On October 30, 2024, Fayval Williams became the first woman to be appointed to the role of Jamaica’s minister of finance and the public service. Armed with an economics degree from Harvard University and a master of business administration (MBA) from the University of Pennsylvania, the two-term member of parliament for St Andrew Eastern previously served as minister of education and youth as well as minister of science, energy and technology.
On her historic promotion, here are five things you should know about Williams.
- Before joining the public sector, Fayval Williams spent years working in some of the world’s most renowned private financial institutions. Her résumé includes chief investment officer of JMMB Limited; senior vice-president at Putnam Investments; vice-president at Wellington Management Company; fixed income analyst at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company; and information systems analyst for Morgan Stanley. She also served as executive director of Kingston Properties Limited – a post she stepped down from in October 2015 to focus on her electoral campaign for the 2016 General Election.
- A chartered financial analyst (CFA), Williams’ promotion to the top of Jamaica’s finance ministry is not her first job at the government office. She previously served as state minister from 2016 to 2018 when the ministry was then headed by Audley Shaw. In March 2018, she was appointed to the role of minister without portfolio under the leadership of her now predecessor, Dr Nigel Clarke.
- Williams’s recent appointment is one of multiple firsts in Jamaica’s political history. By becoming the member of parliament for St Andrew Eastern, the Fencort High alumna became the first woman to represent the constituency. She also made history in February 2019 when she became the first woman to be appointed minister of science, energy, and technology.
- As Williams stepped into the chief role at the finance ministry, she is just one of 13 women in Caribbean history to have ever held the role. Just by her appointment, Jamaica is one of nine countries in the Caribbean to have ever had a woman in the role. Dominica was the first when Dame Eugenia Charles became minister of finance in 1980.
- Currently, Williams is one of three women who heads the finance ministry for her country in the Caribbean. The other two women are Mia Mottley of Barbados and Ketleen Florestal of Haiti.
