Four leave Digicel – including Hull

By Horace Mills, BVI News Online Staff

Kareem-Nelson Hull is among four people who left Digicel BVI at the end of last month, and a number of other employees are said to be expecting approval of their requests under the telecoms company’s global restructuring and voluntary separation programme.

Hull, so far, is the most widely-known employee to walk away. In January 2016, Digicel BVI announced that he was hired as the company’s Head of Marketing. He previously worked at LIME (re-branded Flow BVI) until December 2015.

Katasha Melville, who was another Digicel marketer, is also among the four already allowed voluntary separation. In an interview with BVI News Online last month, Melville lauded the voluntary separation programme being offered at Digicel.

Under the initiative, the telecoms company is cutting its global workforce by 25 percent, starting with what is calls an Enhanced Voluntary Separation Programme (EVSP).

“Digicel offered their employees an EVSP, and I applied for it, and I was successful,” Hull told BVI News Online today, May 10. “While I was working at Digicel, I was always working my own businesses, and I will continue to do whatever I feel inspired to do.”

Hull further stated that he enjoyed his stint at the Road Town-based operation, but noted that separation wasn’t a tough decision. “My time at Digicel was great; I met some of the best people to work with in the BVI,” he added.

Meanwhile, when Digicel announced the global cut in its workforce a few months ago, the company’s Jamaica-based Head of Group Communications, Antonia Graham, said she did not know specifically how the BVI would have been affected.

But, based on information from inside sources, the number of people seeking to leave the BVI operation has come as a surprise. “People are literally sitting down, waiting to leave,” the inside source said last week, adding that more decisions regarding requests for separation are expected at the end of this month.

Shake-up elsewhere

Digicel is the only telecoms company in the local market to have announced restructuring and voluntary separation.

But it is not the only one that has made major staff shake-ups within the last month.

At FLOW, Managing Director Tim Ringsdore and Marketing Manager Sarah Graham have resigned. The new Managing Director is Colin McDonald.

Meanwhile, CCT last month confirmed the resignation of its Marketing and Public Relations Manager Janette Brin, who is now Manager at BVI International Arbitration Centre. Her departure from CCT has facilitated the promotion of Recaldo ‘Ricki’ Richardson as the new marketing manager, as well as Sheroma Hodge-Philip as the new public relations supervisor.