On Saturday, May 23, 2026, The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus in Antigua and Barbuda released an official statement announcing the passing of Sir Aziz Hadeed, CBE, the institution’s beloved Campus Council Chairman. The entire campus community has joined the people of Antigua and Barbuda and Caribbean communities across the region in grieving the loss of this iconic leader, whose decades of public service and unwavering commitment to higher education left an indelible mark on the regional education landscape.
A towering figure in Caribbean public life, Sir Aziz built a decades-long career marked by distinction across multiple sectors: he was a revered business leader, a former Independent Senator, a past Cabinet Minister, and former Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. When he joined UWI, he brought the same sharp vision and steady, measured judgment that defined every stage of his lifelong service to the Antigua and Barbuda nation.
Sir Aziz made history as the inaugural Chairman of the Five Islands Campus Council, appointed to the role when the campus first launched in August 2019, and reappointed for a second term in 2024. Over his nearly seven years of stewardship, he guided the young campus through its most formative and challenging early chapters: the successful 2019 launch, the unprecedented disruption of global higher education by the COVID-19 pandemic, the landmark $80 million development partnership with the Saudi Fund for Development secured in 2023, and the campus’s extraordinary expansion from just 173 inaugural students to a current enrollment of more than 1,400. Even in his final months in the role, he led campus governance with a calm, commanding authority, most recently presiding over the March 2026 Council meeting centered on the forward-looking theme “Building Beyond Borders.”
At the core of Sir Aziz’s leadership was a deep, unshakable belief that education is the foundational pillar of sustained development across the Caribbean. He turned this conviction into tangible action, prioritizing expanded access to higher education for marginalized students. Through funding personal scholarships, he removed financial barriers that would have prevented low-income, high-achieving students from pursuing university degrees. The countless lives transformed by his quiet, unpublicized generosity stand as one of his most enduring and far-reaching legacies.
“Sir Aziz was far more than a Chairman to this campus — he was a true partner in our core mission,” said Professor C. Justin Robinson, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal of UWI Five Islands. “His close collaboration with our team grew from a genuine conviction that accessible higher education is the bedrock of a just, prosperous society. He contributed not just his public standing and financial support, but his time, his unmatched wisdom, and his whole heart to the work of bringing UWI’s excellence to the people of Antigua and Barbuda and the entire Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).”
Robinson added that Sir Aziz’s thoughtful leadership leaves the Five Islands Campus far stronger, more confident, and more deeply rooted in its regional mission than it was when he first took office. On behalf of the campus executive leadership, faculty, staff, and student body, the campus extended its deepest condolences to Lady Hadeed, the entire Hadeed family, and all those mourning the loss of this extraordinary leader. The statement closed with a note of prayer: May his soul rest in peace.
As context, the UWI Five Islands Campus is one of five physical campuses that make up the historic University of the West Indies system, which has driven inclusive development across the Caribbean for more than 75 years. Founded in 1948 as a small medical college affiliated with the University of London in Jamaica, UWI has grown from an institution of just 33 students into a globally respected comprehensive university serving nearly 50,000 learners across the region. In addition to the Five Islands Campus, it operates flagship campuses at Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, and a distributed Global Campus, alongside international research and education centers partnered with leading institutions across North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Since opening in 2019, the Five Islands Campus has expanded to offer more than 45 undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs across four specialized schools: Business and Management, Health and Behavioural Sciences, Humanities and Education, and Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence. As part of the Caribbean’s leading higher education system, it is focused on addressing the most pressing social and economic challenges facing the OECS, the broader Caribbean region, and the global community.
UWI has been recognized for its global academic excellence through inclusion in the Times Higher Education (THE) annual rankings since 2018, holding its place as one of the world’s top universities and the only English-speaking Caribbean institution featured across four of THE’s most prestigious ranking lists. THE’s World University Rankings evaluates more than 2,000 leading research-focused universities worldwide, while the Golden Age University Rankings highlights leading institutions founded between 50 and 80 years ago. THE’s Latin America Rankings focuses specifically on institutional performance across Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Impact Rankings assesses universities based on their progress toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This global recognition supported the launch of UWI’s International School for Development Justice (ISDJ), a global online graduate business school designed to train the next generation of leaders in sustainable development practice. A long-standing leader in advancing the SDG framework, UWI is consistently ranked among the top global universities for its work on sustainable development.