Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

93 Emtage, who had recently left the Civil Service for a private sector job, Charles Skeete and Carlston Boucher, high-ranking technocrats respectively, at the IDB and the World Bank and Neville Nicholls (later Sir), vice-president of the CDB. It therefore came as a surprise to many persons when Dr. Kurleigh King was appointed governor for five years from September 15, 1987. King, a member of the Bank’s first Board, had previously managed the IDC (1968-1974), and served as an executive at the CDB (1974-1978) and as secretary-general of Caricom (1978-1983). At the time of his recruitment he was teaching at a university in the United States. From all reports, King was an individual who did not easily lose his composure, which was just as well, since his term in office included the most serious economic crisis which the country and the Bank had faced. Commenting on his stewardship some years later, Governor Dr. Marion Williams noted that King’s “calm and even-tempered disposition proved to be a strength to the Bank. Even as we were running out of foreign exchange reserves he remained calm and decisive.” Governor King has described the management of the 1991-93 economic crisis as one of the major challenges he faced. He credited his stint at the IDC with giving him some early appreciation for the real sector issues that confronted him during that period. But it was his responsibility for industrial and tourism loans, while employed at the CDB, that helped to develop the banker’s perspective that was invaluable in his relationship with the commercial banking community during the economic crisis. A major achievement for King was to help restore the Bank’s public image after the furore over the construction of the new building. In identifying other critical challenges, he singled out misunderstandings between management and staff, describing them as having the potential to “lead to a complete destruction of everything that had been built up so carefully, so wisely, so efficiently over the preceding 15 years.” King was quiet and unassuming and did not “walk the floors” like his predecessor. He was also very health-conscious and careful about diet, loved exercise, played classical pieces on the piano and practised Transcendental Meditation. With a love for things technical, he embraced Chapter 4: Maturity, Modernisation and Issues of Governance: 1987 and Beyond