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BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, August 30, 2017 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris has extended his heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Howard McEachrane for his leadership and service as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Limited.

 

Mr. McEachrane will demit his post as Chairman of the Board of Directors on Thursday, August 31, 2017.

 

Prime Minster Harris met with Mr. McEachrane and other members of the Board of Directors earlier on Tuesday at Government Headquarters. He was supported at that meeting by Cabinet Secretary, Mrs. Josephine Huggins, and Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Mr. Andrew Skerritt.

 

In addressing Mr. McEachrane, the honourable prime minister said, “I wanted on behalf of the Cabinet, representing the major shareholding interest in the bank, to express our deep appreciation to the chairman for his astute leadership of the bank over the few years that he has been in this onerous role. So I wanted to thank the Board generally for their strength and independence, and more specifically to thank the Chairman for his very strong leadership of the bank, coming in at a time when there were still many issues facing correspondent banks and those issues have not become less in their intensity or in their salience, and so we were happy when Howard had accepted to chair the bank where he helped to create the appropriate synergies in strengthening the Board. In addition, he brought a wealth of knowledge as a businessman, as a financial personality and more so as someone who loves the country to bear to that particular leadership.”

 

Mr. McEachrane, in his response, thanked the Team Unity Government for affording him the opportunity to serve as Chairman of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Limited for the past two years.

 

Describing his tenure as Chairman of the Board as challenging and rewarding, Mr. McEachrane said he expects the Board to continue operating with the same level of success it has operated with since it was installed in April, 2015. He also pledged his further support to the Board.

 

He added, “It has been a very challenging and interesting time there with the diversity of skills on the Board and strength of characters. As I’ve said several times, on the Board, the individuals there put a lot of heart and a lot of emotions into it and they bring diverse skills to the table, often disagreeing and not seeing eye to eye on certain things but in the end with the same consensus to try to achieve the success of the bank and that I think is very good. The energy is there, so going forward I expect they will continue to sustain the success of the enterprise.”

 

The prime minister also singled out the contributions made by Director Theodore Hobson QC, who is expected to step down from his role at the end of September, 2017.

 

Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris presented tokens of appreciation, on behalf of the entire Federal Cabinet, to both Mr. McEachrane and Mr. Hobson in recognition of their service to the bank and the country on a whole.