Roach acting as CEO

Minister of Tourism Senator Lisa Cummins is dismissing reports that veteran tourism executive Petra Roach has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI).

Roach, who is substantively the Head of Global Markets, a role she took up a year ago, is now in the chair of the CEO, but in an acting position.

Cummins explained that having a senior executive of the tourism promotion and marketing agency act in the role of CEO was nothing new.

“No, there has been no appointed CEO. We still have an interim CEO and the role, because of the weight and responsibility, is being rotated among its senior managers. That is all that has happened,” said Cummins.

“There has been no appointment to the role of CEO. So it has been held initially by the Director of Marketing (Robert Chase), it has now rotated to Ms Roach,” she explained.

Chase, who was appointed Marketing Director in 2015, was acting in the position of CEO following the departure of William Billy Griffith at the end of December last year.

Roach will now take up that acting position. The process of recruiting a permanent CEO is still ongoing, the Minister said.
(MM)