Bio

The Hon. Fayval Williams, MP, is Minister of Finance and the Public Service. She has also served as Minister of Education and Youth.

Mrs. Williams is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) by profession. She has an MBA with concentration in Finance from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA (cum laude) in Economics from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Williams was elected Member of Parliament for St. Andrew Eastern in the recent general election and was the former Executive Director of Kingston Properties Limited.

Prior to Kingston Properties, Mrs. Williams served as Chief Investment Officer of JMMB Limited from March, 2005 to September, 2007 with investment responsibilities spanning the trading department, investment research, and pensions. Also, during the period September 2002 to February 2004, Mrs. Williams consulted with JMMB in the areas of market risk management and investment research where she led that company’s efforts to develop investment research capabilities. Mrs. Williams also served as the Head of the Valuation and Pricing team for JMMB’s public offering.

In 2004, Mrs. Williams consulted with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in the area of Research and Policy. Prior to returning to Jamaica, Mrs. Williams was Senior Vice President at Putnam Investments, in Boston, a top-10-global mutual fund manager. Her investment work spanned a broad cross-section of industries. She also had portfolio management responsibilities for an equity portfolio product and led Putnam’s efforts to incubate a market neutral hedge fund.

Mrs. William’s investment experience also includes approximately five years as Vice President at Wellington Management Company in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus was on fixed income securities investments. Prior to Wellington, she was a Fixed Income Analyst at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and shared portfolio management responsibilities for a US$3 billion portfolio. She was a member of the team that provided macro-economic and market input for both the strategic and tactical portfolio decisions.

Mrs. Williams also gained experience at the Equitable Real Estate Investment Management in Chicago, Illinois. While there, she performed valuation analysis on commercial real estate properties. She also worked as an Information Systems Analyst for Morgan Stanley an American multinational financial services corporation that provides securities products and services to customers, including corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals.