Lib­er­ty Caribbean has ap­point­ed for­mer First Cit­i­zens Group Fi­nan­cial Hold­ings chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ja­son Julien as vice-pres­i­dent and coun­try man­ag­er for Trinidad and To­ba­go, as the telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions com­pa­ny re­shapes its com­mer­cial lead­er­ship across the re­gion.

The ap­point­ment puts Julien in charge of the com­mer­cial and fi­nan­cial per­for­mance of Lib­er­ty Caribbean’s op­er­a­tions in Trinidad and To­ba­go, its sec­ond-largest mar­ket. Ja­maica is Lib­er­ty’s largest mar­ket in the re­gion. Lib­er­ty Caribbean op­er­ates Flow, Lib­er­ty Busi­ness and BTC.

Julien will lead the lo­cal team as the busi­ness moves in­to its next phase of growth.

The com­pa­ny al­so ex­pand­ed the role of Si­mone Mar­tin-Šul­gan, who be­comes vice-pres­i­dent, coun­try man­ag­er for Bar­ba­dos and head of brand, me­dia and com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

Mar­tin-Šul­gan will over­see the com­mer­cial and fi­nan­cial per­for­mance of Lib­er­ty Caribbean’s Bar­ba­dos op­er­a­tions while tak­ing re­gion­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for its brands, mar­ket­ing ini­tia­tives and com­mu­ni­ca­tions. She will al­so fo­cus on en­gage­ment with cus­tomers, em­ploy­ees and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

Mar­tin-Šul­gan pre­vi­ous­ly led Lib­er­ty Caribbean’s com­mer­cial op­er­a­tions in Trinidad and To­ba­go for five years. She suc­ceeds Desron By­noe in Bar­ba­dos, fol­low­ing his move to an­oth­er com­mer­cial lead­er­ship role with­in the com­pa­ny.

Lib­er­ty Caribbean chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Inge Smidts wel­comed the ap­point­ments, point­ing to the com­pa­ny’s fo­cus on de­vel­op­ing Caribbean tal­ent and cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for its lead­ers across the re­gion.

“I am de­light­ed to wel­come Ja­son and look for­ward to the per­spec­tive and lead­er­ship he will bring to Trinidad and To­ba­go and our wider or­gan­i­sa­tion,” Smidts added.

Julien joins Lib­er­ty Caribbean af­ter leav­ing First Cit­i­zens Group Fi­nan­cial Hold­ings on Au­gust 31, fol­low­ing nine months and nine days as Group CEO.

He told Guardian Me­dia that he “def­i­nite­ly was not forced out” of First Cit­i­zens and chose to re­sign be­cause he was “pre­sent­ed with an op­por­tu­ni­ty to work with a US com­pa­ny.”

Lib­er­ty Caribbean de­scribed Julien as bring­ing lead­er­ship ex­pe­ri­ence from a large, com­plex and high­ly reg­u­lat­ed, cus­tomer-fo­cused or­gan­i­sa­tion, in­clud­ing ex­pe­ri­ence in busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion, dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion, cul­tur­al change and re­gion­al growth.

Smidts main­tained that the ap­point­ments re­flect the strength of the com­pa­ny’s in­ter­nal and re­gion­al tal­ent.

“Caribbean Peo­ple First is not a slo­gan for us; it is a dis­ci­pline. It means our peo­ple move across the re­gion, not out of it. It means we grow the tal­ent we have, and we at­tract the tal­ent the re­gion has pro­duced. And it means the dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion of the Caribbean will be led vis­i­bly and un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly by Caribbean peo­ple,” he added.

In a news re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, Lib­er­ty Caribbean out­lined the ap­point­ments as part of its de­vel­op­ment of com­mer­cial lead­er­ship across its mar­kets.

His ap­point­ment comes about a month af­ter he left the bank.

Smidts al­so thanked By­noe for his lead­er­ship and con­tri­bu­tion to the com­pa­ny and its cus­tomers, while ex­press­ing con­fi­dence in Mar­tin-Šul­gan’s ex­pand­ed re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

Lib­er­ty Latin Amer­i­ca is the in­di­rect 49 per cent share­hold­er of ma­jor­i­ty state-owned Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Ser­vices of Trinidad and To­ba­go (TSTT). Na­tion­al En­ter­pris­es Ltd owns 51 per cent (TSTT) while 49 per cent of the com­pa­ny is owned by Ca­ble & Wire­less (West In­dies), which is a sub­sidiary of Lib­er­ty Latin Amer­i­ca.