Miller named 7th UWI chancellor

THE University of the West Indies (UWI) has appointed Dodridge D Miller its seventh chancellor.

The chancellor is the highest office-holder in the UWI system, it said in a release on April 26.

Miller is expected to serve a seven-year term beginning August 1, 2024.

He will succeed Robert Bermudez, who has served as chancellor since 2017.

Members of the University Council accepted the recommendation of the chancellor’s search committee to appoint Miller at its virtual annual business meeting on April 26.

Miller, a UWI graduate, is described as a Caribbean luminary with over 30 years of leadership experience in the banking, insurance and financial services sectors.

He was the group president and CEO of Sagicor Financial Company for more than two decades until he retired in March 2023.

Miller is globally recognised as the chief architect of Sagicor Financial, the largest financial services conglomerate in the region. He is credited with transforming the old Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society into the Sagicor Caribbean group, with strategic USA and Canadian investments, into the global corporation it is today. As a determined regionalist, he expanded Sagicor's operations in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, and the Bahamas and created a pan-Caribbean identity for the company.

Miller is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). He has an MBA from the University of Wales and the Manchester Business School and an LLM in corporate and commercial law from  UWI, where he also served as a member of the Cave Hill Campus Council.

He has received several prestigious honours in his distinguished career, including the Order of Freedom of Barbados (FB), and from UWI, an honorary doctor of laws degree in 2008 and the award of the title professor of practice in 2019.

On confirmation of his appointment, the chancellor-designate said, “It is with great humility that I accept your appointment as chancellor of this distinguished and important university. For most of my adult life, I have been an advocate for a strong, vibrant UWI.

“As a corporate executive, I demonstrated my support for your mission and remained committed to the certainty of your path as you sought to build the capacity of the region’s human capital.

“As chancellor, I will strive to uphold the strong principles and values of the university and, with your guidance and support, hope to contribute to the very important task of fashioning a Caribbean that is sustainable and that can engage the rest of the world on equal terms.”

Bermudez said, “I am delighted to welcome Dr Miller as chancellor-designate. It is my belief that the university will benefit from his experience and contribution.”

Vice-chancellor Prof Sir Hilary Beckles, who chaired the search committee that recommended Miller for the post, said, “Miller is an eminent corporate transformational leader who possesses all the required skills to make an outstanding chancellor to his alma mater. The university community that knows him well is looking forward to working with him in this new role.”