Who We Are
US Associates
Mr. Ralph Brazilio
Chairman and CEO of Bazilio Cobb Associates PC
Ralph Bazilio
Ralph B. Bazilio is the Chairman and CEO of Bazilio Cobb Associates PC (BCA), a 38-year-old Accountancy and Consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. His firm has provided services to governmental entities as well as private sector clients in numerous industries, including education, utilities, housing, transportation, hospitality and construction. Under his leadership, BCA has served clients in every state of the US as well as in 20 other countries.
Mr. Bazilio became a certified public accountant in 1979 and has since grown to be a leader in his profession and a mentor to those entering the field of accounting. He has always considered quality service, integrity, competence and objectivity as top priorities.
Mr. Bazilio has served on numerous boards, including the Bowie State University Foundation, the Greater Washington Society of CPAs, the District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce, the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Greater Washington, Cultural Academy for Excellence and the Minority Supplier Development Council. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the University of the District of Columbia School of Business. He is also a board member of the 100 Black Men of Prince George’s County, Maryland and a member of the Gideons International.
Mr. Bazilio is also the Founder and Chairman of the Futures Educational Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing financial support to students in need. He is also the Founder and Director of the Bazilio Learning Center which is focused on elevating the educational standards in a rural district in Guyana.
Dr. Patrick Gordon
Professor of Chemistry
Patrick Gordon
Ms. Oslene Carrington
Entrpreneur and Philantropist
Ms Oslene Carrington
Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
Oslene possesses over 25 years of experience that includes supporting the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through private sector and U.S. government agencies; serving in senior management positions at U.S. Fortune 500 corporations, leading nonprofit and educational organizations, and launching startups—in and outside of large organizations. Her functional responsibilities have included strategic planning, organizational development, business development, fundraising, operations management, marketing, and corporate finance. Oslene’s experience also includes serving as a Venture Capital Fellow on the MIT alumni team for Alumni Ventures Group (AVG), an active venture firm.
Oslene holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, a B.A. in Economics from Fordham University, and has received post-graduate training in strategy and innovation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management.
Dr Lear Matthews
Community Organizer, Exponent in the Creative Arts
Lear Matthews, Professor Emeritus, State University of New York and former lecturer, Faculty of Social Science, University of Guyana, has been Executive Board member of the Association of Caribbean Social Work Educators and a member of the Editorial Board of the Caribbean Journal of Social Work. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the United Guyanese Diaspora Global Network, former Chair of the Advisory Board of the Caribbean American Social Workers association and former Clinical Director of the Bedford Stuyvesant Community Mental Health Center for more than ten years.
Dr. Matthews has written extensively on the adaptation of immigrants with a focus on the Caribbean Diaspora, diaspora engagement, cultural retention, mental health, reintegration of deportees, and cross-cultural learning. His most recently published book, English-Speaking Caribbean Immigrants: Transnational Identities, examines how immigrants adapt to life in North America while sustaining connections with the home country. He co-authored (with G. K. Danns) Communities and Development in Guyana: A Neglected Dimension in Nation Building. He has also authored numerous scholarly publications as book chapters and in peer reviewed journals including: the Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Services and Caribbean Journal of Social Work.
A founding member of the New York Tutorial Alumni Association, Lear developed a groundbreaking database of non-profit organizations (Hometown Associations) in the Caribbean Diaspora. He found that these organizations have transformed from doing mere ‘charity work’ to providing significant developmental support to communities of origin. His work is viewed as “down to earth” applied scholarship that links academia, culture, and community service. Informing policy, practice and solutions is at the forefront of his research and writing goals. He was on the planning committee for the 2017 Inaugural Diaspora Engagement Conference held in Guyana, and a contributing writer to the University of Guyana Press (UGP) first book publication in 2018.
He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Guyana Cultural Association of New York and contributing writer of the Guyana Folk Magazine. He is co-creator of the video: Dis Time Nah Lang Time, which seeks to sustain oral traditions and history of Guyana, with both nostalgic and therapeutic value. His recently published article entitled: The Cultural Significance of Gyaaf: Implications for the Guyanese Diaspora captures the soul of the Guyanese communicative style that brings the diaspora “back home” with joyful nostalgia. His work across communities extends to Cape Town, South Africa, as a member of a faculty delegation which facilitated collaborative e-learning in human services between students at SUNY, NY and the University of Western Cape. He has also presented his work at International conferences primarily in the Caribbean region.
