Following his nomination by Commonwealth Secretary-General, Mr. Kamalesh Sharma, COL's Board of Governors has appointed Jamaica's High Commissioner to the U.K., His Excellency,
the Honourable Burchell Whiteman, O.J. as its new Chair. HE Whiteman has been a member of COL's Board since 2002 as the representative for the Caribbean, has been Vice-Chair since 2007 and has served as Acting Chair since the death of Dr. Lewis Perinbam in December 2007. Starting his professional career more than 40 years ago as a teacher, he became a politician in 1989, served as Jamaica's Minister of Education for 10 years and then as Information Minister and Government Leader in the Senate. In 2006 he was awarded the Order of Jamaica for his outstanding contribution to education and the legislature and was also named an Honorary Fellow of COL. He took up his current London posting in early 2007.
"COL is truly fortunate to have such an experienced educator, politician and diplomat in this vital post," said COL President Sir John Daniel. "Burchell gained a tremendous reputation for his work as Minister of Education in Jamaica and was highly regarded by his fellow Ministers around the Commonwealth. With his thorough knowledge of information and communications technology and his familiarity with intergovernmental matters he is ideally equipped to lead COL in developing and implementing its Three-year Plan for 2009-12."
Ms. Jenny Glennie, Director, South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) and South Africa's representative on the COL Board, has been elected Deputy Chair.
Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr has been appointed to the COL Board as the representative for Africa. A distinguished Ghanaian and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Sawyerr was until recently Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities. He has held teaching and research appointments at universities and research institutes in Africa, Europe, Asia and the U.S. and has authored numerous publications. Professor Sawyerr succeeds
Professor Penina Mlama on COL's Board.
Maldives Minister of Education,
the Honourable Zahiya Zareer, is the Board's new representative for Asia. She is a former Chair of the Maldives National Commission for UNESCO and Minister of Gender, Family Development and Social Security. Her late father was a minister in the former government, her mother sat in the parliament and her uncle is the current Foreign Minister. The Board's previous representative for Asia was
Dr. Tara de Mel of Sri Lanka.
www.col.org/board COL President
Sir John Daniel was one of 14 people to be awarded honorary degrees from the Université de Montréal, Canada, at the 2008 convocation ceremonies. He received a Doctorate honoris causa in recognition of his personal achievement and active participation in society.
Dr. Abdurrahman Umar has joined COL as Education Specialist, Teacher Education. He comes to COL from the National Teachers' Institute in Kaduna, Nigeria, where he was Director of Academic Services. Dr. Umar also served as the Director of Programme Development and Extension at Nigeria's National Commission for Nomadic Education and as Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Education. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Educational Technology at the U.K. Open University and a Visiting Scholar at Syracuse University, New York.
Dr. Pema Eden Samdup has joined the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) as Programme Officer. She comes to CEMCA from the Indira Gandhi National Open University where she was a Senior Lecturer in English and was also involved in curriculum design and course development.
Ms. Amy Monaghan has been appointed Manager of COL's Information Resource Centre (IRC). She is responsible for managing COL's physical library and maintaining online resources such as news feeds and COL's Knowledge Finder. Prior to joining COL in 2005, Ms. Monaghan was Library Manager with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia. She succeeds
Mr. Nick Gao who left COL earlier this year.
COL's new Information Technology Manager is
Ms. Anna Lee. Prior to joining COL, Ms. Lee was Manager of Information Systems and Technology at the University of British Columbia Library in Canada and Divisional Director of Information Services at Singapore's Institute of Technical Education.
www.col.org/staff
COL extends its condolences to the family and friends of former COL staff member,
Mr. Peter McMechan, who passed away in Dunedin, New Zealand in June 2008. Mr. McMechan joined COL in its early days in 1989, returning to his home in Dunedin upon his retirement from COL in 1997. He was well known in the Pacific through his work at the University of Otago and the University of the South Pacific and as COL's Director of Pacific Programmes.