UCC, NCB honour Rickert Allen with annual lecture, scholarship
The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) and the National Commercial Bank Group (NCB), on Wednesday, hosted the inaugural UCC/NCB Memorial lecture in honour of the Late Dr Rickert Allen, a former senior executive at both institutions.
The virtual lecture under the theme “Transformational Leadership and Readiness For Change” paid homage to Allen who served as Chairman of the Board of the UCC and Senior General Manager in charge of Human Resources at NCB, before his untimely death in April 2020.
Professor Dennis Gayle, President of the UCC said, “It is fitting that we host an annual lecture series to memorialise the contributions and achievements of Dr Rickert Allen. He was an outstanding and visionary leader. He personified effective governance, helping the university to move towards national and international institutional accreditation, thus adding value to the academic achievements of UCC graduates.”
“Dr Allen believed that the quality of a nation’s manpower resources is a critical factor in determining national development and competitiveness and dedicated his life to paying it forward through community service and mentorship. He was a man of integrity, ambition, courage and honesty,” Professor Gayle declared.
The President and Group CEO of the NCB Financial Group, Patrick Hylton, said, “It is an honour for us to partner with the UCC to celebrate the legacy of Dr Rickert Allen, through this memorial lecture.”
“He was the epitome of a transformational leader, whose ideas and methods were grounded in innovation and forward-thinking. As such, we will be delving into thought-provoking discussions on pivoting through change and leadership practices to enable and empower team members to succeed. Rick always encouraged us as an organisation to strive for excellence and to find opportunities through the challenges and we believe his perspective can help many other persons take their businesses to the next level.”
Allen was a fellow of the chartered institute of personnel development and a number of other organisations and their stakeholders benefitted greatly from his active membership among them including the Private Sector of Jamaica Education Committee, The University of the West Indies mentorship programme, the society for human resource management, the human capital institute, the heart institute of the Caribbean and the Jamaica Employers Federation.
He was highly regarded for his work in the field of change management, explored through the lens of corporate restructuring in the Caribbean and which formed the core of his highly commended DBA thesis entitled “Towards the development of a Model for Improving Employee Readiness for Corporate Transformation”.
Source: Loop
