Professor Gordon, Shirley has been appointed principal of the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

The decision was arrived at during a meeting of the Council of the University of the West Indies on Thursday at the Mona campus, and will take effect August 1, 2007 for an initial period of five years.

Professor Shirley will succeed Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Elsa Leo-Rhynie.

The current Jamaican Ambas-sador to the United States is no stranger to the UWI as he was head of the Department of Management Studies from 1991 to 1997 and, subsequently, executive director of the UWI Mona School of Business.

The position of principal will become vacant on the retirement of the incumbent, Professor Leo-Rhynie in 2007, and it was therefore necessary to initiate the search for a replacement.

Eight candidates were shortlisted and interviewed and, after a further shortlisting of three candidates including Professor Shirley, the Advisory Committee decided to recommend to council the appointment of Professor Shirley.

Professor Shirley started his professional career with Alcan Jamaica Company Limited as a mechanical engineer in the mid to late 1970s after completing his B.Sc. in engineering at the St Augustine campus in Trinidad. On completing his doctorate in business administration and Operations Management at Harvard University, he took an assignment as Assistant Professor at the University of California from 1987 to 1991. He then returned to Jamaica and has been the Carlton Alexander Professor of Management at the Mona Campus since 1991, serving as Head of the Department of Management Studies and Executive Director of the Mona Institute of Business. He also served concurrently as Executive Chairman of the Jamaica Public Service from 1997 to 2001.