Senator the Honourable George Guy Mayers
Mr. George Guy Mayers was born in St. Lucia on 24th May, 1958.
He attended the Anglican Infant and Primary School and the St. Mary’s College in
St. Lucia. He studied Printing Management at the London College of Printing in
the United Kingdom. He started his working life as an Apprentice Printer at the
Voice Publishing Company, the oldest Newspaper in the OECS. In 1985 he was
appointed General Manager of the Voice Publishing Company. During his term as
General Manager, Mr. Mayers embarked on a modernization plan for the company.
Under his management, the Voice moved from a twice weekly newspaper, to the
current three times weekly.
In 1992 Mr. Mayers opened his own printing company – Mayers Printing Company.
Two years later, in partnership with long time colleague Guy Ellis, the Mirror
Newspaper was born. Presently Mayers Printing Company and the Mirror Newspaper
employ about thirty persons in various capacities.
Mr. Mayers has served in various leadership capacities in St. Lucia. He has also
represented St. Lucia at both regional and international levels. Mr. Mayers has
served as president of the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Industry and
Agriculture for a total of five terms. He is the founding chairman of the Junior
Achievement Programme, a business training programme that operates in all
secondary schools and in more than half of the Primary Schools on the island. He
served as chairman for ten years. In June of 2001, Junior Achievement
International, based in the US, chose Mr. Mayers to be the vice chairman of the
first ever Global Trade Institute, a one week training conference for over 100
top Junior Achievers from 90 countries which was held in Chicago, USA.
Mr. Mayers has also served as a vice president of Caribbean Association of
Industry and Commerce (CAIC) for a period of 8 years.
During his tenure as the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Mayers kept
himself informed on the inner workings of the government, CARICOM and the OECS
by representing the private sector on the St. Lucia delegation to the various
Heads of Government meetings. He accompanied then prime minister Dr Vaughan
Lewis to World Bank meetings in Washington DC in 1996 and former prime minister
Dr Kenny Anthony to Hong Kong in 1997.
He was part of the CARICOM delegation that toured South Africa in 1998, when he
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chamber of Commerce of
Johannesburg on behalf of the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce. He
has also represented St. Lucia and the regional private sector at Commonwealth
and ACP EU meetings in Sweden, the Canary Islands, Brussels, Santa Domingo,
Costa Rica and in other parts of the world. He accompanied Foreign Minister
Julian Hunte to the first ministerial negotiations on the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) in Quito, Ecuador in 2001 and also represented St. Lucia in
Miami in 2003.
Mr. Mayers, in 2004, was part of an eight member team from CARICOM which
attended an International Visitor’s Programme in the USA at the invitation of
the US Government. The Programme covered governance in the US and FTAA matters.
This included meetings with top US trade negotiators at the State Department and
other Government agencies in Washington also a number of non-governmental and
other agencies. That same year he was also part of a team sent to the Bahamas by
the CARICOM Secretariat to speak to the government and non-governmental agencies
on the benefits of joining the CARICOM Single Market.
Mr. Mayers was part of the CARICOM-OAS observer team at the 2001 General
Elections in Haiti.
Mr. Mayers has served as a member of the (RNM) Regional Negotiating Machinery’s
Private Sector Advisory Council and was trained in Trinidad as a spokesperson
for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, CSME.
Mr. Mayers has served on the Board of the 1st National Bank, the St. Lucia
Tourist Board, the Trade License Board, the National Research and Development
Foundation and is a founding member of the Gros Islet Rotary Club. He has given
community service in areas such as Patron of the Salvation Army and president of
various sports clubs.
Mr. Guy Mayers is married to Hannah Mayers. They have four children.
On 19th December, 2006 Mr. Mayers was sworn into office as Minister for Trade,
Industry and Commerce and appointed as a Senator on 9th January, 2007. His
portfolio as minister includes responsibility for Commerce, Investment, Consumer
Affairs and International Trade.
March, 2007
