Team

Bevan is an award-winning journalist and seasoned public relations professional. He has worked as the North American correspondent of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union and contributed for media houses such as the Caribbean Media Corporation, the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, and Saint Lucia’s Radio 100.

He is well known to the Caribbean Diaspora in the New York tristate area, having hosted several radio programs, including the weekly five-hour radio show, “The Caribbean in Five” on 1190 AM WLIB in New York.

A weekly columnist with New York’s renowned Amsterdam News, Bevan’s international reach includes contributions to the Trinidad Guardian, BBC World Service, New York Daily News, 1600 AM WWRL, UN Radio, and WNBC-TV in New York.

As former North American editor of the Barbados Advocate, Bevan spent several years covering the United Nations where he served as editor of The Islander publication, covering the 1994 Barbados Small Islands Conference, the 1995 Copenhagen Social Summit, and the 1995 Women’s Conference in Beijing.

For more than a decade, he has produced the popular Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), designed to improve the quality of media coverage of sustainable tourism in the Caribbean.

A former national tennis player of Barbados, Bevan has worked as a sports reporter with the Barbados Nation and Barbados Advocate newspapers.

He is a member of New York’s Christian Cultural Center, SAG-AFTRA, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the United Nations Correspondents Association. He is an alumnus of Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in British Columbia, Canada – a member of the United World Colleges’ (UWC) network, and sits on the Leadership Council for the International Institute for Tourism Studies and the Masters of Tourism Administration Program at The George Washington University School of Business.

Recipient of a diploma in public relations from the University of the West Indies and a guest lecturer in public relations at New York University, Bevan has received awards from New York’s City Council, the Council of Barbadian Organizations in New York, BWIA British West Indies Airways, the Caribbean Hotel Association, and the International Career and Business Alliance. In the summer of 2010, he was conferred with honorary Jamaican citizenship by the Jamaica Consulate in New York, and he received the 2012 Marcella Martinez Award for strengthening the marketing programs of Caribbean destinations.

Born in Trinidad and raised in Barbados, Bevan has a unique understanding of and appreciation for Caribbean destinations. His education brought him to Canada, and his career was in New York City, where he established key relationships with the media and the Caribbean Diaspora.

Natalia Lopez is an award-winning integrated public relations professional specializing in travel and lifestyle marketing. With 20 years’ experience, she has an established track record for delivering compelling campaigns that transform brand awareness and resonate with target audiences. Prior to starting her own consultancy, she held management positions at FINN Partners, Zeno Group and AMPR Global.

Noteworthy clients have included Aruba Tourism Authority, Bluegreen Vacations, Ecuador Travel, Hershey’s Chocolate World, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Hotelbeds Group, Jamaica Tourist Board, South African Tourism, Travel Alberta, Virgin Voyages, Visit Argentina and Visit Panama.

In addition, Natalia has managed multicultural campaigns for Dunkin’ Donuts, DIRECTV, Pool Safely, Rosetta Stone, Decimos No Mas, Vonage, and Hotels.com. At FINN, she started and led D&I initiatives for the Travel & Lifestyle division. She has also guest lectured on Multicultural Communications at New York University.

Natalia has served on the Board of Directors of the New York chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. She’s also been a judge for the PRSA-NY Big Apple Awards, HSMAI Adrian Awards and the U.S. Travel Association ESTO Awards.

Of Uruguayan heritage, she is fluent in Spanish and English.

Habib Alaidroos, CPA, is a Sole Practitioner Certified Public Accountant from Irvine, California.
In 2016 he broadened his service offerings to include a Tax and Business Advisory Practice/Consultancy.

A former partner with a CPA firm in Irvine, California since 2012, throughout his career Mr. Alaidroos has held senior finance positions, not only with Private Companies but US Government agencies such as the FDIC.

Habib has had a progressive career since the start in 1985. With an MBA from DePaul University, Chicago he currently holds CPA licenses in Texas and California and is a Board Member of LCPtracker and several other small firms locally where his years of business experience in the US and overseas is utilized by CEOs and CFOs.

Internationally, Habib was CFO of Tamlik Ltd., a Saudi Arabian real estate development firm based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from the early nineties until 2000.

An avid reader and sports fan, Habib enjoys an active lifestyle, hiking and bicycling on weekends and holidays.

Lukkee Chong is an acclaimed leader of the Caribbean audio-visual community whose work as a producer and director ranges across sports, politics, entertainment, music, cuisine, and serious documentaries.

