Appointed to the head job in January 2023 after a global executive search, BNT Executive Director Lakeshia
Anderson-Rolle will announce her vision for the BNT at the upcoming 2023 AGM, which will be her first formal
address to the Trust’s membership and full governing Council.
The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) will hold its first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of a new era. As the country’s foremost conservation non-profit, the new Executive Director Lakeshia Anderson-Rolle will discuss her vision for the future of the BNT.
The 2023 AGM – to which all BNT members are invited – will be held April 27 at 6pm at Crypto Isle in Nassau, and keeping with practice, the BNT Council will convene the following day. The AGM is a statutory gathering of the BNT’s membership, leaders and supporters with the purpose of updating the BNT membership on the annual progress and new major initiatives such as Anderson-Rolle’s ongoing Listening Tour, meant to inform 2023’s year-long strategic planning process. The BNT Council Meeting is a biannual meeting of the organisation’s governing body to carry out orderly business and where Council Members engage with the Executive Director on the BNT’s overall strategy and direction.
“The focus of these meetings will be envisioning a positive and ambitious way forward for the National Trust,” said Anderson-Rolle. “It comes down to the same message for which I was appointed by Council, and which I am hearing every day on my listening tour: the BNT mustredouble focus on our core mandate of national park management. We must begin to move away from paper parks, to having fully functional and actively managed parks that are properly staffed and providing economic opportunities for Bahamians, especially nearbycommunities. This year and moving forward, we are going to be laser focused on delivering for the people of The Bahamas.”
One of the oldest and most recognized non-profits in The Bahamas, the BNT was established by an Act of Parliament in 1959 and today manages all 32 existing national parks in The Bahamas, ensuring that these unique sanctuaries of ecologically significant biodiversity remain protected and preserved, while raising local and international awareness of their importance. Serving as both national park managers and a formal environmental advisor to Government, the BNT’s three core focus areas are Parks, Science, and Education.
Of these proceedings and outlook for 2023, BNT Council President Geoff Andrews said: “These meetings will officially launch an exciting new era for The Bahamas National Trust. With dynamo Lakeshia Anderson-Rolle at the helm, and with a renewed focus on our core mission of effectively managing the parks and thereby protecting the country’s abundant natural resources for the benefit of future generations, there is no doubt that the BNT has a very bright future indeed. At the occasion of our AGM, the BNT warmly invites all Bahamians to become BNT members today!”
