Meet the CLS Team

Craig Morrison President
Canada	Caribbean	Latin America
Nicole Johnson-Morrison Atlantic Canada Business Development Paul Lindgreen Distance Education and Website Services	Christine Salandy Trinidad and Tobago Country Manager	Cesar Augusto Gomez Ruiloba Panama Maria Cristina Galan Colombia

Craig Morrison, President: Canada

Craig Morrison is the founder of Caribbean and Latin American Services Ltd. (CLS Consulting) (Est. 2008). Mr. Morrison brings an academic background in management, business development, environment and the education sectors to clients’ projects. With over 30 years experience in the public and private sectors, Craig has worked extensively in the areas of international trade and business development, project management, environmental management, institutional strengthening and technical education and vocational training.

Craig has been supporting Nova Scotian firms for 20 years. He has designed, coordinated and lead multi-sector trade missions throughout the Caribbean, South America, North America, Europe and Asia. Mr. Morrison and his Caribbean and Latin American Services Ltd. associates provide a full range of business development services.

Craig has advised governments in the Caribbean, development banks, private firms and NGOs within CARICOM on issues pertaining to program and policy development, business issues and environmental matters.

As Senior Technical Advisor for Colleges and Institutes Canada, Craig facilitated the implementation of the Global Affairs (Canada) CARICOM Education for Employment project between 2012-2015.

Craig advises the Barbados-based COMPETE Caribbean (a Global Affairs, USAID and DfID funded program) on environmental and business issues throughout the CARIFORUM region.

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Nicole Johnson Morrison

International Business Development Director

Nicole Johnson is a former Senior Trade Commissioner with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade – DFATD Canada. She is a senior international trade strategist, with a wealth of experience in international trade; development aid; economic diplomacy and foreign policy. Nicole brings over 15 years of international trade knowledge with extensive experience in business development, trade negotiations, capacity building, institutional strengthening, and entrepreneurship. Nicole holds a C.I.T.P. designation with the Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) and holds a MBA with University of Leicester UK, with a specialist in International Relations. Nicole has post graduate degrees in Management & Marketing from the University of the West Indies and a BSc. in Economics University of Guyana. She is also holds PMA Certification from the Institute of Commercial Management ICM-UK.

Nicole has worked with international companies across varying sectors, including mining, telecommunications, renewable energy, agriculture and education to name a few. She lead the regional dialogue for Canada on the Canada / CARICOM FTA trade negotiations 2007 -2015. As a CSR specialist, Nicole authored and launched the Guyana Mining Toolkit, a guide for corporate social responsibility (CSR), community engagement and best practices for working in tandem with indigenous communities throughout the Guianas. She has a strong background in gender equity and has facilitated institutional partnerships with Canadian universities and colleges, focused on the promotion of gender equity in trade and business. Nicole has led numerous international Ministerial trade missions and undertaken high level projects in Latin America, Canada and the Caribbean, in capacity building, business development and institutional strengthening.

Awards and Achievements

ü Winner of the UN Women of African Descent in Business Award (Guyana 2011)
ü Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Transformation Champion 2010 & 2011
ü Winner of High Commissioner Award for Excellence 2010
ü DFATD Global Ken Senquist Award winner for Global Trade Excellence 2011, 2012 and 2013
ü USAID Award for Excellence in Program Delivery 2005.
ü Leadership Award – Courts PLC – 2002

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Maria Cristina Galan

Colombia Director, Bogota

Ms. Galán is a CLS Consulting associate based in Bogota Colombia. Ms. Galan provides consulting, marketing and international trade facilitation services. She has extensive background in trade, commerce, business, public relations and associated inter-government affairs involving Canada, the United States, and Latin American countries. As a professional economist, she has held posts of increasing responsibility with private companies and consultants in Colombia, as well as with agencies of the Governments of Colombia and the United States, and the United Nations. Also, she was Commercial Attaché for the Province of Québec, (Canada) Trade Development Delegation in Bogotá from its opening in1985 until the closing in 1996.

Maria Cristina Galán’s background and experience includes:

• Market and competitiveness studies; and assessment of business development opportunities.
• Direction and organization of trade missions and seminars, trade shows and exhibitions, and related public relations functions.
• Business and public relations to organize and set the agendas for delegation’s business meetings.
• Logistical support for trade and commercial visits, including follow-up with clients and contacts.
• Liaison with governmental, regulatory, and permitting agencies.

