In May 2023, I joined a distinguished panel for Episode XII of the Transforming Guyana webinar series — Digitization & Guyana's Emerging Oil and Gas Economy — produced by the Guyana Business Journal and the Caribbean Policy Consortium. The conversation brought together Dr. Terrence Blackman (Founder, Guyana Business Journal), Dr. David E. Lewis (Manchester Trade / Caribbean Policy Consortium), Lance Hinds (BrainStreet Group), Mike Singh (Guyana ICT, Tech & Innovation Council), and Erika Piirmets (Digital Transformation Adviser, e-Estonia) to examine how Guyana can leverage technology as its oil-and-gas economy takes off.
My contribution focused on the human side of digital transformation — talent, exposure, and the institutional vision required to make it stick:
"One of the issues we're still facing today is that we're hemorrhaging a lot of valuable talent year after year... Much of the students that I've worked with over the years, and the fledgling entrepreneurs along the way, I find that the recurring theme is that they have big dreams but they rarely ever extend beyond the shores of Guyana. Exposure fixes that."
I also argued that Guyana's multi-faceted challenges call for a multi-faceted approach to oversight:
"Because we have multi-faceted problems, we need a multi-faceted steering body — a visioning body comprising of individuals who understand the big picture and are specialized in their own right, with representation across the public sector, private sector, and civil society, to compliment an overarching vision for development."
