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CAII
Caribbean AI Institute
Our People

CAII Team

Expertise across offshore finance AI, island tourism and the blue economy, climate resilience and green computing.

Board of Directors

9

Mr. Julian Hunte

Veteran diplomat of CARICOM, dedicated to regional integration, multilateral development cooperation and cross-border financial governance across island nations. Provides high-level policy coordination and regional resources for the Institute.

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Ms. Tamara Ebanks

Regulatory representative of Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA). Specialist in offshore fund & trust supervision, AML and UBO regime of Cayman.

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Mr. Malcolm Butterfield

Market & Technology lead at Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA). Focus on catastrophe reinsurance, ILS regulation and fintech risk control.

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Mr. Dwight Gardiner

Director of Technology Investment, Caribbean Development Bank. Oversees green infrastructure, climate projects and digital tech financing across the Caribbean.

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Ms. Simone Scott

Board representative of Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA). Veteran in island resort and cruise tourism, advancing digital transformation and sustainable blue tourism.

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Mr. Robert Hamaty

Chairman of leading Caribbean trust group. Practitioner in offshore family trust, SPV structures and cross-border wealth management under BVI & Cayman law.

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Dr. Annette Arjoon-Martins

Marine ecologist at University of the West Indies. Authority on blue carbon and coral reef economics, engaged in Caribbean marine conservation programmes.

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Mr. Amir Khan

Entrepreneur in Caribbean green energy and computing infrastructure. Investor in island PV+energy storage and modular data centre projects.

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Dr. Ricardo Williams

Head of Computer Science, University of the West Indies. Independent academic board member, leading local digital talent development and regional AI academia ecosystem.

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Executive Leadership

4

Dr. Marissa Lashley

Former Dean of Information Engineering, University of the West Indies. Leader in Caribbean digital economy. Oversees overall institute operation, external partnership and strategy delivery.

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Dr. Kevin M. Ford

Professor of AI & Data Science. Oversees academic administration, research institutes, project review, researcher grading and academic outputs.

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Mr. Trent Williams

CEO of a Caribbean offshore fintech group. Responsible for industry lab co-construction, government & commercial pilots, commercialization and joint industry research.

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Professor Frank Zheng

Chief Scientist, Chair of Academic Committee. Sets the institute's AI technical roadmap. Leads vertical LLM for offshore finance, green computing and cross-border capital AI engines. Chairs major project initiation and researcher academic reviews.

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Advisory Board

7

Mr. Ian Bell

Senior offshore tax counsel for Cayman & BVI. Adviser on fund structures, cross-border taxation and family office compliance.

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Ms. Catherine Raw

Caribbean Regional Lead, Green Climate Fund. Expert in climate finance, blue carbon project application and multilateral fund liaison.

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Mr. Richard Sasso

Senior cruise industry executive. Adviser on cruise passenger logistics and island tourism commercial planning.

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Mr. David Chin

Global family office investment lead. Adviser on cross-border capital, offshore fund LP structures and asset allocation.

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Dr. Sarah Foster

International authority on tropical hurricane and island climate risk modelling. Expert in storm simulation and asset loss forecasting.

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Mr. Hugo van der Wal

Global expert in privacy computing and financial sensitive data compliance. Adviser on data containment and financial data de-identification architecture.

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Academy Fellows

6

Dr. Geoffrey Hordern

Academy Fellow in offshore finance law. Authority on Cayman trust law. Leads research on AI for offshore deeds and SPV legal documents.

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Dr. Lisa Alleng

Academy Fellow in marine remote sensing & coral reef blue carbon accounting. Leads marine ecological AI assessment and blue-carbon asset valuation.

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Dr. Omar Mohammed

Academy Fellow in island microgrid & energy storage. Lead researcher for island PV-storage coordination and off-grid energy resilience.

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Dr. Vanessa Charles

Academy Fellow in multilingual NLP and Creole linguistics. Research lead for Caribbean local language speech and foundational text models.

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Dr. Mark Segal

Academy Fellow in catastrophe insurance AI pricing and ILS risk modelling. Focus on Bermuda reinsurance simulation and loss forecasting.

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Dr. James Carter

Academy Fellow in global AI governance and FATF tech compliance. Research on AI audit, explainability and regulatory standards.

