Moving from banking academia was a natural transition, says David Dulal-Whiteway, the new CEO of the Arthur Lok Jack Global School Business (ALGSB).
Dulal-Whiteway, who spent almost 30 years in the banking industry and helped Republic Bank Limited break into new territories, including Africa, now brings that experience to ALJGSB where he took up the top post on April 1.
He said he was “happily enjoying retirement” when he got a call from businessman Arthur Lok Jack and was offered the position at the school.
“I was retired for just over two years. I was thoroughly enjoying my retirement and I wasn’t looking to do anything on a full-time basis. I serve on a couple boards of banks in Africa and I am also on the Ansa McAL Board. I wasn’t fully occupied and I wanted it that way,” he revealed.
Dulal-Whiteway said of his new position: “A lot of people say it is so different from banking but if you take the bigger purpose, it is similar. In banking it’s all about building societies. Similarly here in the Global School of Business the focus is on how to create successful societies and it’s being done, not through money and banking, but through learning and education. If you take the bigger purpose of both institutions you will see lots of similarities.”
He said education is in his blood as his father was a teacher and taught for more than 60 years.
“He always felt that we should all get involved in teaching at some point in time. Most of us after A-Levels taught at primary school, where I was before going on to university. When I was finished with my MBA in 1982, I was also a part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI) for six years.”
Extending the reach of ALJGSB
According to Dulal-Whiteway, as CEO he is responsible for the “effective and efficient” running of a school which has three arms—academic, consulting and executive education.
“The school is an agile institution because it has a good relationship with the business community. It has always looked at programmes based on feedback we got from the business community. We have introduced programmes in Port Management and Logistics, a programme on Financial Management.
“This year we are starting a new Masters programme in Data Analytics, which is when you look at where the world is going and all the data that is being captured. How do you need that data to be efficient within an organisation? It creates great opportunities for people who want to be data professionals and to find lucrative jobs,” he explained.
A new under graduate four-year degree programme will begin in September, a Bachelor’s Degree in International Sustainable Business.
“The focus is on entrepreneurship. In that four-year period, the students will have to start up a company, so the programme prepares you to make that company alive,” he said.
Dulal-Whiteway said the school’s recent rebranding from graduate to global was necessary because of the introduction of the undergraduate degree.
“We felt, as a school, and with what’s happening in connected world, you have to take a global view of things and prepare programmes to help students perform at a global level.
“We also have to ensure that we have a global faculty, maybe students from overseas. We have been doing work in Guyana, we have graduates out of Suriname, we have relations regionally and cementing those things,” he said.
Next year, ALJGSB will celebrate its 30th anniversary and there are plans for a new wing of the school to be inaugurated by then.
“It has already been constructed and that should be finished by next year to tie in with the anniversary.
“The design will create more innovation. It was fashioned after the D School at Stanford University. We want to create the right atmosphere,” he said
Economic diversification
As an institution, ALJGSB wants to play a role in transforming society and preparing students for the new type of economy the country must build, Dulal-Whiteway said
“We focus on product diversification. That is important but it is also important to look at diversification from a market point of view. That is how to take successful products and carry them to new markets, which is what the SM Jaleels, the Associated Brands and Sacha Cosmetics are doing—taking their products and diversifying, not on a product level, but market level.
“At Republic, that’s what I did, we took banking services into new markets,” he said.
Through diversification the country earns more foreign exchange, he added, but it is not possible for companies to stay in T&T and do well because the population is too small.
“I can take an existing product and sell it to a different country and the money comes back to Trinidad and Tobago. Our ability to create that mindset of leaders who can say that we have a winning mindset to take a product worldwide, to improve and maintain our standards of living—1.3 million people cannot do that.”
However, he is convinced that T&T has the human resources to diversify the economy and prosper.
“We compete very well internationally. There is always a Trini somewhere working in the energy sector. The talent base is there but how do we harness it? We have the potential and the people and if trained properly can make the difference,” he said.