In addition to conceptualizing magazine coverage of Caribbean tourism attractions, Lukkee, directed Taste of the Islands for 185 PBS TV stations and American Public TV.

Mr. Chong, is equally at ease in studio productions, or conducting live outside broadcasts of cricket, athletics, soccer World Cup matches, or historical national events.
BET sought out Lukkee to produce performance DVDs for such musical icons as Clark Terry, Melba Moore, Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Orchestra.

Heather has been a member of MPE’s public relations staff since its early beginnings and brings a wealth of experience in communications, event planning and project management. She has accompanied members of the media on familiarization trips to the U.S. Virgin Islands, contributed her writing and editorial skills to the preparation of reports, coordinated logistics for U.S. Virgin Islands Tourism Ambassadors events and in-market activations, and helped to prepare marketing and public relations presentations. Heather also serves as the administrative lead for Marketplace Excellence’s sales operations. Heather formerly served as Assistant Vice President at Long Island University, where she was a member of the President’s Cabinet, managed the operations of the President’s office, and worked with the marketing and public relations staff regarding communications strategies. She also served as Director of Information Training at LIU. Heather’s professional experience also includes more than five years administering semi-annual conferences for the national sales force of Cambridge University press.

In addition to having parents from Barbados and Trinidad and having lived in several Caribbean islands, Heather’s engagement with the Caribbean region began nearly 20 years ago with the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s 1996 conference, where she assisted with covering the event. She has visited many Caribbean destinations, including St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic, St. Maarten and Puerto Rico both on land and cruise excursions. Before entering junior high school, Heather spent several years living on St. Croix. She has returned to the Virgin Islands both for business and leisure trips. She holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Long Island University and earned a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Hofstra University. Heather joined MPE in 2016.

Ron Fanfair is a top communications professional in Canada. He is a freelance writer-photographer and a journalist at heart. His weekly contributions to Share, Canada’s largest weekly ethnic newspaper, allow him to inform, educate and entertain a wide cross-section of readers on community and international events.

Over the years, Ron has conducted interviews with many dignitaries and heads of state, and covered several international events, including the ICC 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean, 2003 Road World Championships in Hamilton, Ontario, international cricket tours to the Caribbean, World Basketball Championships in Toronto, Basketball Star Isaiah Thomas’ retirement ceremony at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit in 1996, Muhammad Ali’s last two visits to Toronto, and Toronto Raptors’ first season in 1995-1996.

Prior to moving to Canada from Guyana in 1985, Ron, who is also the Caribbean Media Corporation’s Canada correspondent, freelanced for the Guyana Chronicle and the now defunct Citizen Midweek newspaper. He also served as senior sports producer and assistant editor with the state-owned Guyana Broadcasting Corporation, and the Caribbean News Agency’s sports correspondent in Guyana. Ron has won several awards, including the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for Community Service and the Guyana Sportswriter of the Year award.

A journalist and communications specialist with wide-ranging experience in The Americas and the Caribbean, Lelei LeLaulu served as a correspondent in Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions for several publications, including the Financial Times of London, TheMiddleEast Magazine and New African.
His career at the United Nations includes writing and producing radio and television programs as well as editing the UN Report and UN Secretariat News. In addition to designing communications strategies for the series of global conferences and summits of the 1990s, he reported from the UN for CNN’s “World Report”.

From New York, Lelei was a regular correspondent for a variety of organizations, including Pacifica Radio PBS, Deutsche Welle, Radio France International, Swiss Radio, Sky TV, London, Rand Daily Mail, Radio New Zealand, International Publications of London and hosted “One World One Voice” for PBS TV.

Lelei is coordinator of the Oceania Sustainable Tourism Alliance which uses the world’s largest industry – tourism – to alleviate poverty in the Pacific and Asia.

Lelei set up sustainable tourism projects in Africa, and the Mundo Maya project in Mesoamerica, Brazil and Central America with the Inter-American Development Bank. He is an advisor for National Geographic, George Washington University’s Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, and writes book reviews for the Washington Times.

Lelei LeLaulu has been involved with Caribbean developments since he helped set up the Barbados global island summit and co-founded Counterpart Caribbean as well as the Caribbean Media Exchange to provide a neutral forum for regional media professionals, government officials and civil society. He has assisted MPE and CMEx with their multi-year support for the government, companies and people of the USVI. Lelei joined MPE in 2011.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Pete Mansel manages Marketplace Excellence’s, Finance, IT and Operations. During the past decade, Pete has developed numerous business plans for Caribbean entrepreneurs. He has been involved in supporting the USVI Department of Tourism account since 2011 and made major contributions to the USVI Tourism Development Plan.

