Do­mini­can re­gion­al tech­no­crat Ir­win LaRocque has been cho­sen to serve as the sev­enth Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) by the Heads of Gov­ern­ment. Am­bas­sador LaRocque, 56, a na­tion­al of Do­mini­ca re­places To­ba­go-born Ed­win Car­ring­ton. Am­bas­sador LaRocque is the cur­rent As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al for Trade and Eco­nom­ic In­te­gra­tion at the Cari­com Sec­re­tari­at, hav­ing served in that post since Sep­tem­ber 2005. Am­bas­sador LaRocque was ed­u­cat­ed at Queen's Col­lege, and the New School for So­cial Re­search, both in New York and New York Uni­ver­si­ty, ma­jored in Po­lit­i­cal Phi­los­o­phy, Po­lit­i­cal Eco­nom­ics and Eco­nom­ics re­spec­tive­ly.

Pri­or to his ap­point­ment as As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, he served as Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in var­i­ous Min­istries in Do­mini­ca for more than four­teen years, in­clud­ing in the Min­istries of Trade, In­dus­try, En­ter­prise De­vel­op­ment, Tourism, and For­eign Af­fairs, where he head­ed the diplo­mat­ic ser­vice. He al­so served as the prin­ci­pal ad­vi­sor to the Gov­ern­ment of Do­mini­ca on all mat­ters per­tain­ing to eco­nom­ic in­te­gra­tion and re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al trade. He is cur­rent­ly the Co-Chair of the US-Cari­com Trade and In­vest­ment Coun­cil and is lead­ing the ne­go­ti­a­tions with the Unit­ed States Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Of­fice for a new Trade and In­vest­ment Frame­work Agree­ment.