New UDeCOTT chair to work with board

New UDeCOTT chair Jearlean John is ready to work with the directors of the organization's board who served with ex-chairman Calder Hart.

On Friday Prime Minister Patrick Manning said he doesn't think there is any reason for the whole board to follow Hart despite calls for that from the opposition.

John agrees. She told the Trinidad Express, "I work with whoever because I lead from in front and I set the tone...If I am the leader, I am not going to pick up somebody else’s issues. I am going to go in there and say ’this is the way I work’, set my tone and put in my structures."

She added, "They will have to comply with best practices because I am an advocate of that. If you are not doing best practices, you’re not going to be around me."

John told the paper she doesn't expect "excitement or fireworks". The former UNC Cabinet Minister said she hopes the country would see her as a "capable pair of hands", a hard worker with common sense who has always tried to work in the interest of the country.

"I am just there to do my job which is to lead an organisation with a very important mandate and I can’t be sidetracked from that,’ she said. John is also the managing director of the HDC.

Read the Express Editorial: Jearlean's Challenge