In the last three years, perhaps Jamaicans have come to associate the oversight of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme provided by Richard Byles, in his capacity of co-chairman of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), as a natural extension of his business acumen.
In that role, he undoubtedly provided outstanding and courageous leadership that helped to ensure fiscal discipline that contributed to the successful completion of the four-year economic support programme.
Through Byles, EPOC issued monthly assessments of the state of the island’s economy and, each quarter, the likelihood of the Government meeting performance criteria, an initiative that contributed in no small measure to the return of confidence in the economy.
But Byles, the president and chief executive officer of Sagicor Group Jamaica, one of Jamaica’s biggest corporations, has additionally provided leadership in that capacity, as well as in his connections on the boards of several other organisations across different industries, that vastly contributed to Jamaica’s development in a real rather than symbolic manner.
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