John Swain, President, Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and Lisa G. Turnquest, Second Vice- President and Chairperson of The Installation Banquet Committee
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Freeport, Bahamas - Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce president John Swain and his 2011-2012 Board of Directors will be officially
installed at a gala banquet on Saturday,
February 18th, 2012 in the Grand Ballroom of
the Grand Lucayan Resort at 7pm.
Guest speaker for
the event is Bahamian born Fred Perpall,
Managing Director of the Beck Group of Atlanta, Georgia.
Fred’s career at
Beck includes a broad range of projects including higher education,
religious, athletic, recreational, sustainability and healthcare in
domestic and international markets. He has also led the company’s
expansion into the Caribbean bridging his international experience with
domestic needs in the Bahamas and Caribbean at large. Acclaimed projects
under his company’s management include The Princess Margaret Hospital,
the College of the Bahamas the Bay
Rec Condominiums in Nassau, Bahamas, the Nassau International Airport
Commonwealth Bank HQ and Branch Building in Nassau, Bahamas.
Fred brings a highly
energetic and communicative style to his clients based on a philosophy
of empowering people around him, facilitating of a vision that encompasses
everyone and that drives the mission of the organization, and by giving
the resources necessary to accomplish the tasks at hand.
Lisa G. Turnquest,
Second Vice- President and Chairperson of
The Installation Banquet Committee said that
Fred is known for his creative mind and innovative thinking and we believe
that very soon he will become an international household name. For this
we are delighted that he has graciously agreed to join us on the occasion
of our installation. His presence at our event
serves only to demonstrate the vast networking capacity of the GB Chamber
of Commerce.
“For us to be able
access someone like this and bring them to Grand
Bahama to become involved in the things that we are doing on the local
scene as well as to get his insight from an international perspective
is absolutely fantastic”.
President Swain expressed
his enthusiasm about the plans for the banquet as well as for Grand
Bahama in general saying that it is time that we stop pondering on the
negative and build on the positive things that are going on around us.
He said that if we continue to cling to the bad news economy we will
never be able to overcome it.
In light of the
current economic climate, the Chamber made a decision to reduced the
cost of the tickets this year so that more persons would be able to
attend, however in doing so they certainly
have not discounted any aspect of the event which was a huge success
for the organization last year.
The event will
open with an elegant Jazz and Art Cocktail Hour featuring saxophone
melodies by Mr. Stuart Coakley accompanied on keyboard by Mr. Kevin
Tomlison with the backdrop of some of Grand
Bahama’s finest artists.
As this is a business
networking opportunity Grand Bahama business leaders will certainly
benefit from Mr. Perpall’s unique business perspective and outlook
and of course the evening will be packed with entertainment provided
by the GB Police Pop Band, Miss Racquel Oliver and the Swag Academy
who are certain to make our guests
“dance their shoes off”.
Naturally there will
be some surprises and of course who wants to go to banquet and not win
anything….we have an array of prizes that we are certain our
guests will be “tickled to take home”, says Turnquest.
We have no doubt that
our guests will have a wonderful time at our banquet as we seek to set
the pace for the exciting things we look forward to this year with the
Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce and the island of Grand
Bahama as a whole.