Thursday, March 1, 2012

ARTICLE - MARTELLY CHOOSES LAMOTHE - PM

PRESIDENT MARTELLY DESIGNATES LAURENT LAMOTHE FOR PRIME MINISTER
(Defend Haiti) -

PORT-AU-PRINCE - President Michel Martelly has designated Foreign Affairs Minister, Laurent Lamothe, as the new prime minister to replace Garry Conille, confirms the Presidency.

AlterPresse contacted the spokesman of the presidency, Lucien Jura who said that the appointment of Laurent Lamothe is "official."

If this is the official side of the chair, this is not the case at the Haitian senate. Senate President Simon Dieuseul Desras (Centre/Lavni) told AlterPresse that he had "not received any official correspondence to date."

Since the beginning of this week, three names have circulated in the media as potential replacements for Conille. Theye are Thierry Mayard Paul (interior minister), Valerie Anne Milford and Timothy Laurent Lamothe.

Conille resigned on February 24th, four months after taking office. Martelly-Conille relations were marked by serious differences.

About Lamothe:

Laurent Lamothe ranks, without a doubt, among the most dynamic and visionary Haitian entrepreneurs of his generation. In 1998, at the age of only twenty-six, he co-founded the company Global Voice Group with his partner Patrice Baker.

Together, Lamothe and Baker, rapidly developed this small enterprise into one of the world’s foremost providers of advanced solutions for the management and regulation of telecommunications.

From Tennisman to Businessman

Born on August 14, 1972 in Port-au-Prince, Laurent Lamothe was raised in an upper-middle-class Haitian family. Son of well-known artist-painter Ghislaine Fortuney Lamothe and distinguished intellectual and Spanish literature authority, Louis G. Lamothe, he demonstrated exceptional aptitude for both athletics and academics from a very early age. Like his brother Ruben, a former captain of the Haitian Davis Cup team, the young Laurent excelled at tennis. At twelve years of age, he was already classed among the best hopes of the country, of which he would proudly represent a decade later at the Davis Cup competitions of 1994-95.

Outstanding on the tennis courts, Laurent Lamothe also distinguished himself as a student. At nineteen, he left his native Port-au-Prince to take up studies at Barry University in Miami, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science. Subsequently admitted to Saint Thomas University in 1996, he completed a brilliant academic career by earning a master’s degree, with honourable mention, in business management.

The entrepreneurial spirit and dynamism he showed over the course of the subsequent decade led, in May 2008, to his being named ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ by the firm Ernst and Young.

His Commitment to Sustainable Development

Father of two daughters, Linka and Lara, Laurent Lamothe firmly believes that today’s businesses must eschew a management philosophy focused uniquely on the search for short-term profit; they need, always, to consider the impact their activities make upon future generations as well.

Having himself grown up in a country overwhelmed by poverty and a lack of natural resources at all levels, the Haitian businessman developed, over the course of his life, a profound sense of social responsibility and a desire to lend assistance to the less fortunate. Entrepreneur above all, he remained, for a long time, removed from the political scene in his native country. Beyond party politics, Laurent Lamothe sees himself rather as a “pragmatist” who favours concrete solutions to Haiti’s needs. It was from this perspective that he recently accepted his appointment as Special Advisor of President Michel Martelly.

As an entrepreneur, Laurent Lamothe’s great innovation was to introduce telecom governance technologies in Africa that permit the authority to effectively regulate the sector in terms of control, tariff equity and transparency. In this domain, Lamothe and his partner Patrice Baker, co-founder of Global Voice Group, figure as pioneers.

Laurent Lamothe, the young tennis player, brought honour to his country during his Davis Cup days, though he met with honourable defeat. It might be said now that Laurent Lamothe, the accomplished entrepreneur, has brought honour upon himself again by propelling a Haitian company of modest origins to world-class success.

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