Prof Shirley is new ambassador to US
published: Wednesday | May 26, 2004

By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter

Professor Gordon Shirley, the executive director of the Mona School of Business. - File

PROFESSOR GORDON Shirley, executive director of the Mona School of Business on the Mona, St. Andrew campus of the University of the West Indies, will be Jamaica's new ambassador to the United States, effective June 1.

Foreign Affairs Minister K.D. Knight made the announcement in the House of Representatives yesterday during his contribution to the 2004/05 Sectoral Debate.

"It pleases me, Mr. Speaker, to announce that the new ambassador to Washington will be Professor Gordon Shirley. And I want to thank the University of the West Indies for releasing him so that he can start his tour of duty in June," said Minister Knight.

THREE-YEAR TENURE

Professor Shirley will be Jamaica's eighth ambassador to the United States. His tenure is expected to last for three years in the first instance. He will replace Seymour Mullings, a former deputy prime minister, who has also been the permanent representative to the Organisation of American States (OAS) since November 2001.

The UWI professor began his career at Alcan Jamaica Limited (now West Indies Alumina Company) as a senior mechanical engineer in 1977. Shortly after his resignation in 1982, he migrated to the United States where, from 1987 to 1991, he served as assistant professor of operations management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He returned to Jamaica to work at the UWI's Mona campus as head of the Department of Management Studies from 1992 to 1997.