For our September 2023 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Esmeralda Levens of BearingPoint Caribbean in Curaçao, and Andrew Olton of Cryptcore in Trinidad and Tobago, the panel discusses: Why the future of finance is global; Is the Caribbean region truly a home for digital nomads? and, Is our love affair with AI already over?
This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music!!
Our September Community Chat episode is a wonderful mash-up of topics. But unlike previous episodes in which common themes may have emerged though the topics were wildly different, that was not readily the case this time. Notwithstanding, an interesting and insightful discussion was had by all, and so sincere thanks to our guests whom we introduce below.
Introducing our guests
Esmeralda Levens is a global citizen who grew up in Suriname, pursued her higher education in Mathematics and Computer Science in the USA, was subsequently employed in the Netherlands, and since 2001 has been a resident of Curaçao. The common thread in her career has been the increase in business process efficiency mediated by technology, software, and data. She has done this by leading small and large teams in million-dollar projects in a wide range of industries and in various cultural settings, varying from the airline industry, sports betting, telecommunications, emergency and disaster management, financial industry, tax administrations, and social security organisations.
Besides being an IT professional, Esmeralda has also been a regular guest lecturer at the University of Curaçao in IT-related courses, Mathematics, and Statistics. In January 2020, Esmeralda joined BearingPoint Caribbean. She is Associate Director and Business Unit Manager of Product Design. BearingPoint Caribbean enables Caribbean Islands to increase tax and contributions compliance through a digital transformation of public services.
Andrew Olton currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Cryptcore where he is responsible for contributing to the company’s strategic vision as well as bringing products to market. Prior to this, he worked as a Strategy and Transformation Analyst at ANSA Merchant Bank Limited, where he provided strategic analysis and insight for regional expansion initiatives, market entry strategies, and new business opportunities. He also has experience in the realm of Public Sector Digital Transformation through his work with FreeBalance where he served as a Technical Services Consultant. Andrew also has four (4) years’ experience as a Data Analytics Career Mentor for Springboard, in which he has provided mentorship to students, helping them secure roles at prestigious companies like Salesforce and State Farm.
Andrew is an alumnus of the Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business, having completed a Master of Information Systems and Technology Management in 2020. His exceptional career journey showcases his passion for driving innovation, strategic thinking, and a commitment to excellence in the fields of finance and data analytics. His ability to empower teams and deliver results has solidified his reputation as a respected visionary leader in the industry.
The topics discussed
Thanks to technology and other modernisations that have occurred, our world has become increasingly interconnected and interdependent, and increasingly, we are also operating in a global marketplace. However, one of the last frontiers appears to be banking and personal finance, which is still quite insular, especially in the Caribbean region. For example, bank customers can find themselves unable to complete certain transactions or are subject to more onerous requirements if they are not at the bank branch at which they opened their accounts. However, consumers are looking for options, and so our first topic is Why the future of finance is global.
In a completely different vein, our second topic is tourism-based and was a segment to which Caribbean countries began to pay greater attention at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: digital nomads. However, three years later, the thrust to attract digital nomads seemed to have waned. But then, how serious were we about it in the first place? Our conversation was thus built around the question, Is the Caribbean region truly a home for digital nomads?
Finally, the topic, Is our love affair with AI already over?, gave us an opportunity to revisit our relationship with Artificial Intelligence (AI) nearly a year after it began with the public release of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT.
We would love to hear your thoughts!
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Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.
Let’s make it happen!
Select Links
Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:
Images credit: E Levens; A Olton; Tung Nguyen (Pixabay); Jonathan Cooper (Unsplash); Peggy Anke (Unsplash)
Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell
Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez
