Cam­bridge trained econ­o­mist and for­mer Gov­er­nor of the Cen­tral Bank of T&T, Dr Eu­ric Bobb, has been ap­point­ed chair­man of Methanol Hold­ings Ltd (MHTL).The for­mer chief of staff to the Pres­i­dent of the In­ter-Amer­i­can De­vel­op­ment Bank (IDB) and World Bank econ­o­mist joined the board of MHTL in 2014, on the in­vi­ta­tion of ma­jor­i­ty share­hold­er, the Switzer­land-based Pro­man Group, and took up his ap­point­ment as Chair­man in April.

Among his nu­mer­ous pro­fes­sion­al cre­den­tials are con­sult­ing as­sign­ments for the In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF), Caribbean De­vel­op­ment Bank (CDB), the Cen­tral Bank of T&T and MetLife.

Dr Bobb's skills in the dis­ci­plines of fi­nance and eco­nom­ics have been wide­ly ac­claimed and his in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence and past in­ter­ac­tion with key lead­ers of in­dus­try through­out Latin Amer­i­ca, the Caribbean and fur­ther afield po­si­tion him favourably for his new role as head of one of the coun­try's lead­ing in­dus­tri­al en­ter­pris­es.

Since No­vem­ber 2008 he has al­so been a di­rec­tor of BCB Hold­ings and its bank­ing sub­sidiaries in Be­lize. In 1994 he was award­ed the Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold) for pub­lic ser­vice to T&T.MHTL is a lead­ing world pro­duc­er of methanol with di­ver­si­fied op­er­a­tions now in­clud­ing five methanol plants and an in­te­grat­ed sev­en-plant am­mo­nia urea melamine (AUM) fa­cil­i­ty that has been in pro­duc­tion since 2010.

Dr Bobb said: "I am ho­n­oured to take up this ap­point­ment, at a time of chal­lenges in the en­er­gy sec­tor. Chal­lenges re­quire us to put our best foot for­ward, not on­ly as an in­dus­try play­er, but as mem­bers of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty."As a key stake­hold­er in the sec­tor, MHTL will con­tin­ue to play a lead­ing role in equip­ping us as a coun­try with the means to achieve, in a sub­stan­tial way, the de­vel­op­men­tal goals we have set for our­selves."

The Pro­man out­lay of US$1.5 bil­lion in the AUM plants re­mains the biggest pri­vate in­vest­ment in the his­to­ry of TT&T and po­si­tions MHTL as a ma­jor en­er­gy play­er in the hemi­sphere.