Technology now decides how a bank serves its customers, how an insurer pays claims and how quickly any business recovers from an outage or a cyberattack. Yet in our experience, many boards in Jamaica have no director who has run technology at scale.
Technology matters reach the board late and are framed entirely by management. They are approved because no one at the table is positioned to test them. Directors are then accountable for risks they had no real way to see.
Noel “Willie” Williams is open to board appointments where a board wants that voice at the table. He brings more than 25 years of operations and technology leadership in banking, insurance and other regulated industries, together with board-level experience in technology governance, to the full board’s work. Where the board asks, he will also lead or serve on a technology or risk committee.
Oversight, never an audit
This is never an audit. An audit looks back, tests controls against a standard and reports on what it found. Board oversight looks forward, and it happens in the room. It means asking the hard questions before a decision is made, testing management’s assumptions, and making sure the board understands what it is approving.
The oversight is real. It is exercised as a director, with a director’s duties and accountability, and the board and executive team get it as the work happens, not in a report months later. The internal and external auditors keep their role in full.
What the board gains
- A director who can read a technology proposal and see where the risk sits
- Challenge on major technology and AI investments before money is committed, not after
- Oversight of cybersecurity, recovery, third-party and data protection risk that the board can explain to regulators and shareholders
- A clear view of how AI is used in the business, what data it touches and who answers for it
- A bridge between the executive team and technology leaders, so each understands what the other needs
- Technology board papers that directors can act on
Business and technology, walking together
Institutions that keep growing have one thing in common: the business and its technology understand each other’s needs and move in step. When they drift apart, the business makes promises the systems cannot keep, and technology builds what no one asked for. Projects run late, costs climb and the customer notices first.
Sustained growth depends on the two working as partners, and that partnership is set from the top. A board with a technology voice sets that tone.
How appointments work
- A non-executive director appointment, on the institution’s usual board terms
- For regulated institutions, the appointment is subject to the regulator’s approval where required
- Board service and advisory work can run side by side, each under its own signed terms. Any interest is declared to the board in writing, and he takes no part in the discussion or the vote on any matter where Liguanea Advisory has a paid interest
Is your board missing a technology voice?
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