From childhood visits to the home of his family’s roots in Palo Seco, playing football in the field next door, to graduating with an MSc in Sport Management and setting up his own business - Cadena Sport Management Services - Hillan Morean has taken his love for sports and turned it into a thriving livelihood.
What he didn’t expect coming into The UWI was that he would also have taken on the role of President of the Student Guild for three terms and go on to hold public office after graduating from his undergrad studies. Morean is one of The UWI’s all-rounder graduates— taking full advantage of the wide range of skills to be learned while on campus, whether in the classroom or on the field.
“I got involved with the Guild first as a volunteer, then as the elected Sports representative with the Games Committee, and then three terms as the President of the Guild,” says Morean. “So, I had quite an active undergrad.”
At the time, he was spending almost 16 hours a day studying, at classes and playing sports on campus. “The best memories I have are really the opportunities to not just meet and interact with students from all over the world… but also, through the Guild experience, getting into positions of leadership that allowed me to learn and grow.”
These leadership skills would serve him well in the years following his tenure as Student Guild President. In addition to running his own business, he also took on the role of councilor in 2013, and then became deputy mayor of the Port-of-Spain City Corporation in 2016. “Going into local government was not my intention, but because of the learnings I had at The UWI— the confidence and other skillsets obtained in leadership there— it was an easier transition to go in and try my best to be a change-maker,” says Morean.
These days, Morean has stepped back from public service to focus in on his personal goals and family. After returning to The UWI to complete his graduate degree, and having completed an undergrad programme in law, he is taking the necessary steps to be called to the bar and incorporating law into his gamut of skills. “I think law will help to supplement my focus in sport management,” he says, “because the Caribbean has a lot of untapped potential for its sport industry.”
For the cohort of graduates coming out of The UWI, Morean’s advice would be flexibility.
“It’s important that they are as flexible as possible in their mindsets. Even if you have a dream or a goal, sometimes the opportunity that you want is not what you might get right away. UWI is training you so that you can not only be an academic, but you can be as resilient as possible— so you can find yourself qualified and capable even in spaces that you may not have aimed for.”
