Cardelle Fergusson is a multi-talented Caribbean National with a passion for entrepreneurship and youth development in general. Currently she dedicates much of her time and attention to working with and supporting businesses and entrepreneurs in various aspects of business development and training.

Cardelle’s passion for youth development came from her involvement with youth organizations, like the Duke of Edinburg’s Award programme, CARICOM Youths and Youth Ambassadors, as well as her training and experience as a certified teacher (specializing in mathematics education). She has further achievement of a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in Computer Science and Management from the University of The West Indies in Barbados. Her studies in business are further affirmed by obtaining her designation as a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) specializing in Strategic Leadership through CMA Nova Scotia and the Caribbean. She is currently completing her MBA with a focus on International Marketing Communications, Brands and Relationships through the University of Leicester.

Cardelle has sharpened has skill in project management during her position as Project Coordinator for the four years IDB/MIF regional project to develop young entrepreneurs. In this post she was able to improve the activities and offerings to the Young Entrepreneurs and other stakeholders served by the BYBT while ensuring that the project was “highly relevant and fulfilled the key objectives”. She has honed her proposal writing skills and become quite proficient at this.

Armed with a competent mix of education and experience, Cardelle is currently the General Manager at Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT). She has developed strategic plans by studying technological and financial opportunities; written and received approvals for proposals for partnerships, grants and projects, presenting assumptions and recommending objectives; managed staff in the execution of projects and programme activities in keeping with the company’s mandate.

She is part of a public/private sector technical team working to revise the Barbados Small Business Act and develop a national policy for the development of the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector in Barbados. She is also a committee chair on the Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs- Caribbean and Canada (CAYE- C&C) – a ), a coalition of 13 business support organisations from nine Commonwealth countries that seeks to contribute to regional sustainable development by helping to increase the numbers of young entrepreneurs who grow businesses, create jobs, change lives and ensure future economic prosperity.

Cardelle is:
• Creative, diligent and dedicated to getting things done
• Passionate about planning and executing business development strategies in entrepreneurship and youth development
• Enthusiastic and innovative problem-solver with keen ability to quickly assess diverse situational challenges, develop policy and action plans, and lead team to meet or exceed goals
• Highly motivated self-starter with exceptional interpersonal communications skills that aim to maintain high team morale and service performance