Premier hires civil engineer and media expert
(CNS) Premier Wayne Panton has hired Dr Celine Manoosingh as his special advisor in relation to sustainability and climate change and Nickolas DaCosta as his content and communications coordinator, officials have announced. Both of the senior positions are new jobs at the premier’s office but cover priority areas for the PACT Government, according to a press release. Manoosingh is returning to her native Cayman from the United States to offer advice on green building and sustainable construction while DaCosta will manage Panton’s digital content and channels as part of the focus on transparency.
“I am pleased that these two outstanding young Caymanians have both agreed to join our stellar team in the Office of the Premier,” said Panton. “Celine’s exceptional professional background, academic credentials and research in the areas of engineering and sustainability, as well as Nickolas’ vast background in communications, social media and service to our local community are welcomed assets.”
Manoosingh will provide advice in key areas, support capacity building in sustainability and climate change, review and synergize various policies and assist with projects as assigned by the Premier.
She has a PhD in Civil Engineering and is a tenured professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at Georgia Southern University, where she has worked since 2014. Her teaching expertise includes green building and sustainable construction, project planning and cost control, and construction safety. She also serves on the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC, which focuses on resilience, renewable energy, sustainable smart cities and green infrastructure.
Raised in the Cayman Islands and educated in the public school system here, she said she was delighted to return home for this new role. “It has always been a dream of mine to share my expertise and knowledge with my community,” she said.
“I am grateful that this opportunity has arisen for me to take a sabbatical from academia to provide advice and support to the premier and the elected government as they seek to address the urgent challenges related to sustainability and climate change.”
As Content and Communications Coordinator, DaCosta will ensure that the public is kept informed about the work of the office through the development and management of the premier’s digital content. He has more than 12 years experience in customer service and communications in both the public and private sectors, having most recently served as the customer relations supervisor of the Water Authority – Cayman.
DaCosta has a business degree and masters in public administration. He has served as a member of the Planning Appeals Tribunal since 2016 and was recently appointed as a member of the Water Authority Board. He said he was looking forward to drawing on his experience in communications to support PACT’s approach to transparency and people first.
“I am truly excited to be working with such a great team,” he added.
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Category: Politics
Congrats to Dr. Manoosingh and Mr. DaCosta!
Well deserved!
We always needed young, properly educated Caymanians to help run our Islands as they are our future AND both have degrees from reputable Universities which (I hope) will set a fine example for other young Caymianians to do the same!
It was the old, hypocritical, stagnant previous Government that dared not hire young, educated Caymanians for they feared that one day in the future they would take their jobs. Most of the previous government members have ALREADY retired, collected their HUGE pensions and still continue to run for elections and sadly get re-elected.
Don’t let me start as I can name quite a few that barely graduated from High School with no qualifications at all that the previous government hired and paid (and is still paying because their politicians/family members which ran again for elections and got re-elected) when they can’t even read or write properly!
And, let me add, that I’m very proud of Mr. Bryan for admitting his mistake… something that the previous government never did!
I’m 💯 proud of PACT!
As is wont to happen whenever an announcement is made regarding appointments to office of the highest elected official of the Cayman Islands, credentials and experience are examined and critiques provided by the public on the appropriateness of said appointments. Normally, this leads to subjective assessments on the person’s qualifications. Interestingly, in this case, there are actual stated qualifications/experience listed that do not appear to be supportable in fact. While this may not diminish the actual abilities of the person in question, it certainly raises concern regarding either the accuracy of the information provided to government, the media, or both that led to this qualification being listed, whether any fact-checking is broadly taking place by the aforementioned media and government, and whether this impacts the trust required in this type of role in the event this wasn’t a simple misunderstanding.
While it’s sadly not uncommon for associations or tangential experiences to be embellished on resumes or CVs these days, one would expect there should be heightened scrutiny by the public when it pertains to those who will be serving critical political roles for one of the highest offices in the Cayman Islands.
https://search.nsf.gov/search?query=manoosingh&affiliate=nsf&search=
Rahtid man. What you eat for breakfast this morning. A thesaurus?!
Georgia Southern University- LOL
Content and communications coordinator – What does GIS do all day?
Does posting often on FB make you a media expert? If so there must be thousands in Cayman. Come on Wayne we hoped for better from you.
Let’s see if CMR will run an article on the salaries of these political appointees like she did when the PPM was in power.
Or will the T transparency in PACT require the salaries to be published.
Both will struggle for a while to get anything done as they don’t understand how the Civil Service works.
Congrats to these two young smart CAYMANIANS,
Wow Wayne, just when I thought you couldn’t get any more desperate, you go and prove me wrong again.
Can Ms Manoosingh please conduct a review of the Fin Development with particular reference to how they got planning permission to cram all that concrete into the lot with minimal landscaping, which must have contravened the law.
Can we clarify Mr. Dacosta’s qualifications and experience, please, an honest question as I do not personally know him. Customer Service Supervisor at the WAC hardly seems to qualify him for whatever role this is that has been created: “As Content and Communications Coordinator, DaCosta will ensure that the public is kept informed about the work of the office through the development and management of the premier’s digital content.’ This isn’t already handled?
Note the difference in the relative descriptions of experience of the two individuals.
Remember everyone, we are paying for all of this.
This young man, is very smart, educated and with lots of common sense.
See he’s posting already.
4.17pm Interestingly no mention of where he got his degrees, why is this omitted?.
So the Premier just gets to wave a machine wand and give two people a job without going through the recruitment process ? What if there were other Caymanians who wanted an opportunity to be considered ?
Will they be getting mother upkeep and hardship allowance like the last Premier’s people ????
Transparency is a must!
Is my taxes paying them
We don’t pat tax here
You do, just not on your salary. You pay it in duties and fees instead. That goes towards and pays for government.
Let’s see details on where these positions were advertised and how many applications were received, Mr Transparency.
They appear to be political appointments that will expire with the Premier’s term of office.
You need to wake up. All these top positions have political appointments, for decades.
Like the Cabinet Secretary.
Or Chief Parliamentary Advisor?
expansion of civil service and cig expenditure is never ending…zzzzzzzz
read e&y or miller shaw reports…..
They are creating jobs. And yes, creating more jobs and spending money as if there is no tomorrow. Approving bonuses for high paying employees of SAGs and approving the 16% increase in salaries of persons in Grades D and up. A country gets the representation it deserves.
As if grade D and above actually need the 16%. It’s those further down that need it. 16% of a lot is a lot!
Great choices, congrats to both!
Here we go again – more and more persons added to the public tab.
Congrats to the 2 successful candidates, just the same. Absolutely no negative reflection on them!
Now Wayne, stop waving yours hands around and do something about the disappearing SMB.
And yeah, we know all the persons that happily destroyed it BUT you promised to be our environmental saviour and then some.
The clock is ticking.. no task forces, give the young lady a chance to help you get it right. She can consult at will and with whom she wishes, but we need results, even a couple low hanging fruit would help.
Now you really want to turn the Premier into a magician.The beach was going south long before he even first ran for Election.Boy una hateful,bet you be smiling in his face,while stabbing him in the back
Plant some grape trees. Problem solved. Next.
I’m more concerned about the border reopening and traffic.