CariCRIS - Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited

Mr. Wayne Dass is the Chief Executive Officer of Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited (CariCRIS). Wayne holds BSc. and MSc. Degrees in Engineering and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter-holder. Wayne has garnered over twenty-five years’ combined experience in engineering and financial markets in the Caribbean, and built particular expertise over the past 15 years in fixed income and equity valuation, credit risk assessment with an emphasis on SME financing, financial risk management, investment management and project management.

Prior to joining CariCRIS, Wayne held senior leadership positions in prominent regional financial institutions including the Development Finance Limited (DFL) Group where he was the Senior Corporate Manager responsible for SME lending in the region, and the securities brokerage firm Caribbean Money Market Brokers Limited (CMMB) where he was first Head of Risk Management and then Head of Investment Management, managing a portfolio of over 1 Billion US$.

Over the past nine years, Wayne has successfully led the expansion and development of CariCRIS. Under his leadership, CariCRIS is now well established throughout the region with a solid track record for independence and integrity in its ratings.

Andre Joseph is the Senior Manager, Ratings at CariCRIS. He has been with the Company since 2006 and currently heads the Ratings and Research Departments. As Senior Manager Ratings, Andre holds overall responsibility for the quality and accuracy of all credit ratings in CariCRIS. He has conducted numerous credit risk training workshops throughout the Caribbean and specializes in sovereign and corporate credit risk analysis.

Prior to joining CariCRIS, Andre worked at the Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation (UTC) for six (6) years, where he last held the position of Senior Investment Analyst in the Investment Management and Research Department. This position included the responsibility for providing guidance to the research analysts in tandem with the Manager Research, evaluating investment proposals and making recommendations regarding potential investments to Management and the Investment Committee. Prior to joining the Unit Trust, Andre spent three (3) years (1997 - 2000) with the RBTT Group as an Account Executive in the Corporate and International Group.

Andre is a graduate of the University of The West Indies (Cave Hill), where he earned his B.Sc. in Economics and Accounting. Andre also holds an M.B.A. in International Finance from the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, and was trained at CRISIL in India, the largest credit rating agency in India and a subsidiary of Standard and Poor’s.

Dr. Stefan Fortuné is the Senior Manager, Ratings, Research & Training at Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited (CariCRIS). In this role, he leads a team responsible for providing research and analysis for the credit ratings of sovereigns, corporates and SMEs throughout the region. Stefan specializes in SME Ratings and was a member of the team that piloted the SME credit rating product in Jamaica in 2009. Stefan has since led several other SME credit rating assignments and is currently spearheading an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded SME Ratings project in the Caribbean. Stefan has also facilitated several workshops throughout the Caribbean in SME credit risk analysis.

Prior to joining CariCRIS in 2007, Dr. Fortuné participated in an internship at Guardian Holdings Limited. There he was exposed to the functions of the various departments but eventually assigned to function in the internal auditing department.

Dr. Fortuné holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of the West Indies with research interest in consumption behavior, welfare economics and poverty alleviation.

Kathryn Budhooram is a Senior Manager, Rating Operations, Strategic Planning, and Brand Development at CariCRIS.  In this position, she leads a team responsible for providing credit ratings and analyses for companies spanning the financial and corporate sectors throughout the region. Prior to joining CariCRIS in 2010, Kathryn was employed at Caribbean Money Market Brokers Limited (CMMB) for five (5) years, where she last held the position of Bond Trader with a focus on  US Treasuries, Eurobonds and US$ denominated bonds for the Held-for-Trading and Available-for-Sale portfolios.  During her tenure at CMMB, Kathryn was also selected as a Subject Matter Expert - Repo Module for the company’s business aspect of the Core Business Application where she was involved in its implementation in the firm’s offices in Trinidad, Barbados and St. Lucia.

Kathryn is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and is also a member of the Project Management Institute, USA.  She holds a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) in International Business from St. John’s University, N.Y., USA where she graduated Beta Gamma Sigma and a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Economics from the University of The West Indies (St. Augustine).  Kathryn is currently pursuing a Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business.