Press Release No 41 –
Appointment of Deputy Governor
Press Release No. : 41/2009
Date : 25 September 2009
The Reserve Bank Board in its meeting on 24 September, 2009, approved the appointment of Mr Barry Whiteside as the Deputy Governor from 1 October 2009.
In considering the appointment, the Board, among other things, took into account Mr Whiteside’s extensive experience and knowledge across all areas of the Bank. Mr Whiteside is a career central banker and has served the Bank for 33 years, holding various senior positions since 1989.
He first joined the Bank in 1976 as an Assistant Research Officer in the Economics Group (previously known as the Research Department) and worked his way through the grades before becoming head of the Group in 1991. Just prior to being named as Research Director in 1991, Mr Whiteside spent two years at senior level in the Operations and International areas of the Bank. He then assumed the role of Chief Manager (Financial Markets) in April 1998, where one of his primary responsibilities was the management of Fiji’s foreign reserves. In 2002, he took on the role of the Chief Manager (Currency and Corporate Services) before moving across to the supervision of banks and other licensed financial institutions as Chief Manager (Financial Institutions) in 2004.
Mr Whiteside has acted as Deputy Governor for nearly 6 months last year and for much of this year.
Mr Whiteside holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics/Administration) degree from the University of the South Pacific and a Master of Arts degree (Economics) from Simon Frazer University, Canada.