NEW CEO AT NEAL
AND MASSY
BLUE-EYED BOY IS
BOSS
By Curtis Rampersad
Business Desk
Express
January 17, 2000
Page 26
|
CV of BERNARD
DULAL-WHITEWAY |
|
BERNARD
DULAL-WHITEWAY, CA, FCCA Newly
appointed CEO of Neal & Massy Holdings AGE: 53 DOB: 22.10.46 MARITAL STATUS: Married
(to wife Cheryl) CHILDREN: One
son - Graeme, age 26 EDUCATION: Mon
Repos RC School, San Fernando Presentation
College, San Fernando Southwest
London College of Commerce, London, England QUALIFICATIONS: Member
of Institute of Chartered Accounts of Trinidad and Tobago Fellow
of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK PRESENT DIRECTORSHIPS: Neal
& Massy Holdings Ltd. Republic
Back Ltd. Caribbean
Home Insurance Co. Ltd. PAST DIRECTORSHIPS: Trintoc Iscott Betting
Levy Board of T&T Member
of National business Advisory Board
of Trinidad and Tobago Tidco Commissioner
General for T&T to Taejon International
Exposition in Korea in 1993. |
He
would never admit it, but Bernard Dulal-Whiteway has always
been the blue-eyed boy of the companies he has worked for. His name suggests that the Anglo-Saxon
analogy is appropriate. Whiteway, after
all, sounds as blue-eyed a name as you can get.
But
his lineage is far different. His
mother was Chinese-African and Dulal-Whiteway's East Indian father, George, was
the one who changed the family name when Bernard was a boy.
The
53-year-old senior executive, who was confirmed last week as Neal & Massy
Holdings' new chief executive officer, will not go into details about the
Whiteway name, except that it came about as a result of a competition back in
the '50s.
Hesitating,
Dulal-Whiteway added that his father, a former school principal who died two
years ago, thought the more Christian-sounding name would help his son progress
in the world.
Dulal-Whiteway
doesn't think his name brought rewards to him.
It was sheer hard work.
Fresh
out of Presentation College, San Fernando, where Opposition leader Patrick
Manning was in school at the same time, Dulal-Whiteway joined oil giant Texaco
as a trainee accountant.
"Other
options at the time (teaching school or law) did not appeal to me,"
Dulal-Whiteway says.
Regarded
as one of the company's blue-eyed boys, he progressed rapidly at Texaco and was
awarded a scholarship by the energy company to study accounting in London.
Dulal-Whiteway
says that after he came back to Texaco he was offered a job at Neal &
Massy.
He
says it took him three months to decide that he wanted the job, finally joining
in September 1972. He's been there ever
since.
"I've
been really fortunate that I've been able to work in a number of Neal &
Massy firms," Dulal-Whiteway says.
He
started handling the accounts of the conglomerate's assembly plant, its battery
facility, its Bandaag (tyre recapping) plant and a furniture division called
Samton Furniture.
Two
years after, N&M decided to decentralize operations. Dulal-Whiteway was made administrative
manager for Neal & Massy Industries.
In 1975 he was appointed to the Board of Directors.
He
even managed Nealco Properties for a while, eventually returning to the Group's
auto assembly plant.
That's
when things really got interesting.
"There
were so many things to do, including changing workers' mindsets,"
Dulal-Whiteway says.
He
had to convince employees that they could assemble 55 cars a day instead of 11
or 12 a day, without doing much more work.
In
addition, there was a significant decline in the local market. This forced N&M to lay off employees and
close its Santa Rosa plant.
Early
in 1990, Dulal-Whiteway returned to the car business of the conglomerate. It was the beginning of some pretty rough
times for the Group, he recalls.
By
1993, profits had plunged, largely due to declining businesses and annual
write-offs the Group had to implement.
In
1996, N&M bit the bullet and wrote $100 million of extraordinary items off
its books. The conglomerate posted a
$96 million loss and paid no dividends to shareholders.
About
that time, Jesus Pazos, the man Dulal-Whiteway replaces as CEO, took over at
Neal & Massy.
With
an executive team, which included Dulal-Whiteway, Neal & Massy turned
itself around and reduced its debt from $700 million in 1996 to about $340
million now.
The
conglomerate, which has its strongest ties in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and
Guyana, has also spent several hundred million dollars investing in insurance
companies, including the Barbados Shipping and Trading conglomerate.
The
challenge now, Dulal-Whiteway says, is ensuring that the company grows.
"There
are no barriers anymore, no more protectionism so the challenge for me is for
us not to stay in small countries," he explains.
While
N&M dominates industrial areas in these countries, the new CEO wants to
expand into the wider region.
There's
a market of more than 250 million people in Latin and Central America and this
is where Dulal-Whiteway wants N&M to go.
Alliances, like the ones N&M has with Guardian Holdings and Barbados
Shipping and Trading, will help, he says, adding that there are a few other
areas the conglomerate can get into.
These
include radio telecommunications, information technology, software development,
industrial gases and financial services as well as the automotive area with
which N&M has been involved for more than 75 years.
"As
a Group we have a clear vision," Dulal-Whiteway says.
When
he takes over completely toward the end of the year, Dulal-Whiteway will be
54. He says he wants to be at the helm
for about six years.
His
other passion, horses, will likely take up much of his leisure time, as it does
now.
But
for now he has ambitions of his own.
"By
the time I retire, N&M will be well on its way, with shares trading on the
US stock exchange. The company would
also have doubled by then," he says.