An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

Stephen de Gannes has re­signed as the chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, ef­fec­tive yes­ter­day.

The an­nounce­ment of the de­par­ture of de Gannes was made in a T&T Cham­ber news re­lease yes­ter­day.

It said de Gannes has played a key role at the Cham­ber, ex­hibit­ing his com­mit­ment to the growth and pros­per­i­ty of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and his tenure had been marked by ac­com­plish­ments, in­clud­ing fos­ter­ing stronger ties be­tween the Cham­ber and var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, ad­vo­cat­ing for poli­cies con­ducive to busi­ness de­vel­op­ment, and fo­cus­ing on the growth of the Small and Medi­um En­ter­pris­es (SMEs) Sec­tor.

“We ex­press our sin­cere grat­i­tude for his ded­i­ca­tion, and we wish him well on his next ad­ven­ture to pur­sue new op­por­tu­ni­ties where he can build on the knowl­edge he gained dur­ing his tenure with the TT Cham­ber,” it stat­ed.

De Gannes was ap­point­ed on Jan­u­ary 1, 2023.

The Cham­ber not­ed that it will im­me­di­ate­ly com­mence the search for a new CEO to build up­on the foun­da­tion laid by de Gannes.

Dur­ing this tran­si­tion­al pe­ri­od, the cham­ber in­di­cat­ed that Michelle Suite, the cur­rent chief op­er­at­ing of­fi­cer will man­age the day-to-day op­er­a­tions.

It said she has been with the Cham­ber since 2020 and led the re­sponse ef­forts dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“The Board is con­fi­dent in her abil­i­ty to lead the Cham­ber ef­fec­tive­ly dur­ing this in­ter­im pe­ri­od. She will act along­side the pres­i­dent, Ki­ran Ma­haraj. With the able sup­port of our man­age­ment team and de­part­ments there will be a seam­less and smooth tran­si­tion,” the re­lease added.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed de Gannes on the rea­son for his de­par­ture, but he di­rect­ed all com­ments to the cham­ber’s pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer, who up to press time did not re­spond.

In June 2022, Ian De Souza, now the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of ANSA Mer­chant Bank, ex­it­ed the Cham­ber af­ter he was ap­point­ed to re­place Gabriel Faria.

De Souza was ap­point­ed on Jan­u­ary 10, 2022.

On Ju­ly 31, the Cham­ber is­sued a re­lease, an­nounc­ing De Souza’s de­par­ture.

The re­lease said De Souza “af­ter much thought, has de­cid­ed to re­turn to ex­pand­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties in his con­sul­tan­cy prac­tice as a char­tered ac­coun­tant and cer­ti­fied in­sol­ven­cy and re­struc­tur­ing ad­vi­sor”.