William Alexander McDonald is Barbados’ first diplomatic representative to Kenya. Indeed, he is the first Ambassador to the African continent in the 55 years of Barbadian independence. In this capacity he represents the interests of Barbados at the United Nations office in Nairobi, the African Union and the 12 other countries for which his remit stands.

As a businessman Mr. McDonald comes from a technology background, having first worked at Fujitsu as a Senior VP, then the Nation (starcom) as its COO, and later, the global telecommunications giant Cable & Wireless, as CEO and President of its Barbados cluster.

As an entrepreneur, he has partnered in establishing a number of companies and was the lead consultant in a business transformation company, with his specialty being people and team transformation, as a certified master team coach.

In the civic sphere, he is a former Chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA), the umbrella body representing private sector interests in Barbados’ tripartite negotiating arrangement. He is a Rotarian, a Paul Harris Fellow and past president of the Rotary Club of Barbados.

He is the immediate past chairman of the Barbados National Oil Company Limited BNOCL, the Barbados National (Oil) Terminal Company Limited BNTCL, and a former director of the Barbados National Petroleum Corporation Limited NPC. He is also a former school board chairman of the Combermere school and a former board member of several private sector companies and NGOs, including the Barbados Family Planning Association, where he represented a number of varying interests.

Academically, he is a graduate of the University of the West Indies in Public Sector Management and Law, and of Cranfield University in its accelerated programme for transforming the ICT sector. He is also a graduate of the University of Strathclyde’s Executive Leadership programme, as well as a Fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning.