PROFILE

Product of St. John

Stephen Lashley is a product of the rural parish of St. John. He was born in Gall Hill, St. John on January 6, 1962 to William and Verona Lashley and received his primary education at St. John’s Mixed School and his secondary education at Presentation College and the Lodge School respectively. He has always been community-focused and served for many years in the St. John’s Parish Church as a Sunday School Teacher, member of the choir and as an altar server. He was also a member of the St. John’s Dramatic & Folk Singing Group. He has five sisters and three brothers.

Student leader, Athlete and Cadet

He attended The Lodge School where he won a Pilgrim Scholarship awarded for excellent O’Level results. While at The Lodge he emerged as a well-rounded student leader. He was the captain of the school’s senior hockey team and later went on to play for Barbados at the junior level. He was also very active in the Cadet Corps and rapidly moved through the ranks to become a Cadet Officer assuming full responsibility for the management of the No. 2 Cadet Company at Lodge at a critical time of the evolution of that Company. His enthusiasm and dedication as a cadet caused him to be exposed to many aspects of military training with the Barbados Defence Force.

Broadcaster, Journalist & Talk Show Host

After leaving the Sixth Form of the Lodge School in 1986 he opted to enter the world of work for one year before pursuing his university education. He first worked as a sub-editor with the Barbados Advocate and then moved to The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation where he worked as a News Reporter in Radio and Television. There he would have benefited from specialised training in all aspects of broadcast journalism provided by a consultant from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation retained at that time by the CBC. He also worked for several years as a News Reporter with Barbados Rediffusion Services Limited and Voice of Barbados where he emerged as a seasoned Journalist with a focus on investigative journalism. He covered many sittings of the House of Assembly and the Senate. While covering sittings of Parliament he would have heard persons such as Errol Barrow, Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, David Thompson, Sir Richard Haynes, Tom Adams, and Bernard St. John among others. He was a News Presenter, Current Affairs Producer and Presenter, and presented such programmes as “Talking Point” and “Point at Issue” at Voice of Barbados. He also was a host of the popular radio Call-in programme “Tell It Like It Is”.

Public Officer

Stephen has some eight years of Public Sector experience. He worked in the Public Service as a Public Relations Officer with the Government Information Service. During his years there he provided PR guidance to the Ministries of Education, Health and the Office of the Attorney-General & Home Affairs.

Academic, University Student Leader

He has two degrees from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus – a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration and Law and a Bachelor of Laws degree. At the Cave Hill Campus he also emerged as a student leader. He was President of the Guild of Undergraduates and in that capacity served on numerous University Committees including the University Senate, the University Finance and General Purposes Committee and the University Board for Examinations.

Lawyer & Risk Management Advisor

He is a graduate of the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. An Attorney-at-Law in private practice in Barbados, he has been practicing law for just over eleven (11) years. He was admitted to the local Bar in 1995 and the Trinidad & Tobago Bar in the same year. He has acquired much experience in corporate law having worked as In-house counsel for the accounting firm of KPMG, where he established the first Society for Restricted Liability following the enactment of the enabling legislation, and also Cable & Wireless where he had lead responsibility for internet and e-commerce, contract and consumer protection matters. He also coordinated that company’s legal Y2K compliance programme and acted on several occasions as Company Secretary. He was trained in Risk Management in Australia at the telecommunications company Optus Communications and upon returning to Barbados designed and implemented the risk management programme for Cable & Wireless and conducted the training of its staff.

He practices from Denaz Law Chambers, Strathclyde, St. Michael with a focus particularly on corporate law, employment law, e-commerce, telecommunications law, conveyancing, intellectual property law, wills and estates, and civil litigation.

ADR coach

He is trained in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and holds both the Basic and Advanced Certificates in the University of Windsor’s ADR programme. He also provides coaching of trainees in both programmes.

Credit Union leader

His connection with the Credit Union Movement is well known. He served as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the island’s largest Credit Union, Barbados Public Workers’ Cooperative credit Union Limited where he influenced the policy direction of that institution in many areas of innovation. He also served for several years as the Chairman of its Supervisory Committee.

Married

He is married to Deborah Lashley, Graduate Teacher and they have two daughters Zahra and Nakiah.

Contacting me

Tel 231-5162(m), 423-0226(h), 428-9981 (branch office), 427-3100(w)