Our Directors

Meet them

Our directors provide strategic leadership and vision for the Institute of Law and Economics, guiding the organization’s mission to promote inclusive, high-quality education and training. With diverse backgrounds in academia, law, and public service, they ensure ILE stays rooted in innovation, impact, and integrity.

Milton Samuda, LLB

Chairman

Rosalea Hamilton, LLB, Ph.D. (Econ.)

Founding Director

Oliver Chen, BSc

Director

Mariama Williams, Ph.D. (Econ)

Director

Judith Wedderburn, M.Sc. (International Relations)

Director

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Milton Samuda, LLB, Chairman

Mr. Samuda was educated at St Hugh’s Preparatory School, Wolmer’s Boys’ School and the University of the West Indies from which he received a L.L.B. (Hons.) degree. He was admitted to practice in Jamaica in 1982 having completed studies at the Norman Manley Law School. In 1993 he was also admitted to practice in the British Virgin Islands. Mr. Samuda is a member of the Advisory Board of the Spanish Jamaican Foundation (a foundation established by Spanish Investors in Jamaica) and also serves as the Foundation’s Secretary. He is Chairman of the Wolmer’s Trust and is a member of the Board of Management of the Wolmer’s Trust Schools. As a Managing Partner of Samuda & Johnson, Mr. Samuda heads the Firm’s Commercial Department where his practice includes Tourism, Corporate and Hotel Financing; Trade and Transportation; Mining and Energy; Sports and Entertainment; and Maritime Law. Mr. Samuda is married to Elizabeth and has three children, Matthew, Marlon and Mariana.

Rosalea Hamilton, LLB, Ph.D. (Econ.), Founding Director

 

Professor Hamilton is currently Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the LASCO Chin Foundation leading an innovative approach to breaking the cycle of poverty and crime among at-risk youths in crime-prone communities. In May 2018, she concluded a 10-year tenure as Vice President of Community Service & Development at the University of Technology, Jamaica, after leading the USA-funded Fi Wi Jamaica Project from 2015-2018, a national social intervention Project to expand a window of opportunity for the protection and promotion of human rights of targeted socially excluded and vulnerable Jamaicans.

A well-known international trade expert, who has been at the forefront of public education on trade, governance and other socio-economic matters, she has taught extensively at the graduate and undergraduate levels both in the USA and Jamaica, served as Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister of Jamaica, and has engaged in consultancies with various government agencies and other international organizations. Prof. Hamilton’s activities and research in the fields of entrepreneurship, law, economic development, as well as social and economic justice, has become her “big life mission” and will undoubtedly shape her vision and strategic direction for the LASCO Chin Foundation in the years to come.

 

Oliver Chen, BSc, Director

 

Mr. Chen graduated from the University of the West Indies with a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Biochemistry. Thereafter, he entered the financial services sector for nearly thirty years, holding senior management positions in the areas of stockbroking, merchant banking, Unit Trust/ Mutual Fund Management, Remittances and Cambio operations. He has completed several investment and finance courses through the Canadian Securities Institute, and recently completed the Executive Development Program while at Grace Kennedy Ltd. Oliver is very active in the Jamaican business community and he presently serves as the first Vice President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.

Judith Wedderburn, M.Sc. (International Relations), Director

 

Mrs. Judith Wedderburn is the recently retired Director of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, (FES) Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean, and for over 30 years, has been an advocate in the field of gender and development in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean. Ms. Wedderburn was responsible for the conceptual development of education and training programmes, and the design and implementation of diverse “learning experiences”, which involved the use of conventional as well as participatory methodologies. Her main research areas and related publications include, but are not limited to: impact of the globalization process on the foreign policy of Jamaica; globalization and governance, social reproduction and unpaid work, gender and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA); gender, trade liberalization and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy; gender and governance; gender-aware policymaking in the Caribbean; gender and trade union development in the Anglophone Caribbean; and climate change, gender & persons with disabilities in small island developing states (SIDS).

Mariama Williams, Ph.D. (Econ), Director

 

Mariama Williams, Ph.D.is a Senior Programme Officer, Global Governance for Development Programme, the South Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. She is also a director of the Institute of Law and Economics (ILE), Jamaica. Dr.Williams is the author of Climate Change Finance—Coming out of the Margins(Routledge, 2015); Trading Stories: Experiences with Gender and Trade(co-edited with Marilyn Carr, Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010), co-author, Gender and Trade Action Guide: A Training Resource(Commonwealth Secretariat, 2007), and author, Gender Issues in the Multilateral Trading System(Commonwealth Secretariat, 2003). Her current research areas are the debt & financial crisis, climate change & climate change financing, and gender trade and development. Williams has extensive experience in the areas of sovereign debt crises, international trade policy and macroeconomics and economic development.

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