Ms Lolita Applewhaite was Director of the Centre for International Services at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies in Barbados. Ms Applewhaite is on loan to the University from the Barbados Government where she spent 30 years. She has served in the diplomatic service of her country with postings in North and South America and Europe, her most recent assignment being that of Ambassador to Venezuela. Ms Applewhaite has also served as Permanent Secretary (i.e.

Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, a national of Dominica, assumed the office of Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on 15 August 2011, following his selection by the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM on 21 July 2011.  He is the seventh Secretary-General of CARICOM.

Carla Natalie Barnett PhD CBE has been selected as the 8 Secretary General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and she will assume office on August 15, 2021. th Dr. Barnett is an economist who has worked across the English-speaking Caribbean and had broken several barriers along the way. She was the first woman to be appointed as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Belize (1991-1996). She was the first woman, and youngest person to be appointed as Deputy Secretary-General of CARICOM (1997-2002); and the first woman to be appointed as Financial Secretary in Belize (2004-2007).