Cave Hill, CIBC FirstCaribbean solidify partnership
05 April 2023
A local bank’s demonstrated commitment to funding research has been praised as exemplary of a good strategic partnership between industry and academia.
The acclaim came from Principal of The UWI Cave Hill campus, Professor Clive Landis when he pointed to the approximately $82 000 in research grants which CIBC First Caribbean has provided under a memorandum of understanding between the two entities. He was speaking during a courtesy call which the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Hill and a team of bank officials paid on him recently.
Professor Landis said that level of research funding remains unmatched to date by any other corporate sponsor and noted that research areas chosen over the years were ones that impact people. He added that while researchers often complained about inadequate opportunities to speak to practitioners, the bank made its officials accessible.
St Hill, who took up the bank’s top position last November, noted the role which The UWI played in the region’s digital transformation and pointed out that CIBC FirstCaribbean was named the “Best Digital Transformation Bank 2022”, by The European, a Londonbased global financial publication. That award recognised the bank’s “efforts and strides made in digital banking, e-products, Internet banking services and corporate banking products”.
He added that more than 90 per cent of the bank’s employees were UWI graduates but many people had the misconception that the bank’s Canadian connection meant that most of everything came from Canada which was not the case.
Both leaders spoke positively about several programmes under the MOU, including the internship programme, with St Hill noting that the graduates were doing well not only at his bank but other companies locally and internationally and were performing excellently.
The university and the bank have established a formal relationship under a series of MOUs, the first of which was signed in 2002.
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