Pete has more than 30 years of telecommunications operations, marketing, strategic planning and sales experience at senior executive level positions, and he has developed business plans for U.S. and Caribbean clients. Some of the major Caribbean plans include Barbados Photovoltaic Module Assembly Plant, Caribbean Media and Communication Services, Ltd. (CMCS), Barbados Sugar Cane Industry, West Indian Sea Island Cotton, Hit-for-Six feature film, Wentworx Spices, and BIDC Condiments Industry. Pete earned a B.B.A. from Adelphi University and an Executive M.B.A. from Pace University in New York. Pete joined MPE in 2011.

Mike is a multirole designer with a background in branding, print and digital media. Based in Vietnam, he’s spent the past decade working with Asian and international clients to build brands and designs for F&B, real estate, FMCG, finance and hospitality companies. During his time in Vietnam he also launched a venture into craft beer with three good friends, building a successful brand around a great-tasting product and eventually growing it from 10L batches to 1kL batches. Prior to Vietnam, he lived and worked in San Francisco, partnering with creative producers to support some of the most well-known companies, including Yahoo!, Dolby and Microsoft. His hobbies include cooking, SCUBA diving, critiquing modern cinema, eccentric music, book club and philosophy.

Sarah Munn is a Canadian writer and copy editor based in Toronto. She spent her childhood in Micronesia and the Caribbean before heading to Oakville, Ont., to study print journalism at Sheridan College. She has experience in both journalism and public relations and possesses a strong eye for detail.

Dr. Basil Springer has more than 52 years of Caribbean-based project management experience primarily in the areas of optimization, biometrics, market research, agricultural development, tourism, tourism linkages and enterprise development.

Dr. Springer earned a BSc in Mathematics at the University of the West Indies, an MSc in Statistics at the University of College of Wales (Aberystwyth) and a PhD in Statistics and Operations Research from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London.

He is a Caribbean Management Consulting pioneer and now promotes the Shepherding Model as necessary and sufficient for national sustainable development in the Caribbean and beyond.

He is also a Director of the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx), a nonprofit member of his son Bevan’s group of companies. He joined the group in 2001 and led the strategic visioning process for the development of the draft of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Tourism Development Plan in 2013.

He is a weekly newspaper columnist (Serious Business) with the Barbados Advocate since 1993 and a guest columnist with Barbados Today since 2019.

Dr. Springer was awarded the Order of Barbados (Gold Crown of Merit) from the Government of Barbados in 2000.

Born in Karachi, Abdul Wahid is a skilled fine artist with great interest in Computer-Generated Imagery. His family moved to Dubai, U.A.E. where he completed his education in an Indian high school. At a very young age, self-taught and natural, he expressed his skills and passion for fine art, earning himself top ranks in any local art competitions that he participated in. He carried on his devotion for art throughout his academic years which he eventually perfected and turned professional.

Focusing on the possibilities of computer-generated graphics, he paid keen attention to developing his skills in the digital world and specialized in three dimensional and photorealistic graphics which led him to secure his first freelance project at the age of 18. Confident in his crafting skills, he developed an interest in architecture and in 2008 he acquired certification for 3D Architecture and Interior Design.

He has also evolved his work from static images to motion graphics and animation. He is dedicated to physical fitness specifically through basketball, martial arts and riding motorbikes. In his free time, he works on experimenting concept designs of vehicles and mechanics. Abdul joined the MPE team in 2015.

After earning a Bachelor of Digital Media Design from RMIT Vietnam, Phuong has amassed seven years of experience in professional creative and advertising agencies, working on a wide array of projects including TV commercials, social campaigns, branding, and UX/UI design. Her expertise extends beyond graphic design to include 2D motion graphics, video editing, and UI design. She is passionate about making a meaningful impact through visual communication.

Asma Rashid has more than 15 years’ experience in Operations and Executions. After completing her undergraduate studies from the University of Sindh, she started her career as a secondary school teacher in a move to give back to her native Pakistan.

She started her professional career with a digital marketing firm and managed the Unilever Outlet Management Program, which she ran smoothly for three years. She also managed the Pond’s Institute and Pond’s Outlet Management Program for five years, before moving onto the BTL Advertising Company.

Rashid, who has served as Trade Marketing Manager at Shan Foods, also worked at Smollen Field Service Pakistan where she focused on performance and quality assurance, and managed mystery shopping initiatives.