UTech, Jamaica to Confer Honorary Degrees on Dorcas White, Keith Amiel and Eric Crawford
The University of Technology, Jamaica will confer honorary degrees on three Caribbean stalwarts in law, agribusiness and business at its graduation ceremonies scheduled for November 3 and November 4, 2018 at the university’s Papine Campus. The outstanding Caribbean nationals – attorney-at-law, Miss Dorcas White; agribusiness stalwart Dr. Keith Amiel and prominent Chartered Accountant, Mr. Eric Crawford will be presented with the Doctor of Laws honoris causa.
The Law
Miss Dorcas White
Miss Dorcas White, a distinguished Attorney-at-law and legal educator from Montserrat is being recognized by UTech, Jamaica for her outstanding service to legal education and academia in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean.
Miss White graduated from the Norman Manley Law School in 1979 and has been on staff there as tutor, senior tutor and as Course Director in the Law of Remedies since 1982. Since 2009, she has been the Senior Tutor Emerita at the Law School, a position granted in recognition of her outstanding contribution to legal education in the Caribbean since the mid-1970s.
Miss White has been instrumental in preparing student attorneys from across the Caribbean region to be called to the Bar. She has also been one of the main coaches for the various mooting teams representing the Norman Manley Law School in international competitions such as the World Human Rights Moot, which the law school won for four consecutive years.
She has held membership on the Jamaican Bar Association’s Family Law Committee. In July 2017, Miss White was honoured by the Jamaica Bar Association as a legal luminary, and for her outstanding contribution to legal scholarship and teaching in the Caribbean.
Agribusiness
Dr. Keith Amiel, CD
Dr. Keith Amiel, Manager Corporate Affairs, Caribbean Broilers Group, will receive the honorary doctorate from UTech, Jamaica in recognition of the signal achievements in his multifaceted career in teaching and livestock production in Jamaica. These achievements include the development of Jamaica cattle breeds, and extensive service to Jamaica in agribusiness and value chain development.
Dr. Amiel currently represents the agribusiness sector on the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and is a founding member of the Caribbean Regional Agricultural Planning network-CaRAPAN. He is also a member of the CARICOM Agriculture Disaster Risk Management Committee.
Dr. Amiel has served as a teacher of natural science at Kingston College, Senior Veterinary Officer with the Ministry of Agriculture, and Chief Technical Officer of the Jamaica Livestock Association. He is Past President and current Treasurer of the Caribbean Poultry Association (CPA); President, Caribbean Agri-business Association (CABA) Jamaica, and Immediate Past President CABA Regional and a Past President of the Jamaica Veterinary Medical Association and the Professional Societies Association of Jamaica (PSAJ).
He has participated in arrangements for growing corn and sorghum and other agricultural produce in Jamaica to reduce the dependence on grain and other foods from external sources to sustain local animal feed manufacturing and small farmer livestock production.
Business
Mr. Eric Crawford
Chartered Accountant, Mr. Eric Crawford is retired partner and tax services leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is being honoured by the University for his over four decades of outstanding leadership and service to the accounting profession in Jamaica. A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), he has served as Jamaica’s representative to the Association’s International Assembly and as a member of ACCA’s International Technical Consultative Network.
Since the year 2000, he has served as President of the Public Accountancy Board where under his leadership the Board in 2011 introduced a monitoring programme for registered public accountants, a first for a major profession in Jamaica. He is the sitting Chairman of the Jamaica International Financial Services Authority (JIFSA) which has been mandated to promote Jamaica as an International Financial Services (IFS) location.
Mr. Crawford served as a member of the 2004 Prime Minister’s Task Force on the reform of the Educational System and led the work stream that was charged with developing of the financing proposals that were included in the report. In March 2018, he was appointed by the Prime Minister as one of five Commissioners to Jamaica’s newly established Integrity Commission.
An alumnus of the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST), now the University of Technology, Jamaica, Mr. Crawford has been consistent in his support of the institution and of the student body. He was inducted into the UTech, Jamaica Alumni Association’s Hall of Fame in 2004 and received the Distinguished Past Student Award from the University in 1995. He has been member and Chairman of the UTech Foundation for several years and has been Chairman for the last five years during which he has presided over the Foundation’s donation of over $20 Million in scholarships to the University to date.
The conferment of the Honorary Degree on Miss White and Dr. Amiel will take place on Saturday November 3, 2018 and on Mr. Crawford at the ceremony to be held on November 4, 2018.
Professor Stephen Vasciannie, President, University of Technology, Jamaica notes that “the university is proud to formally honour these three outstanding Caribbean leaders who have achieved local and international distinction in their respective fields of endeavor.”
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Contact:
Michelle Beckford (Mrs.)
Corporate Communications Manager
University of Technology, Jamaica
Telephone: 970-5299
Email: mbeckford@utech.edu.jm