The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has an­nounced that Ma­jor Gen­er­al (Ret’d) Rod­ney Smart has been ap­point­ed as the new Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer (CEO) of the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM).

He as­sumed du­ty to­day, Sep­tem­ber 2, 2019.

Ma­jor Gen­er­al Smart is a for­mer Chief of De­fence Staff of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force and pre­vi­ous­ly served as Na­tion­al Co­or­di­na­tor of the Na­tion­al Crime Pre­ven­tion Pro­gramme.

He al­so served as CEO of the ODPM dur­ing the pe­ri­od 2010-2011 as an in­ter­im mea­sure, while hold­ing the rank of Colonel and Di­rec­tor Force De­vel­op­ment, Strat­e­gy and Man­age­ment of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force.

Ma­jor Gen­er­al Smart served over­seas in Grena­da as the 2nd Task Force Com­man­der fol­low­ing the pas­sage of Hur­ri­cane Ivan in 2004.

He com­mand­ed the Sup­port Com­pa­ny of the CARI­COM Bat­tal­ion that par­tic­i­pat­ed in the UN Peace­keep­ing Mis­sion to Haiti in 1995-1996.

He al­so led a pla­toon to Ja­maica in 1988, as part of a De­fence Force con­tin­gent that as­sist­ed that coun­try’s re­turn to nor­mal­i­ty fol­low­ing its dev­as­ta­tion from Hur­ri­cane Gilbert.

The re­tired Ma­jor Gen­er­al is a grad­u­ate of the US Army’s War Col­lege and the Com­mand and Gen­er­al Staff Col­lege where he at­tained a Mas­ter’s De­gree in Strate­gic Stud­ies as well as post­grad­u­ate qual­i­fi­ca­tions in Mil­i­tary Art and Sci­ence.

He al­so holds a De­gree in Man­age­ment Stud­ies from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

He is a Fel­low of the In­sti­tute of Lead­er­ship and Man­age­ment.