An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) has paid trib­ute to for­mer pres­i­dent Wayne Yip Choy, de­scrib­ing him as a stead­fast ad­vo­cate for the coun­try’s man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor and a leader whose in­flu­ence helped shape the in­dus­try over decades.

Yip Choy, 73, a for­mer chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of An­gos­tu­ra Hold­ings Lim­it­ed, was found ly­ing face down in the car park of his gat­ed apart­ment com­plex at Har­bour View, Ocean Boule­vard, West­moor­ings, on Mon­day.

Po­lice re­ports state that he died by sui­cide.

In a news re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, the TTMA said his pass­ing rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant loss to the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

“Mr Yip Choy was a re­spect­ed leader and a stead­fast ad­vo­cate for the de­vel­op­ment and ad­vance­ment of this coun­try’s man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor. Over the course of his dis­tin­guished ca­reer, he con­tributed sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the growth of the in­dus­try through his lead­er­ship, in­sight, and com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence.

Dur­ing his tenure as pres­i­dent of the TTMA, he played a piv­otal role in strength­en­ing the As­so­ci­a­tion’s voice, sup­port­ing lo­cal man­u­fac­tur­ers, and fos­ter­ing greater col­lab­o­ra­tion across the pri­vate sec­tor,” the as­so­ci­a­tion stat­ed.

Yip Choy’s ca­reer spanned decades across man­u­fac­tur­ing and cor­po­rate lead­er­ship. He be­gan in 1976 as man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Sweet­heart Cakes Ltd, which lat­er be­came Kiss Bak­ing Com­pa­ny Ltd, be­fore go­ing on to serve as man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny. His tenure at An­gos­tu­ra marked one of the most defin­ing pe­ri­ods of his pro­fes­sion­al life.

The TTMA said his con­tri­bu­tions ex­tend­ed be­yond ex­ec­u­tive roles, high­light­ing his will­ing­ness to men­tor oth­ers and sup­port the wider busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

“Be­yond his role at the TTMA, Yip Choy served the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty in var­i­ous ca­pac­i­ties, earn­ing the ad­mi­ra­tion and re­spect of col­leagues and peers alike. His ded­i­ca­tion, pro­fes­sion­al­ism, and will­ing­ness to men­tor oth­ers have left a last­ing im­pact on the sec­tor,” the state­ment con­tin­ued.

Busi­ness­man Derek Chin al­so re­flect­ed on Yip Choy’s life and lega­cy, de­scrib­ing his pass­ing as deeply trou­bling.

“Yes, it’s very sad. He was not well. I be­lieved he suf­fered from de­pres­sion. He made se­ri­ous con­tri­bu­tions to the busi­ness world in Trinidad and made it to the top ex­ec­u­tive po­si­tions in his en­deav­ours. I think his health is­sues were a ma­jor fac­tor in his re­duced in­volve­ment in ac­tive busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ties. Very sad. He fre­quent­ed Movi­etowne reg­u­lar­ly and maybe found some peace there at the movies. So sad about what hap­pened. I on­ly met him at Star­bucks ca­su­al­ly last week, my con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly,” Chin said.

The TTMA ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Yip Choy’s fam­i­ly, friends, and col­leagues, not­ing that his in­flu­ence on the man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor will en­dure.

“At this dif­fi­cult time, the TTMA ex­tends its deep­est con­do­lences to Mr Yip Choy’s fam­i­ly, friends, and all those who had the priv­i­lege of work­ing with him. We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with them as they grieve this tremen­dous loss,” the as­so­ci­a­tion stat­ed.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so en­cour­aged those strug­gling emo­tion­al­ly to seek sup­port, un­der­scor­ing the im­por­tance of com­pas­sion dur­ing dif­fi­cult pe­ri­ods.

“Mr Yip Choy’s con­tri­bu­tions to the man­u­fac­tur­ing in­dus­try and to the As­so­ci­a­tion will not be for­got­ten. He will be re­mem­bered for his lead­er­ship, his ser­vice, and his en­dur­ing lega­cy,” the TTMA stat­ed.