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Institute of Offshore Finance AI

5

Mr. Nathaniel Rose

Senior Research Fellow, Director of Institute of Offshore Finance AI. Works on offshore finance knowledge graph and fund administration digitalisation.

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Ms. Chloe Baptiste

Research Fellow, Director of UBO & Beneficial Ownership Transparency Centre. Research lead for equity penetration and multi-layer SPV extraction algorithms.

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Mr. Leo Sampson

Research Fellow, Director of Offshore Fund & SPV Document Intelligence Centre. Specialises in parsing PPM, subscription agreements and charter risk extraction.

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Dr. Asha Nair

Senior Research Fellow, Director of AML & Sanctions Screening Centre. Works on offshore fund flow graph, transaction anomaly detection and sanctions matching engine.

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Ms. Tiffany Grant

Research Fellow, Director of CRS & Offshore Tax Compliance Centre. Builds automation for CRS/AEOI reporting and tax residency validation models.

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Institute of Island Tourism & Blue Economy AI

4

Dr. Alicia Mendez

Senior Research Fellow, Director of Institute of Island Tourism & Blue Economy AI. Specialises in island tourism economics and tourist demand time-series forecasting.

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Mr. Javi Ruiz

Research Fellow, Director of Tourism Revenue & Passenger Flow Centre. Builds hotel yield models, cruise staggering and beach carrying capacity early warning.

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Dr. Ryan Hodge

Senior Research Fellow, Director of Blue Carbon & Coral Reef Valuation Centre. AI coral bleaching detection, blue-carbon valuation and restoration ROI modelling.

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Ms. Marie Laurent

Research Fellow, Director of Multilingual Tourism AI Interaction Centre. Multilingual conversational AI for tourists and AR marine guide systems.

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Institute of Climate Resilience & Green Computing AI

4

Dr. Carl Joseph

Senior Research Fellow, Director of Institute of Climate Resilience & Green Computing AI. Specialises in island climate risk and green computing energy optimisation.

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Dr. Nina Singh

Research Fellow, Director of Extreme Climate Simulation Centre. Hurricane path simulation, island asset damage and recovery forecasting.

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Mr. Ethan Campbell

Research Fellow, Director of Island Microgrid & Storage AI Centre. PV-storage dispatching, water-energy co-optimisation and off-grid control algorithms.

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Mr. Wayne Bennett

Senior Research Fellow, Director of Localised AI Computing & Data Compliance Centre. On-island private computing deployment and sensitive data containment architecture.

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Independent Centers & Industry Labs

6

Dr. Helena Knox

Senior Research Fellow, Director of AI Governance & Regulatory Standards Centre. CARICOM AI rules, algorithm audit and cross-border data governance standards.

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Ms. Shakira Ford

Research Fellow, Director of Inclusive Finance & Digital Inclusion Centre. Credit models for underbanked populations and lightweight AI tools for small island businesses.

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Mr. Darren Scott

Research Fellow, Director of Offshore Finance Compliance AI Industry Lab. Pilot and validation of compliance AI for licensed trust and fund administrators.

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Ms. Lina Marquez

Research Fellow, Director of Smart Resort Operation Industry Lab. POC for resort intelligent operation, dynamic pricing and energy management trials.

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Mr. Oliver Moore

Senior Research Fellow, Director of Green Computing Infrastructure Industry Lab. Modular computing pod, island data centre and green power integration testing.

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Dr. Pedro Alvarez

Research Fellow, Director of Marine Remote Sensing & Blue Carbon Metrics Industry Lab. Satellite AI annotation, third-party blue carbon verification and carbon reporting tools.

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Senior Research Fellows

4

Dr. Benjamin Cox

Financial NLP. Fine-tuning and clause extraction for fund documents and subscription contracts.

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Dr. Zara Persaud

Tourist behaviour time-series modelling, global visitor forecasting and tourism recommendation systems.

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Dr. Hazel Thomas

Island disaster loss simulation, hurricane damage quantification for real estate and tourism assets.

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Research Fellows

6

Assistant Research Fellows

8

Research Assistants

4

Visiting Research Fellows

5

Support Departments

4

Biographies supplied by the Institute.