractors, and inspectors in multi-hazard design and construction methods.
• Almost immediately following Hurricane Ivan in 2004,  Mr. Phillips was responsible for developing and conducting workshops in every parish in Grenada in order to train Grenadian artisans to rebuild to higher standards.  He audited and strengthened the Planning departments in both Grenada and Dominica to improve the quality of construction. He also developed and conducted workshops in Grenada and Dominica to train designers, planners, and building inspectors in current multi-hazard design and construction methods.

COUNTRIES OF WORK EXPERIENCE

Mr. Phillips has worked in: Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Panama, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands.

PRINCIPAL MOTIVATIONAL FACTOR

Recognising that he only has one life to live, Mr. Phillips is passionate about pursuing and sharing Truth. This has led him to accept and follow the teachings of Jesus, which can be summarised as: loving God unashamedly, demonstrably loving people, and pursuing excellence in every responsibility.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH (Personal)

I have found that the older I get, the more the boundaries appear to be blurred between what I do and who I am. I am a: son, brother, husband, father, friend, employer, marriage counsellor, teacher, musician, singer, composer, inventor, author, publisher, mathematician, programmer, designer, engineer (civil, structural, environmental, highways and transportation), project manager, planner, and current president of Walbrent College.

I try to: help the less fortunate, befriend the stranger, encourage the despondent, guide the wanderer, know God, never compromise personal integrity regardless of the price offered, and pursue excellence even when there is no reward.

PRINCIPAL PET PEEVE (Personal)

One of the greatest tragedies of life is to choose not to verify the assumptions upon which the interpretation of evidence was based, while confidently asserting that personal opinion is truth. Recorded history has shown that this was a common occurrence in every civilization. Regrettably it still is, especially among those who have abandoned evidence-based science and have embraced ideologically based activism.

Research integrity demands that we attach the same weight to credible evidence that supports our biases and does not support our biases.  All of us have biases.  Our available options appear to be either research integrity, or the end-justifies-the-dishonest-means.  I have chosen the way of integrity.