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Christine Salandy, Trinidad and Tobago Country Manager

Christine Salandy is a qualified Marketer with a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the prestigious Chartered Institute of Marketing in Birmingham, England and a holder of the Diploma in Management, Marketing and Public Relations from the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). Mrs. Salandy is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM) and also holds Diplomas in Banking and Finance.

As Trinidad and Tobago Associate for Caribbean and Latin American Services Ltd., Mrs. Salandy has also been engaged in facilitating logistics and partnering for clients on trade missions from North America to Trinidad. Mrs. Salandy has been involved with many tourism conventions, seminars including a recent Trinidad trade mission to India.

Mrs. Salandy’s wealth of knowledge in the financial arena spans twenty years in the fields of trust and asset management, marketing of financial products; product development, research and analysis and financial accounts analyst.

Mrs. Salandy also had the opportunity of holding the position of Marketing Manager for the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute, a position which allowed her to liaise with various Ministries and Ministers of Government, including the Ministry of Tourism, The Tourism Development Company, and many industry stakeholders.

In 2007, Christine Salandy opened her own Boutique Hotel, L’Orchidée Boutique Hotel and has been able to capture a business niche market with an up-market product. Mrs. Salandy is a member of the Trinidad Hotels, Restaurant and Tourism Association and has served a term on the board of that association. Mrs. Salandy also serves on the marketing committee of the association and has attended several tourism promotional road shows in various Islands, the World Travel Market in London.

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Cesar Augusto Gomez Ruiloba – Panama Director

Cesar Gomez is a specialist in Business Development, Strategic Planning; Quality and Safety Management Systems and Maritime Service Management. His twenty-nine (29) years of experience in different divisions of the Panama Canal Authority, formerly called the Panama Canal Commission (US Agency), has heightened his knowledge of Business Development and Strategic Planning, Logistic Services and Industrial Management.

In 2002, Mr. Gomez co-founded and managed a consultancy called ‘Excelencia Empresarial’. This firm has a primary focus on the need for Quality Assurance and Strategic Planning for small and medium companies within the Latin American community. In the course of this consultancy, Mr. Gomez developed a broad network of business contacts throughout Panama and Latin America. Some of these contacts include: Panama Chamber of Commerce; Panama Construction Association Chamber; Panama Association of Executive Managers (APEDE) ; Spanish International Cooperation Agency (AECI) and Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA).

Mr. Gomez is a facilitator and lecturer of Organizational and Market Development, and Strategic Planning at FUNDES Panama. Mr. Gomez is also currently a facilitator of the courses “Quality Management and Marketing in the Logistic Services” at TRAINMAR Panama. Although his training focuses mainly on adult education, he has spearheaded the creation of a management programme for teenagers at the high school graduate level.

Mr. Gomez is a Certified Lead Auditor with training from the Lloyd’s Registry of Quality Assurance (Cuba) and Det Norkes Veritas (DNV-Argentina) with the International Organization of Standardization (ISO).

Since 2008, Mr. Gomez has been the General and Privative of Merchant Marine Consul for the Republic of Panama in Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Gomez has a mandate to develop business in multiple sectors including: infrastructure development; construction products and services; engineering and professional services; the resource sector including mining; the energy sector; environmental services; tourism services and the residential housing sector.

Mr. Gomez has jurisdiction in Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

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Paul Lindgreen – Distance Education and Website Services

Through CLS Consulting, Paul has developed solutions for tertiary training institutions in delivering distance education programs for students in remote communities. Paul has also provided website design, upgrade and technical support services for firms in Canada and the Caribbean.

Mr. Lindgreen has been working in the field of information technology (I.T.) for over 10 years after coming from the field of biosciences research the previous 8 years. Working extensively in both the public & private sectors, Mr. Lindgreen managed increasingly complex hardware and software related projects. As owner of Green Web (www.greenwebsite.ca), Mr. Lindgreen has provided IT support to numerous businesses. Mr. Lindgreen specializes in the design and development of websites for a wide cross section of firms.

Mr. Lindgreen works with people having both technical and non-technical backgrounds. Paul manages client needs by working closely with them at every stage of project management. Mr. Lindgreen’s technical levels of expertise include: Content Management Systems and Web Governance management strategies for large multi-user websites, programming in .NET/php/asp/sql, database creation and management (MS SQL Server/mySQL), social media tools (Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/Flickr), advertising strategies (Google adwords/Facebook) and marketing strategies for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).