Sir Allan Fields is elated and humbled by his knighthood.

OVERWHELMED!

That was the feeling yesterday of Sir Allan Clifford Fields on being made a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG) in The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

Sir Allan, who received the award for his sterling contributions to Barbados’ private sector, told the SATURDAY SUN it was an honour he had not expected and he felt elated and humbled.

“There are a lot of people who have brought me to this stage. It is not about me, it is about my parents, my family and the people who gave me opportunities in business and all the people who believed in me over the years. It is not something that I have achieved on my own,” he said.

Sir Allan, 62, who has been involved in the business sector since 1959, started out at Porters Sugar Factory before going to Glasgow, Scotland, to study engineering.

When he returned home he worked with a number of companies including Barbados Light & Power, Tropical Battery, Neal & Massy, Banks Breweries and Barbados Shipping & Trading Company Ltd.

“It has been a most rewarding career and I have enjoyed every moment of my working life,” he said.

A former head of the Barbados Private Sector Agency, Sir Allan is chairman of Barbados Shipping & Trading, Banks Holdings, Barbados Dairy Industries, Cable and Wireless, and is involved in other business interests.

Sir Allan, who is married to Irene and is the father of two, said success in business had much to do with focus and attitude. He added it was not only about going to school and getting certificates, though such acquisitions were important.

“It is about caring about people and trying to find the right people to do jobs and finding the key on how to motivate them because different people are motivated differently.

“It is about understanding people and assisting them in realising their full potential,” he said.

Receiving the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) were surgeon Arthur Rudolph Edghill for 40 years’ service to health care, and Elkins Leroy Ward, 87, for his contribution to agriculture.

Other awardees were Donna Charmaine Symmonds who was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contributions to sport; Pamela Angela Layne, a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services as private secretary to the Governor-General; and John Howard Spencer who received the MBE for community services.

Compliments of the Nation News

Senator Allan Fields, the man who has led the country’s biggest conglomerate, Barbados Shipping & Trading, for the past five years is preparing to step down from that office.
The s comes a month after he demitted the post of head of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA), now led by financial management consultant Chris de Caires.

Senator Fields revealed in an exclusive interview with BUSINESS AUTHORITY over the weekend that the island’s most important private sector employer had already started its recruitment process and by next month the list of possible candidates for the top job will be narrowed down.

He is expected to step down at the end of the company’s financial year in September.

“I came to BS&T five years ago and I committed to them that I would be with them for a minimum of five years and I have indicated that I would like to retire at the end of the financial year,” he said. < Read more >

Compliments of the Nation News

Caribbean Cricket

Caribbean Golf

As the Caribbean business environment becomes characterised by take-overs and mergers, Senator Allan Fields says he loses no sleep over the possibility that Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T) could become the target of such a corporate manoeuvre.
Fields, the chief executive officer of BS&T, and who until recently headed the Barbados Private Sector Agency, said if the company had become an attractive target for a take-over “it naturally follows that the attractiveness would be in the shareholders’ best interest”.

He was responding to concerns raised that when BS&T sold just over half of its 20 per cent shareholding in the Trinidadian giant Neal & Massy, it opened the company to a possible take-over.

According to the top executive: “We sold some of the shares in Neal & Massy for very good economic reasons. We had explored and exploited all the synergies with Neal & Massy in Barbados and it was in the shareholders’ best interest that we capitalised on the increased value of the Neal & Massy shares.

“We still have a significant interest and a significant investment in Neal & Massy and I don’t think that selling them made us more vulnerable to any possible take-over; far from it.”

Arguing that the island’s largest private sector operation did not need to “protect itself” from such a possibility, he said: “It does not mean that if BS&T was taken over that it would close down. It means that it would be part of a global marketplace and part of whatever company found it that attractive to come in and purchase it.”

According to Fields: “I don’t lose any sleep over the possibility that the company could be taken over. We in Barbados see BS&T as this big player, but in fact, it is a fly in the ointment when compared to companies outside Barbados.”

In a wide-ranging interview with BUSINESS AUTHORITY, the BS&T boss revealed that the conglomerate, with investments in Canada, United Kingdom, United States and St Lucia, was seeking to achieve more of its growth from outside the country.

“We have a core business in food distribution and retail, which do very well, and that has to be part of the focus of going outside Barbados. In insurance, United Insurance has been in the forefront of expansion outside Barbados over the last four years and has grown significantly in the last three. In tourism, Almond produced the best results in its history last year,” he said.

And as the Caribbean market confronts a fully liberalised environment, the BS&T head said the conglomerate was prepared to meet the competition head-on, whether within or outside the region.

Compliments of the Nation News

- Friday 09, July-2004

We may never know for sure the extent to which the constant controversies surrounding the annual calypso competition influenced their decision, but this year Barbados Shipping & Trading Limited is putting its money in pan.
This is instead of the usual contribution of a car to the calypsonian who won the Pic-O-De-Crop competition.

Chief executive officer Senator Allan Fields, seen here, went to West Terrace, St James, yesterday to present the National Cultural Foundation with a cheque for $30 000 to support Pan Pun De Sand and Pan Yard Lime.

He also put his mouth where his money now is, taking the opportunity to “play pan”.

Compliments of Nation News

BARBADOS