The Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI) has a new board of directors.
It announced today that young businessman Ryan R. Brathwaite has been appointed as the Chairman of its 13-member board.
The other members are: Consultant, Ruth Holder; Attorney-at-Law and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law, UWI Cave Hill, Nicole Foster-Clarke; Attorney-at-Law, Q.C., Fiona Hinds; General Manager, Axcel Finance, Kenneth Went; Engineer, Glenn Thorpe and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce (MSBEC), Esworth Reid.
The Barbados Light & Power is represented by Rohan Seale, the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation by Sonja Trotman, the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers by Lt. Col. Trevor Browne, and the Barbados Manufacturers Association by Shardae Boyce. The Chief Medical Officer and Chief Agricultural Officer sit as ex-officio members.
Mr. Brathwaite, an engineer and Chief Executive Officer of TicketLinkz and Hackleton Construction, comes with a background in geospatial engineering and longstanding commitment to community development and youth empowerment. He is presently a Geographical Information Systems Analyst of the Barbados Light and Power Company Limited.
He stated: “Our mandate is to take the Barbados National Standards Institution to the next level, in conformity with international standards in standards development, testing, certification, accreditation, labelling and metrology. There is immense revenue earning potential to be unlocked within the BNSI, and the Board has been working assiduously to ensure that BNSI will soon be able to compete with its international counterparts.”
Other changes at the BNSI include the appointment of Hadyn Rhynd as acting director.
Mr. Rhynd stated: “The competitiveness of our businesses and industries is directly related to developing a sound National Quality Infrastructure (NQI). BNSI plays a critical role in developing such infrastructure and I am confident that the inclusion of a Board with such competence will drive the country forward to be competitive in the international arena. The solution to the economic problems of Barbados lies in part in enhancing the industrial and export activity. This is only possible if the quality of Barbados’ goods and services is improved to meet international standards, and remain cost competitive in the national and export markets.”
The acting director added that providing laboratory services with international recognition involving testing to international standards is a major objective of the BNSI.
The new Board has given consideration to retrofitting the existing BNSI Laboratory in a phased approach, over the upcoming months, in order to reposition and increase the BNSI’s capacity and capability to perform tests and calibrations that are mutually accepted in export markets under agreements such as the Economic Partnership Agreement.
He said the objective is to have an ‘Accredited BNSI Laboratory’ by the end of the process, which gives international recognition of the laboratory’s competence and fully supports the development of our National Metrology legislation and system, as we move the country forward from imperial measures to the metric system.