BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has hailed its former president, Dr William Warren Smith, as a “distinguished Caribbean citizen, development practitioner and proud son of Jamaica” following his death on Friday. He was 72 years old.
Smith served as the fifth president of the region’s premier financial institution from May 1, 2011, to April 30, 2021, following his election in October 2010 and re-election for a second term in 2015.
Smith first joined CDB in 1985 and was seconded by the Bank in 1987 to set up the corporate planning function at LIAT (1974) Limited, the regional airline. He subsequently served as the airline’s chief executive officer before returning to CDB in 1998. The cause of his death has not been made public.
The CDB said that during his decade at the helm, he guided the institution and its Borrowing Member Countries (BMC) through an era marked by profound global and regional shocks, including two major international crises that heavily impacted the Caribbean.
“Dr. Smith was a mentor and a guide to me at many critical junctures during my career. He devoted his life’s work to the proposition that Caribbean people deserve strong, modern institutions that are fully on their side,” said CDB President Daniel M. Best in a statement.
He said when Smith assumed office as CDB president in 2011, he guided the institution through some of its most challenging moments “with steadiness, resolve, and an unwavering belief in what the Bank could and should represent for the region.
“He demanded excellence from those around him because he believed deeply in our collective responsibility to serve the Caribbean with integrity, rigour, and purpose. His legacy lives on in the institution he helped strengthen, the people he shaped, and the development path he helped chart for our region,” Best added.
He said the Caribbean has lost a “giant of the development movement.
“However, the work he began is now ours to carry forward as we strengthen the institution he helped shape and advance the Caribbean future he believed in so deeply,” Beat said as he extended “deepest condolences to his wife and family, his friends and former colleagues”.
The CDB said the Jamaican-born Smith had also championed good governance, sound economic management, and strong regional institutions as foundations for inclusive development. It said colleagues across the Bank remember him as a thoughtful, principled leader whose decisions were always anchored in his deep commitment to the people of the Caribbean.
Under Dr. Smith’s stewardship, CDB strengthened its role as a trusted partner for the region, mobilising resources to support sustainable growth, resilience building, and social and economic transformations across its member countries.
“His leadership placed renewed emphasis on climate resilience, disaster risk management, and innovative development financing, working with partners to design instruments that helped Caribbean states respond to and recover from natural hazards and external shocks,” the CDB added.
Smith received a degree in Economics from Cornell University in 1974 and then earned a Master’s in Agricultural Economics. In 1985, he completed a PhD in Resource Economics and Public Policy.
In 2016, Smith was appointed to the Order of Distinction in the Rank of Commander in Jamaica and received the honour for distinguished public service and for service to the Caribbean in the field of finance.
The Caribbean Development Bank will, in the coming days, work with Smith’s family to share further information on arrangements to celebrate and honour his life and contribution. A condolence book will be available for signing at the Bank’s head office from Monday.
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