Lawrence Williams took up his appointment as acting Governor of the Bank of Guyana on November 1, after former acting Governor Dolly Singh retired.
Prior to this, Williams served as Banking Manager, having been appointed to that post in August 1995. Thus he has had nine years experience at the senior management level where he was responsible for all operational aspects of the bank and oversaw the areas of accounts and budgeting, the international department, the money market division banking and currency. He started with the bank in 1979 as assistant principal, which is entry-level professional position.
He said that while he served as Banking Manager he was called upon to assist the acting Governor, because upon the appointment of Singh in 1998 as acting Governor, there was no acting Deputy Governor.
As Banking Manager, he had been answerable to then acting Governor Singh in terms of overall management of the bank. He was called to assist the acting Governor in the areas of maintenance and security, information systems and human resources.
He has worked in exchange control and export credit, and has managed the export development fund. He was a member of Guyana's debt negotiation team and participated in many debt negotiation meetings overseas. He has also attended one of the Paris Club meetings.
Williams graduated in business management from the University of Guyana 1979 and has had training in central banking from the State Bank of Pakistan, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank. He also participated in training sessions organised by the World Bank and the Centre for Monetary Studies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Williams loves sports, table tennis and cricket in particular, even though he admitted that he does not find enough time for it. He also enjoys travelling, which he no doubt has had a lot of during his training and work overseas. This, he said, is a good way of gaining an understanding of different cultures.
He is married with three children, the eldest of whom graduated two years ago and is now living in Atlanta Georgia. His second child is completing university in the US while the last child is a freshman at the University of Guyana.