Caymanians moving up the ladder at MDAL

Nicola Anderson-Wildman, Charles Brown and Neyka Webster have all been given the chance to further their careers by taking on the role of Acting Deputy Chief Officer in the Ministry for District Administration and Lands (MDAL). Using a job rotation technique, the three senior leaders have each been awarded the opportunity to act in the Deputy Chief Officer role for a period of six months.

Head of the Civil Service and Deputy Governor, Franz Manderson, said that while only one candidate could fill the role, all three qualified candidates had an opportunity to further develop leadership and management skills that would better position them for prospective senior roles.

“I am proud to support this very innovative approach to recruitment within our civil service and wish each candidate the best,” he said.

The three Caymanian candidates will be seconded from government posts. Nicola Anderson-Wildman is MDAL’s Chief Financial Officer and has begun her ADCO tenure first. Charles Brown will act in the second rotation and is a Senior Policy Officer with the Ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure (PAHI). Neyka Webster will close out the rotation schedule, under secondment from the Ministry of Tourism and Transport where she is the CFO.

The Acting Deputy Chief Officer role holds responsibility for supporting the Chief Officer in the overall direction, management and administration of the activities within the Ministry by way of monitoring their delivery of outputs, coordinating their strategic and operational planning, providing day-to-day management support, and modelling appropriate leadership behaviours expected of civil service managers, as specified within the CIG’s Core Competency Framework. Additional responsibility includes, coordinating a diverse team of department heads, units and sections under the remit of the Ministry in their delivery of strategic and operational services. The ADCO candidate will be an integral member of the Senior Management Team and deputise for the Chief Officer as required.

Nicola Anderson-Wildman holds a Chartered Professional Accountant (Canada) and a Certified Public Accountant (Delaware, U.S.A) qualification, with a Postgraduate certificate in Business Administration (merit) from the University of Liverpool and a Level 5 qualification from the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM). She also holds a double major, Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Accounting and Economics from UWI, Mona. Mrs Anderson-Wildman has proven experience with strategic development and senior-level management, particularly, with budgeting and procurement. She has contributed to the strategic development of the Civil Service over the last thirteen plus years. She is a former member of the Performance Improvements Technical Advisory Committee and the Steering committee for the New John Gray High School projects. Mrs Anderson-Wildman brings a combined twenty-plus years’ experience in management from both the private and public sectors.

Charles Brown is an architect, with a Master of Architecture from the University of Edinburgh and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami. His professional experience includes a variety of infrastructure projects, including: road projects (from main arterials to small neighbourhood streets), capital projects (such as the South Sound Boardwalk and coastal park enhancement projects). He has participated in the development of a number of policy matters including the National Energy Policy. More recently Mr Brown has been engaged with a number of digitally focused projects, such as, the National Identification Card project and the enhancement of online services for the Department of Planning and the Department of Vehicles and Drivers’ Licencing. Mr Brown is also an active member of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Neyka Webster is a Certified Public Accountant (New Hampshire State, USA) with a Master of Science (MSc.) in Finance from the Lancaster University, UK. Her undergraduate studies include a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Accounting and Finance from the University of the West of England. Mrs Webster has worked in the accounting field for the past fifteen years, in the private sector and as a CFO for the Civil Service for the past nine years. Notably, her experience spans providing strategic financial advice to various levels of management, including: budget management, high-level reporting and compliance with various areas of finance and operations, and monitoring and advising on Ministry outputs. She also has an Executive Certificate in Global Leadership from UCCI and Florida International University. In 2020, Neyka Webster was appointed as a member of the Public Procurement Committee by the Governor.