Dr. Matthews holds a doctorate in Social Welfare, a Masters in Sociology and a Masters in Social Work. He is a member of the Academy of Certified Clinical Social Workers.
Dr. Jason Mars
Professor of Computer Science
Prof Jason Mars
Professor of Computer Science at the University of Michigan
Jason Mars is a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan where he directs Clarity Lab, one of the best places in the world to be trained in A.I. and system design. Jason is also co-founder and CEO of Clinc, the cutting-edge A.I. startup that developed the world’s most advanced conversational AI. He has devoted his career to solving difficult real-world problems, building some of the worlds most sophisticated salable systems for A.I., computer vision, and natural language processing. Prior to University of Michigan, Jason was a professor at UCSD. He also worked at Google and Intel.
Jason’s work constructing large-scale A.I. and deep learning-based systems and technology has been recognized globally and continues to have a significant impact on industry and academia. Jason holds a PhD in Computer Science from UVA As an Associate of the University f Guyana , he hopes to inspire young professionals to develop skills in AI.
Dr. David Lewis
Vice President Manchester Trade
Dr David Lewis
Vice-President Manchester Trade
Dr David E Lewis is an International Business Consultant with 35 years experience in trade, investment, economic policy and business development in the Caribbean and Latin American public and private sectors and international organizations. Since 2000 he is Vice President of Manchester Trade Ltd., an international trade and business advisory firm in Washington, DC.
His previous experience includes posts as Deputy Executive Director of Caribbean/Latin American Action in Washington; Director of the OECS Caribbean Policy Project, based in Antigua; and, Assistant Secretary of State for Caribbean Development of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. He is a past Trustee Member of the Board of Caribbean-Central American Action (www.c-caa.org), Senior Associate (non-resident) of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (www.csis.org), and co-Founder of the Caribbean Policy Consortium-CPC (www.cpccaribbean.org). During these decades he has lived/worked extensively throughout the Caribbean and Central America.
His areas of expertise cover trade and investment promotion and development, international business relations, services and manufacturing sectors, and renewable fuels/ethanol development and promotion. At Manchester Trade he leads the firms’ client business in Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on trade and investment initiatives. He represents government and business client interests in free-trade negotiations in the Caribbean and Latin America, WTO and multilateral trade and export initiatives. From 2001-2007 he led Manchester Trade’s advisory services for the Government of the Dominican Republic’s negotiation and implementation of CAFTADR with the US, as well as the Government of Nicaragua, the textile industry of Guatemala, the tobacco industry of the Caribbean & Central America, and the Government of Puerto Rico.
Dr. Lewis has also worked on export-development initiatives for African governments and businesses, including export-development strategies and trade- policy advice. He also co-ordinates Manchester Trade’s energy practice focused on renewable fuels/ethanol practice and LNG with clients in the US, Caribbean, Central/South America and Africa.
He manages the firm’s Cuba Bureau Program focused on advancing business, trade and investment opportunities in/with Cuba for clients from the US, Latin America, and Caribbean markets. He has worked in/on Cuba since 1988. He also is responsible for the firm’s work on multilateral trade agreements like TPP, TTIP, and TiSA trade negotiations and their implications for countries and companies in the Americas.
He lead the firm’s business portfolio work for clients on the NAFTA 2.0 Negotiations leading to the new USMCA-US Mexico Canada Agreement, and on US-Latin America nearshoring trade and investment agreements covering agriculture, textile/apparel, manufacturing, energy, services, IPR-pharma, market access and other related issues.
Dr Lewis is a regular commentator on international trade on CNNEspañol’s “Economia y Finanzas” daily program, and e-publishes the periodical “Manchester Trade Updates”, covering trade, investment, agribusiness, tourism, IT/telecoms and political development issues in Africa and the Americas, as well as the daily “Guyana News Updates”.
He has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania/Wharton School of Business, Brandeis University and the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. He is married to Maritza Garcia of Nicaragua and they have two (2) children, Linda and Danilo.
