SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­l­sandy@gmail.com

From the streets of Trinidad to the dy­nam­ic board­rooms of glob­al For­tune 500 brands, Suzette Wil­son Samuels is a pow­er­house. Her sto­ry is de­fined by cul­ture, courage, and an un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to lift­ing oth­ers.

A cel­e­brat­ed se­nior ex­ec­u­tive pro­duc­er and glob­al-event strate­gist, Wil­son Samuels car­ries the rich lega­cy of her Caribbean roots wher­ev­er she goes—blend­ing tra­di­tion with in­no­va­tion and strength with grace.

Her life has been shaped by the love and lessons of her late moth­er, the spir­it­ed com­mu­ni­ties of St Joseph and Low­er San­ta Cruz, and a per­son­al mantra that fu­els her every move: Op­er­ate with POISE — Pur­pose, Op­ti­mism, In­ten­tion, Serendip­i­ty, and Em­pa­thy.

Through tri­umphs and chal­lenges, Wil­son Samuels has not on­ly built a stel­lar ca­reer recog­nised by top in­dus­try awards but has be­come a guid­ing light and men­tor to women of colour.

The US-based award-win­ning se­nior ex­ec­u­tive pro­duc­er sits as vice-pres­i­dent of Project Strat­e­gy and So­lu­tions at Drury De­sign. She leads ma­jor ex­pe­ri­ences for For­tune 500 brands with cul­tur­al depth, pur­pose, and au­then­tic­i­ty, and was named one of the Top 100 Black Pro­fes­sion­als in the events in­dus­try.

She al­so earned the Bronze Ste­vie Award for Fe­male Ex­ec­u­tive of the Year and was ho­n­oured last sum­mer at the in­au­gur­al Caribbean POSH ICON Woman Awards in St Thomas for her lead­er­ship, im­pact, and ad­vo­ca­cy for women of colour in the events and mar­ket­ing in­dus­try.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Wil­son Samuels was named a 2025 men­tor for the Ex­pe­ri­en­tial in Col­or Men­tor­ship Pro­gram, which em­pow­ers BIPOC pro­fes­sion­als in ex­pe­ri­en­tial mar­ket­ing.

In April, she en­gaged with fel­low lead­ers at the Ex­pe­ri­en­tial Mar­ket­ing Sum­mit in Las Ve­gas.

As a heart­felt trib­ute to her late moth­er and the val­ues that helped her over­come per­son­al chal­lenges, build a suc­cess­ful ca­reer, and in­spire oth­ers as a men­tor, she plans to launch her de­but book this year: Strength Wis­dom Soul: A Jour­ney to Build­ing Re­silience, Gain­ing In­sight, and Nur­tur­ing Your Spir­it.

Wil­son Samuels is deeply ground­ed in cul­ture, re­silience, lead­er­ship, and im­pact.

She is the grand­daugh­ter of Rose and Thomas Boney and the daugh­ter of Dean and Chris Wil­son—af­fec­tion­ate­ly known as Dad­dy Dean and Mom­my (or Sis­ter) Chris. She is mar­ried to Glad­stone Samuels, her biggest cheer­leader, and is the proud moth­er of Kwasi, Don­a­van, and Rose­lyn, as well as a grand­moth­er.

She is well-re­spect­ed as a bea­con for her for­mer com­mu­ni­ties in Trinidad: St Joseph, where she was born, and Low­er San­ta Cruz, where she spent her ear­ly years be­fore mi­grat­ing in 1987. She al­so at­tend­ed St Joseph RC, St Do­minic’s Con­vent, and Caribbean Union Col­lege (CUC) in Mara­cas, St Joseph.

Im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter mi­grat­ing, she lived in Cana­da and stud­ied at York Uni­ver­si­ty in Toron­to be­fore even­tu­al­ly set­tling in the US. As she has said, de­spite spend­ing decades abroad, Trinidad has nev­er left her.

“I re­turn home year­ly. My last trip was this year for Car­ni­val, where I played with Spir­it Mas.”

Wil­son Samuels re­flect­ed on com­ing from the birth­place of pan: “I played pi­ano and was in a choir, but my dad dis­al­lowed me from play­ing pan, yet in my adult life, he vis­it­ed me in NJ and gave me a tenor, which I still haven’t learnt to play,” she dis­closed.

On her pas­sion and mis­sion, she said, “My on­go­ing pas­sion to pour back in­to the Caribbean cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty and nur­ture emerg­ing tal­ent is high pri­or­i­ty, and while not lead­ing with it just yet, I’m al­so de­vel­op­ing an ini­tia­tive that re­flects my deep cul­tur­al pride and mis­sion to bridge Caribbean ex­cel­lence with glob­al op­por­tu­ni­ty.”