CCHFI SPEAKER PROFILES
(In order of appearance)
The Hon. Derrick Burgess, JP, MP, Deputy Premier
The Hon. Derrick V. Burgess, JP, MP, Minister of Public Works, was first elected
as a Progressive Labour Party [PLP] Member of Parliament in a February 1998
by-election, and was re-elected in November 1998. At the time, he was
appointed to the Board of Immigration, the National Pension Plan Board and
the Labour Advisory Council. Later, he was appointed chairman of the
Government Employees’ Health Insurance Scheme.
On 1st September, 2006, he was appointed Minister of Labour, Home Affairs
and Public Safety. Then, on 20th December, 2008 he was appointed Minister of
Works and Engineering, now known as Public Works.
Minister Burgess enjoyed a long career in Bermuda’s hotel industry before assuming the full-time post
of President of the Bermuda Industrial Union [BIU], one of the oldest trade unions in Bermuda in 1996.
He was General Manager of the Coral Island Hotel and later worked at Holiday Inn, Lowes Bermuda,
Club Med Hotel, and at the Hamilton Princess Hotel. In addition, he has served as Director of Human
Resources at Grotto Bay Beach Resort.
Minister Burgess earned a Diploma in Hotel Management from the Lewis Hotel School in Washington,
D.C. and has pursued programmes of study at Bermuda College, the City College of Chicago, the
University of Maryland, the Lewis Hotel School in Washington, D.C. and the George Meany Labour
College, also in Washington, D.C.
In October 2001, he was elected First Vice President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour, the first
Bermudian to hold that position. In 2010 Minister Burgess was elected as Deputy Leader of the
Progressive Labour Party and became Deputy Premier. In November 2011 he was appointed Minister of
Transport.
CCHFI SPEAKER PROFILES
The Hon. Zane De Silva, JP, MP, Minister of Health
Zane Joseph Stephen De Silva became Minister of Health on November 1st,
2010. He is the only Cabinet Minister and Progressive Labour Party Member of
Parliament of Portuguese descent. Minister De Silva was elected as an MP
representing constituency #30, Southampton East Central, in December, 2007,
and was appointed as Minister Without Portfolio on November 12th, 2009.
During his time as Minister Without Portfolio, he was involved with various
Government projects including the modernization of the Municipalities.
Minister De Silva is owner, President and Chief Executive Officer of Island Construction, one of
Bermuda's most diversified local companies, where he has been employed since 1988. Minister De Silva
started his career at The London Shop and went on to work at AIG and eventually SKB Coatings. During
his earlier career, he also took on part time employment including stints at Henry VIII Pub & Restaurant,
the Somerset Bridge Cycle Shop and as a painter.
Minister De Silva has deep roots in the community. He throws his company's support behind youth,
educational, sports and faith-based organizations. He has served on the Boards of a number of
charitable and sporting organizations and is a Life Member at Watford Sports Club, Somerset Bridge
Recreation Club, St. David’s Cricket Club, East End Mini-Yacht Club, the Bermuda Athletic Association
and Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club. Minister De Silva is also an advocate for unifying Bermuda's ethnic groups,
evidenced by his role as a founder of the West End Runners Club (known as “The People's Running
Club”), one of the first running clubs to include significant joint representation of both black and white
Bermudians and non-Bermudians.
CCHFI SPEAKER PROFILES
Mr. Ruben Suarez-Berenguela
Rubén M. Suárez-Berenguela has been the Senior Advisor on Health
Economics and Financing at the Pan American Health Organization/World
Health Organization PAHO/WHO in Washington, D.C., since the year
2000. He has more than 25 years of experience as a Consultant for
international organizations (World Bank, Inter-American Development
Bank, PAHO/WHO), national governments and private consulting
companies. His areas of expertise include economic and financial analysis
of public policies for health and health systems development, fiscal issues
related to the sustainability of the financing of national health care
systems, and the analysis of health and poverty and social inequalities. He has an extensive work
experience in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East. He holds a BA in
Economics from the Catholic University of Peru, Master's Degree in Economics (M.A) from the University
of Ottawa in Canada, and completed his doctoral studies in Economics (Ph.D.) at the University of
Western Ontario, in London, Ontario in Canada. Mr. Suárez-Berenguela held the position of Economic
Advisor at the National Bank of Mexico (Banamex), and was a Professor of Economics at Anahuac
University in Mexico, the Catholic University and the Graduate School of Business Administration (ESAN)
in Lima, Peru, as well as at the Graduate Program in Latin American Studies at George Washington
University in Washington D.C.
