Pension Reform in Trinidad and Tobago – National Insurance System

Feyaad Khan joined the National Insurance Board of Trinidad and Tobago in 2014 as the Executive Manager of Policy, Planning and Actuarial Services. Prior to this appointment, he held Senior Management positions in the Insurance Sector for over 10 years.

Feyaad is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst by profession and a graduate of the University of Waterloo in Toronto, Canada.

His interests include part-time lecturing with his last stint being at the University of the West Indies where he taught Undergraduate courses in the Actuarial Science programme. He is a member of the leadership council for Social Insurance and Public Finance at the Society of Actuaries where he promotes high quality education for the actuarial community and coordinates research into evaluating and managing social insurance programmes across the globe. Feyaad has presented on social insurance at several local and international seminars since joining the NIBTT and is a member of the International Social Security Association.

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Derek is a Partner and senior actuary in the international practice of Morneau Shepell. Morneau Shepell is the largest company in Canada offering human resources consulting and outsourcing services.

Derek is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, Canada, and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. He is a past president of the Caribbean Actuarial Association. He has over 20 years’ experience in social security and pensions in the Caribbean and has conducted actuarial reviews for most of the Caribbean’s national insurance funds. He served as Actuary to the Bahamas National Insurance Board for 18 years, and for 5 years led an ILO programme that provided actuarial reviews and capacity building for six Caribbean countries. In 2004, he wrote a book on the State of Social Security in The CARICOM Single Market & Economy.

Derek, who is originally from Montserrat, is a Trini by descent, and worked at Maritime Life for two years prior to moving to the Bahamas in 1994. He currently serves as Treasurer of The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation. He is married and has two children.

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Dr. Ramkissoon studied Economics at the University of the West Indies from which he gained B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. Before joining Republic Bank in 1992, he was employed by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago for twelve years as an Economist. Ronald has written and published on several subjects, mainly in monetary and trade matters and is a frequent commentator on economic issues.  Until November 2013, he was Republic Bank’s Senior Economist and Manager of its Economic Intelligence Unit.

Dr. Ramkissoon is a member of several business and professional bodies. He is a member of Trinidad and Tobago’s Fair Trading Commission (FTC) and of the British-Caribbean Chamber of Commerce (Trinidad and Tobago). Dr. Ramkissoon was recently appointed to the country’s Economic Development Advisory Board (EDAB). He is 2014 Distinguished Alumni of the University of the West Indies Alumni Association (UWIAA).

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Mr. Browne is the Managing Partner of a management consultancy practice Elida Management Services Limited. The firm provides advisory services for companies which require assistance in strategic planning and corporate turnarounds. This includes advice on financial restructuring where required. He has successfully led and completed turnaround exercises in Trinidad and Tobago and in the region.

Mr. Browne has considerable experience in the Financial Services sector in the region and has arranged several private sector funding placements. He served as Managing Director of two commercial banks in Barbados and held senior management positions in the banking sector in Trinidad and Tobago. He read for an undergraduate degree in economics at the University of the West Indies and an MBA at Manchester Business School. Mr. Browne is a chartered accountant by profession and is a former President of the Barbados Bankers Association, Vice President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago and Treasurer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean.

He serves as a non-executive Director on the Board of a publicly listed company and lectures at the Arthur Lok Jack School of Business in Trinidad and at the Cave Hill School of Business in Barbados, both part of the University of the West Indies. He currently hosts a weekly radio programme which deals with topics of economic development and writes regularly on issues of political economy in the region. He has also served as a member of the Cabinet of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago as a Minister with responsibility for Trade and Industry and in the Ministry of Finance between 2007 and 2010.

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Dr. Claude H. Denbow S.C. graduated from London University with double first class honours in the LL.B. in 1971.He was awarded the LL.M. by the London University and the Ph.D. for a thesis on Income Tax Law in 1976. He was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1971 and has been admitted to practice in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, and Cayman. He has appeared as Counsel in the Privy Council and in arbitration proceedings in London. He has also appeared as Counsel in litigation proceedings in Cayman.

He was made Senior Counsel in Trinidad and Tobago in 1998. He has attended the Harvard Law School’s Programme of Instruction for Lawyers on several occasions and is familiar with the language and principles of American financial and commercial law. He practices exclusively in the area of Civil Law particularly in the fields of Company Law, Banking, Insurance, Insolvency, Pensions, Securities Regulation and Income Tax. In 1998 he was elected to a Fellowship of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies in London for distinguished contribution to legal scholarship and the practice of law.

He is presently a member of various business law committees of the International Bar Association, The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Inc. and the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago. He has written extensively over the past three decades for local, regional and international journals on corporate, insurance and tax law and has served as the West Indian correspondent of the Journal of Business Law (London). He is the author of the leading textbook entitled “Life Insurance Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean”. His latest book on “Income Tax Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean” was published in London by Butterworths in early 1997.

He has served on Trinidad and Tobago government committees in relation to company law and insurance law. He has acted as a Consultant to the United Nations bodies on investment insurance and tax law in the Commonwealth Caribbean; to the Caribbean Law Institute in relation to its programme for the development and harmonization of commercial law in the Caribbean. He has hosted several seminars on Corporate Law in Trinidad.

He has served as a director on the boards of a commercial bank and an actuarial services company. He has pioneered litigation in the original jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and has appeared in the majority of the cases to go to Trial in the CCJ in that jurisdiction. He has also appeared as an expert witness, before the Ontario Supreme Court on the Insurance law in Barbados relating to the transfer of a life insurance portfolio of a Canadian Company to a local company.

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