Prof. Claudia Mitchell-Kernan
Vice Chancellor Emerita, UCLA
Dr Claudia Mitchell-Kernan
As Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division of UCLA, Claudia Mitchell-Kernan served as the campus-wide advocate for the advancement of graduate education for 21 years. A hallmark of her tenure was her successful advocacy to improve graduate student support and to ensure that standards of excellence, fairness and equity were maintained across all graduate programs. Her portfolio included the Institute of American Cultures and UCLA’s four ethnic study centers and she formerly served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. In 2011 Dr. Mitchell-Kernan was elected Vice President for Programs for the Faculty Women’s Association for a two-year term and as President of the UCLA Faculty Center Association from 2014-2016. She is currently on the Advisory Board of the Fielding Institute and the UCLA Emeriti Association Board. With Distinguished Professor Walter Allen, she recently established the Center for Capacity Building to support interventions in higher education aimed at improving access, achievement, and degree completion.
Dr. Mitchell-Kernan’s scholarly work has included a major focus on linguistic anthropology and her classic research in the late 1960s and early 1970s on African American vernacular is widely cited to this day. Her most recent book, The Decline in Marriage Among African Americans, co-edited with M. Belinda Tucker, was published by Russell Sage. Other edited books include Children’s Discourse, Television and the Socialization of Ethnic Minority Children, and her landmark Language Behavior in a Black Urban Community. She has also conducted research in Samoa, Belize, Jamaica, and the United States. Recently, she has been involved in higher education intervention projects in Ethiopia and Rwanda. Concurrent with her administrative responsibilities, she was a professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley; her B.A. and M.A. degrees were awarded by Indiana University. Before coming to UCLA, she was Assistant Professor at Harvard University in the Departments of Anthropology and Social Relations.
Dr. Mitchell-Kernan’s national and federal agency service includes the Board of Higher Education and Workforce of the National Research Council; the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools, (Chaired its Advisory Committee on Minorities in Graduate Education.) She was Chair of the Board of Directors of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE); the Advisory Board of the National Security Education Program; and the Board of Deans of the Africa America Institute. President Clinton appointed her to the National Science Board for a six-year term in 1994. The National Science Board provides advice to the President and Congress on issues affecting Science & Technology, and governs the National Science Foundation, the U.S. premier agency for the support of basic science. In 1996, she received a Distinguished Service Award from the Caribbean Studies Association and in 1997, Indiana University awarded her its Distinguished Alumni Service Award. Upon stepping down as Vice Chancellor, she was honored by the Los Angeles City Council, The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles.
Dr. Wayne Forde
Founder President United Guyanese Diaspora Global Network
Dr Wayne Forde
Dr. Wayne Forde is the Founder and President of the United Guyanese Diaspora Global Network Corp (UGDGN). In his role as the President of UGDGN, he has garnered support from members of the diaspora to assist primary school students in Guyana and vulnerable groups affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. In this capacity, he is committed to promoting and encouraging active diaspora engagement to harness the potential of Guyanese globally for nation-building in Guyana. Dr. Forde served as the president of the Guyana Cultural Association of Tampa Bay, where he established the non-profit 501© (3) status the organization and developed the successful Annual Fund-Raising Dinner and Dance. He is a business development consultant and the president of WAF CONSULTING LLC, which provides support and guidance to identify business strategies and planning to improve competitiveness, enhance service quality, and drive enterprise strategy achievement.
His most recent research, titled Strategies to Improve the Survival Rate Beyond 5 Years for Small Businesses in Guyana, was published in 2020. The study analyzed the role of leadership, competitive advantage and business success, lack of finance, innovation, and the determinants of successful entrepreneurs in Guyana. Dr. Forde is committed to sharing his research on small and medium-sized business sustainability with educational institutions, the private sector, and government agencies in Guyana.
His professional career spans two decades in various capacities with AT&T, IBM, and Qwest in New York and Florida. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Forde was the founder of Four D’s International, a premier Guyanese entertainment complex in New York where thousands of Guyanese dined and danced in elegance for two decades.
He is a member of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He serves on the Entrepreneurship & Small Business Committee, where he will be working to enhance the services offered by the Private Sector to improve business competitiveness and sustainability by utilizing the findings from his recent research.
The United States House of Representatives presented a Proclamation to Dr. Forde for UGDGN Corp in 2019. He received the AT&T “Gold Club” and “Achiever’s Club awards. He is also an associate of the University of Guyana Foundation-USA.
Dr. Forde earned his Doctorate in Business Administration with a specialization in Energy Management from Walden University and a Master of Public Policy and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from American Public University.
