The Cabinet of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda has formally approved a recommendation to appoint prominent British business leader Sir David Harrison to two key leadership positions at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus. Under the proposal, Sir David will serve as both Chairman of the campus’s governing Council and Chairman of its dedicated Campus Endowment Fund.
Sir David boasts a 40-plus year track record as one of the United Kingdom’s most accomplished entrepreneurs, building his reputation through transformative growth in the financial services and fintech sectors. He currently leads True Potential LLP, a Newcastle-based financial technology and services firm that ranks among the UK’s fastest-growing businesses in the industry. Before taking the helm at True Potential, Sir David founded and scaled Positive Solutions into the United Kingdom’s largest independent financial advisory network.
Beyond his impressive corporate success, Sir David has long been recognized as a vocal champion for expanded educational access and improved social mobility, causes he has prioritized both through his advocacy and direct philanthropic giving. The Antigua and Barbuda Cabinet specifically highlighted Sir David’s ongoing extraordinary generosity to the country, noting his targeted support for local educational and youth empowerment programs, alongside millions of pounds in pledged investment to advance learning and opportunity for young Antiguans and Barbudans.
In recognition of his decades of contributions to business, education, and social advancement in the country, Antigua and Barbuda awarded Sir David its highest civilian honor in 2022: Knight Grand Cross of The Most Distinguished Order of the Nation.
Cabinet officials expressed unwavering confidence in Sir David’s ability to drive the Five Islands Campus forward, noting that his decades of leadership experience, forward-thinking strategic vision, and deeply rooted commitment to educational equity align perfectly with the institution’s growing mission. Launched in 2019 as the UWI system’s fifth permanent landed campus, the Five Islands location was established specifically to expand access to high-quality tertiary education across the Eastern Caribbean. It has since become a central pillar of the Antigua and Barbuda government’s long-term strategy to build national human capital and establish regional leadership in post-secondary learning, serving students across the entire Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
According to the Cabinet’s statement, Sir David’s stewardship of both the governing council and endowment fund is expected to strengthen the campus’s institutional governance, boost large-scale fundraising capacity, and speed up progress toward the institution’s ambitious, transformative vision for higher education development across Antigua and Barbuda.