Professor Marc Roberts
Marc J. Roberts is Professor of Political Economy and Health Policy at the
Harvard School of Public Health and a member of the Departments of Health
Policy and Management and Global Health and Population. Having received both
his B.A. and his Ph.D. (in economics) from Harvard, he has served on various
faculties of the university since 1969 including Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy
School of Government, the Harvard Law School and, since 1975, the School of
Public Health—where he is now the School’s longest serving faculty member.
For the last twelve years he has been extensively involved in the World Bank’s
efforts to support health sector reform around the world—teaching regional and national courses and
consulting for senior government leaders in more than thirty-five countries.. He is the author or
coauthor of six books and numerous professional articles on public health policy, environmental policy,
public management and health sector reform. The books include Your Money or Your Life about Pres.
Clinton’s efforts to reform the US health care system and --with three Harvard colleagues--Getting
Health Reform Right, about health care reform around the world. He and Prof. Michael Reich, have just
completed a book on improving the performance of the pharmaceutical sector in low and middle
income countries --published by the World Bank in July 2011. He is also currently leading a major, three
year initiative mounted by the Harvard School of Public Health, to train hospital managers for the
Ministry of Health in Egypt—supported by that government and USAID.
CCHFI SPEAKER PROFILES
Mr. Raphael (Rae) Barrett
Raphael Barrett provides advisory services on National Health Financing
mechanisms and systems as well as health management structures. He holds a
BSc(Special) in Physics from the University of the West Indies-Mona and an MBA
from the University of Western Ontario. Mr. Barrett was engaged by the InterAmerican Development Bank to assist the Jamaican Government establish a
national health insurance programme in 1999. This assignment led to the
development of the Jamaica National Health Fund in 2003 during which he
created EHPO© a strategic planning tool for health policymakers that assists
them in the design and implementation of health financing mechanisms. Mr. Barrett was the first CEO
of the NHF until 2008. He was a senior member of the team that prepared the feasibility study on a
Regional Health Insurance Mechanism for Caricom. He currently lectures in the postgraduate Health
Administration course at the University of Technology and is engaged in assignments on health financing
for the Government/PAHO in St. Lucia and for PANCAP/GIZ in Antigua & Barbuda, Sint Maarten,
Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago. Mr. Barrett is an Associate of the Oxford Policy Institute, a leading
international policy research organisation and has participated in and made presentations on National
Health Financing and the NHF of Jamaica at conferences and workshops for various organisations
including the EU, IDB, ILO and PAHO.
Jennifer Attride-Stirling, Ph.D.
Dr. Attride-Stirling is the Chief Executive Officer of the Bermuda Health
Council. Prior to joining BHeC she was with the Bermuda Department of
Health, and before that she was with the regulatory body for the National
Health Service of England and Wales. Dr Attride-Stirling obtained her doctoral
degree from the London School of Economics in 1998. She has an Executive
Diploma in Strategic Management from the Chartered Management Institute,
UK. And in 2010 she completed the Flagship Course on Health System
Strengthening and Sustainable Financing from Harvard School of Public Health
& World Bank. Dr. Attride-Stirling has published articles on health regulation,
health promotion, mental health and research methodology. Her work in
Bermuda includes the establishment of a national Child Health Record,
creation of a National Health Promotion Strategy, and production of annual National Health Accounts,
and the seminal Health in Review report benchmarking Bermuda’s health system performance against
the OECD.
CCHFI SPEAKER PROFILES
Dr. Stanley Lalta
Dr. Stanley Lalta is a Health Economist currently working as a Research Fellow
with the Centre for Health Economics, UWI, Trinidad and Tobago. He was
previously employed as a consultant on development of national health
insurance and chronic disease prescription drug financing plan in The Bahamas,
and as a Health Economist at the Ministry of Health in Jamaica. He is a graduate
of the University of The West Indies, University of Cambridge, University of York
and University of London. He has written several papers and consultant reports
on health financing, national health insurance, evaluating health financing
systems and health reform in the Caribbean.