Dr. Riyad Insanally, CCH
Senior Fellow Atlantic Council
Dr Riyad Insanally
Dr Riyad Insanally was Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States, from September 2016 to June 2021. A career diplomat for over 31 years, he received Guyana’s third highest award, the Cacique’s Crown of Honour (CCH), in the 2019 National Honours, for “long and distinguished service in the field of diplomacy and international relations”. Dr Insanally is currently a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Caribbean Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Center for Latin America. He studied Modern Languages and Latin American Studies and holds MA and MPhil degrees from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from Harvard University. He was a Lecturer at the University of Guyana from 1981 to 1984.
Mr. Eric Rickford
Dr. Glendon Archer
President & CEO Metallica Commodities Corp (Metallica)
Dr Glendon Archer
Dr. Glendon Fitzroy Archer was born in the county of Berbice, Guyana on August 8, 1960. He is the son of the late Granville and Joyce Maria Archer. The comes from a family of 17 siblings. From an early age the importance of higher education was drummed into the heads of the Archer clan and Glendon had no choice but to follow this path. He attended primary school in Georgetown, Guyana and was the first of his siblings to gain entry into the prestigious Queens College. At QC, Glendon honed his passion for cricket and academics. At the tender age of 15 Glendon decided he was going to be a Metallurgical Engineer.
In 1980 Glendon left Guyana on a Guyana Government sponsored scholarship to pursue Engineering studies at Columbia University. He completed both his BSc and MSc in metallurgical engineering in 1984 and became a Doctor of Engineering Science in early 1987. While pursuing his studies in Metallurgical Engineering, Glendon soon realized that a good metallurgist must understand the economics of the metals sector and started to take serious interest in all Economics courses that were available to engineers. By the time he was completing his doctorate he had taken enough courses to minor in Mineral Economics.
After graduating, Glendon served a brief stint as a post doctorate research fellow at the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences before landing his first job with ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company), as a Research Scientist at their Technical and Research Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. This exposed Glendon to the mining, smelting, refining and economics of metals such as; copper, lead, zinc, nickel, silver, gold,
antimony, selenium, tellurium, and Molybdenum. Glendon’s job was to trouble shoot existing processes and develop improved processes for various unit operations within Asarcoʼs metal smelting and refining world. In 1991, the then senior research scientist was invited to join the company’s commercial team, tasked with sourcing the various ores and concentrates required for producing the variety of metals. He was the Director of Asarcoʼs Commercial operations when he left in 1999 to become the CEO of Centrotrade Minerals and Metals in New York.
In 2001, Glendon and two of his employees incorporated Metallica Commodities Corp (Metallica). He is the President, CEO and technical brain behind the companyʼs activities. Metallica specializes in the worldwide trading of non-ferrous minerals, metals, residues and by byproducts. MCCʼs annual sales today exceed US $500 Million. Dr. Archer and his team have spearheaded mining, metal and mineral recovery and recycling projects in USA, France, Tanzania, DRC, Ghana, Guyana, Chile, Turkey, Peru, St. Maarten and Brazil and continue to have a global trading presence. Through a cadre of agents and representatives, the company has trading partners in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, China, S, Korea, Europe, India, Australia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, DRC, Zambia, Tanzania, S. Africa, Ethiopia and Madagascar. Metallica and its subsidiaries, MCC Non-ferrous Trading, WEEE Metallica, Mineral Access Systems Tanzania and Zambia, employ in excess of 150 persons.
Dr. Archer brings more than 30 years of experience to the mining and metals industry. He has been involved in various non-ferrous and precious metals plant and equipment optimization projects with world leaders in the areas of copper, lead, zinc gold and silver metallurgy. He had also worked on environmental endeavors such as waste water treatment, off gas cleaning, sulfur capture, slag encapsulation, etc. Dr. Archer is a leading expert in the global commercialization of metal containing residues and byproducts from the mining, metallurgical and chemical processing industries
Glendon continues to be a cricket enthusiast and his company has been the major sponsor of the Atlantis Cricket Club, NY. Metallica also provides educational scholarships tor selected Guyanese students to pursue mining and geology degree programs at the University of Guyana, and continues to sponsor high school alumni organizations in the USA that provide various forms of support to their Alma Mata in Guyana.
Glendon is married to Jacqueline and is the father of Turron, Ashley, Mikhaila and Nailah.