CASTRIES, St. Lucia, May 2, 2018-The Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corporation (CARILEC) in collaboration with the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited (BLPC) will co-host the 2018 Chief Executive Officers & Leadership Conference on May 20-23 at the Hilton Barbados Resort, under the theme: “Leadership in an Age of Disruption – Managing the 3D’s: Digitalisation. Decarbonisation. Decentralisation.”

The CARILEC CEOs and Leadership Conference is the region’s leading utility and energy conference and is specifically designed to meet the dynamic and constantly evolving industry needs of CEOs and leaders. This high-level conference will attract over one hundred and fifty (150) Energy Leaders and it will feature Sir Richard Branson as the keynote speaker delivering his address via live stream.

Sir Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group. Virgin is one of the world’s most irresistible brands and has expanded into many diverse sectors from travel to telecommunications, health to banking and music to leisure. Branson is the only person to build eight billion dollar companies in eight different sectors, and is equally respected for his business acumen and his support for social causes. Since starting youth culture magazine ‘Student” at age 16, Branson has found entrepreneurial ways to drive positive change in the world. In 2004 he established the non-profit foundation Virgin Unite to tackle tough social and environmental problems and strive to make business a force for good. Most of his time is now spent building businesses that will make a positive difference in the world and working with Virgin Unite and the organisations it has incubated, such as The Elders, The Carbon War Room, The B Team and Ocean Unite.

A few key  topics to be presented at the Conference are as follows: How Demand Response Can Keep Energy Costs Down and Customers Engaged; Pokigron Hybrid Energy Project; Disruption and Innovation, The Path to Resilience in the Energy Sector; Safety Leadership-What we as leaders often overlook; Corporate Resilience in the Caribbean’s Electricity Markets: Challenges and Prospects; The Power of Alignment through a Nationally-Led Energy Transition Process; Recovery and Resilience in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma; Creating a Consumer Centric Utility; BLPC’s Digital Transformation Strategy and Lessons learned; The Utility Business & Home of the Future: What will the utility involvement behind the meter look like in 2030?; The Digital Utility of the Future; Growth of the Renewable Energy Sector in Barbados: A story worth telling.

The Conference is being sponsored by ABB, Aggreko, Wärtsilä North America, BWSC A/S, SOL Caribbean,  New Fortress, Emera Caribbean Inc., Delta Petroleum, APR Energy, CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, Itron, SeaOne Caribbean LLC., Itron and Eagle LNG. To register or learn more about the CARILEC 2018 Chief Executive Officers and Leadership Conference visit our website www.carilec.org, follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/carilecpower, or like our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/carilecpower.