Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has officially seated a new leadership team at its Toronto consulate, marking a key milestone in the country’s plan to restructure its overseas diplomatic network and center its diaspora community as a core driver of national economic growth.
Roderick Mc Kree, the new Consul General, and Laverne Phillips-Bramble, the Deputy Consul General, formally took up their posts at the Canadian consulate last Tuesday, according to an official announcement from the nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Foreign Investment and Diaspora Affairs.
The appointments were first previewed in May, when Foreign Affairs Minister Fitzgerald Bramble shared the news during an Invest SVG diaspora outreach gathering held in Toronto. At that forum, Bramble outlined the government’s ongoing push to reshape its international missions, with a deliberate focus on aligning the work of overseas posts with the country’s broader economic development agenda by elevating the role of the diaspora.
In its official statement, the ministry highlighted Mc Kree’s robust 30-year career in education as a foundation for his new diplomatic responsibilities. A native of Bequia and a former lecturer at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, Mc Kree brings a diverse academic and professional profile to the role. He holds a Doctor of Education from the University of the West Indies, and completed graduate and undergraduate studies in Psychology and Psycho-social Intervention at the University of the Orient in Santiago, Cuba. He also earned a Spanish language diploma from the University of ISACA in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba, making him proficient in both English and Spanish.
The ministry’s release noted that Mc Kree’s decades-long career in education has cultivated sharp adaptability, collaborative problem-solving skills, and strong interpersonal abilities — strengths that position him to engage effectively across varied cultural and professional environments and navigate complex diplomatic challenges.
Filling the deputy consul general role is Laverne Phillips-Bramble, a Marriaqua native whose professional background blends international business expertise and local media experience. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business and Management from Ming Chuan University in Taiwan, and spent more than 20 years working in local media at NICE Radio. Like Mc Kree, she is bilingual, fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese.
The ministry expressed full confidence that the combined experience, diverse skills, and global perspectives of Mc Kree and Phillips-Bramble will deliver meaningful progress in advancing Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ diplomatic, trade, and consular priorities across Canada.