 On March 19, 2019, the St Augustine Campus Council will host its annual meeting. For the first time in a decade, it will do so with a new Campus Council Chair. Ms Sharon Christopher has been appointed to the post, succeeding former Central Bank Governor Mr Ewart Williams.
Within a few minutes of her interview with UWI Today, it’s clear why she was offered the post. She believes in Caribbean institutions - what they are and what they have the potential to become. She believes in realising potential. That belief, in fact, is so strong that Ms Christopher played an integral role in the team responsible for the transformation of one of Trinidad and Tobago’s most successful state-owned financial institutions, First Citizens. It is an outlook, coupled with experience, from which The UWI can benefit enormously at this moment in time.
“We have to let people understand the importance of institutions that aid in national development,” she says, “the importance of understanding that who we are is critical to our success. We must never feel ashamed of what we are but we must also work constantly to be better.”
It’s a resounding message for a university, and a region, facing many challenges - financial constraints, increasing international competition, and questions of relevance in the modern age. Those are the challenges with which the Campus Council, a governing body made up of senior campus administrators, staff representatives, members of the Guild of Students, representatives of the academic boards of the other campuses, alumni and several other stakeholders, grapple in the annual meeting.
Ms Christopher has already begun to prepare: “I did attend my first meeting with the Finance and General Purposes Committee and I have been reviewing many of the documents related to the governance of the university…. I’m just getting my feet wet. I suppose a lot of my work will be around attending meetings and providing guidance.”
An attorney-at-law, leadership development coach, motivational speaker, and founder and CEO of Sharon Christopher and Associates, Ms Christopher has a powerhouse professional history in law, finance and corporate governance. She’s sat on the boards of numerous private and public sector organisations, regionally and internationally. In addition, she was a key member of the entity involved in developing the National Code of Corporate Governance. Ms Christopher has even found time to be an advocate for social justice and the empowerment of women, serving as the founding chair of the advisory board of the Institute of Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) at The UWI.
When asked about her many professional successes, she is surprisingly modest:
“I don’t know if I would call myself high achieving.One thing I would say, is that I only do things I believe in. I have to believe in what I’m doing. Then, once I’m doing it, I give it my all. That really feeds me.”
When it comes to her almost 30-year career at First Citizens, Ms Christopher most definitely believed in the mission and gave it her all. She calls her time there as “one of the defining moments of my life”. The bank itself is as outspoken in recognising her contribution to its success. When she retired as Deputy Chief Executive in 2016, First Citizens issued a statement saying “she was instrumental in growing First Citizens from a local commercial bank to a financial powerhouse with subsidiaries and a solid presence in Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Costa Rica…. We owe much of our growth and success to Sharon Christopher.”
While she is undoubtedly proud of First Citizens’ achievement (the company went from its US-born CEO declaring it should be scrapped and sold to bringing in a billion in revenue in the space of 25 years), Ms Christopher is very clear on who should be applauded for their success.
“When you are doing the kind of work (we did), being relentless in the execution of our vision, it is critical that every single employee is part of it,” she says. “It got to a stage where people would say if you cut a First Citizens person they would bleed green (the company colour). First Citizens people were so loyal to the organisation.”
A shared vision from which all actions flow, complete buy-in from staff, maximising strengths in technology and customer service and communicating your achievements so that the society at large can understand and appreciate the work being done - these were the keys to First Citizens success, Ms Christopher says. She believes they will also be useful for The UWI.
“I have seen the University’s current strategic plan and it is very robust. What I would really bring to the table is just an understanding of what we did (at First Citizens), what worked, and sharing ideas about other things that can be done at the University,” she says.
She has two concerns about The UWI. Branding and communication with the wider society is the first one. “I really think it is important for the university to be totally relatable and relevant to the society,” she says. “So much good work is being done, especially in terms of research but how is it feeding back into the public in a way that they can understand?” The second is the shared vision of staff. While organisations might have well-articulated visions, missions and strategic plans, she says, if these do not become part of the psyche of your people. Then they remain just part of the records of the organisation and no more. I know coming out of the corporate world that this is a serious problem. It is why many strategic plans don’t work. People don’t feel it.”
She’s not dismayed by the potential hurdles. After all, she has overcome them already. And more importantly she understands the importance of the University and of education in general to the development of individuals and societies.
Born in Grenada, she moved with her family to Trinidad and Tobago when she was almost two-years-old. Her father was a military man who served as aide-de-camp to the Governor General at the time, before eventually becoming commanding officer of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment, and then after retirement an Anglican priest. Her mother is a housewife. “She’s going to be 90 in a few months,” Ms Christopher says. “She is a truly forward thinking person. At her age she gets up early every morning and is using WhatsApp on her laptop or tablet. She is always encouraging us (she has three siblings) to do our best and to really understand that the world is somewhere exciting to be.”
That combination of parental discipline, dynamism and openness to life was enhanced at school. She attended Bishop Anstey High School, which experience “had a significant impact on manyof the decisions (she) took in life” and then studied law at The UWI, before going to Europe and studying at the London School of Economics and Political Science
Now she returns to The UWI to contribute to its further development they way it contributed to hers. “The University has been such a significant institution for national development throughout the entire Caribbean and it is the duty of everyone connected with it to ensure that it continues,” she says. “It is up to all of us to ensure that this university is sustainable and continues to be credible and continues to perform a very important role in the area of national development.”
Sounds like an exciting place to be. |
