Choosing Caribbean Persons of the Year is never easy, so this year I’ve reduced my local picks to two: Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre and entrepreneur Rayneau Gajadhar — and for similar and different reasons. Here’s why:
PRIME MINISTER PHILIP J. PIERRE
The Saint Lucia Prime Minister led his Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) to a second-term victory on the first day of the last month of the year.
But before that, he’d led an administration that set and broke several records at home and abroad from August 2021, when it took office with a new electoral alliance that confounded critics and paid dividends.
Pierre’s administration started 2025 with a 15-2 parliamentary majority and after completing its fourth year in office, he again surprised all by calling General Elections — over-a-year earlier.
The mixed Cabinet he led transformed election campaign promises into legislation, ensuring benefits spread across all 17 constituencies.
For a third consecutive year, in 2025 the Pierre-led administration:
• Posted economic growth
• Increased employment and lowered unemployment (to single digit figures)
• Increased youth self-employment
• Spent more equipping local police to fight crime
• Paid outstanding and increased wages to Public Servants and Pensioners
• Added benefits for the most-needy and persons with disabilities
• Increased assistance to single parents and pregnant women
• Eliminated school entry charges
• Completed outstanding infrastructural projects…
• And in many other ways continued the ‘Putting People First’ policies that always assured certainty about re-election whenever elections were called.
This was also the first time in modern Caribbean history that independent elected MPs (including a former Prime Minister) had served an entire term with senior ministerial responsibilities in a Cabinet led by a party they’re not card-carrying members of.
PM Pierre also served with distinction in leadership positions in CARICOM and the OECS.
He closes 2025 with two major promises delivered: completion of the St. Jude Hospital and the island’s first VAT-Free Day (for Christmas); and took his Oath of Office a second time — in the presence of six current and former colleague CARICOM Prime Ministers.
The Saint Lucia PM will start 2026 as the CARICOM leader with the longest re-election record, having won his Castries East seat seven consecutive times since 1997.
And for all the above reasons, PM Pierre is my first pick.
RAYNEAU GADJADHAR
My second Saint Lucian on the Caribbean scene for 2025 is lesser-known in regional political circles, but after carving his name in stone and concrete at home over the past two decades, Rayneau Gadjadhar is quietly taking Caribbean construction to higher heights.
Rayneau enters 2026 not merely as a businessman, but as a force reshaping the economic and social landscape of the Eastern Caribbean.
Through the R.G. Group of Companies, he has driven transformative projects that span healthcare, construction and agriculture, most-notably the development of modern hospitals and expansive operations in Guyana, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antigua, Montserrat.
Now, as 2025 ends, his vision is accelerating even further with major new investments taking root in Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and Montserrat, signaling that his regional influence is only just beginning.
The R.G. Group has built a hospital in Dominica and is also engaged in construction and agriculture in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – and it’s closing 2025 with new investments in major projects in several OECS states, with four new concretes plants in the Windward Islands — two in Grenada and one each in Saint Vincent & The Grenadines and Antigua & Barbuda.
In Antigua & Barbuda, Rayneau’s new concrete plant assured constant supplies for a new airport under construction, while two new asphalt plants are also being developed in Saint Vincent & The Grenadines and Grenada.
In Grenada, the group is building a new school in St. David’s parish, while also developing a 350-acre site for quarry and asphalt mining.
With a record of successfully building everything from hotels and highways to hospitals across the region, Rayneau in 2025 landed a contract to build a brand-new hospital in Montserrat.
Besides, his group is the regional agent for South Korea’s Hyundai heavy duty construction equipment, with an outlet in Guyana.
But Rayneau’s major record at home in 2025 was delivery of the St. Jude Hospital – in one year.
On September 13, 2024, The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) and the Government of Saint Lucia (GOSL) signed contracts with two Saint Lucian and two Saudi Arabian construction and consulting firms to complete the reconstruction of hospital in Augier, Vieux Fort.
Funded by the SFD with a concessional loan of $75 million – the new St. Jude will include 100 beds, maternity wards, emergency rooms and surgical suites, to serve around 50,000 patients annually.
The hospital – expected to be commissioned in 2026 — will enhance healthcare quality for Saint Lucians, ensure sustainable service delivery and improve access to advanced medical care.
To a man and woman, all Saint Lucians approached by the press have heaped praise on Rayneau for ensuring the government delivered — in one year — what three previous administrations hadn’t.
Rayneau’s Group in 2025 acquired what’s easily the largest marine barge in the OECS – named after his son ‘Mokesh’ — to move supplies around the region.
Then there’s the 2025 Christmas Wonderland at Rayneau’s Vide Boutielle, Castries location – a veritably enjoyable annual outing for families who every year feast on the widest annual display of Christmas lights and related fineries.
Rayneau also closed 2025 in the headlines with good news for Saint Lucian businesses and citizens unable to clear barrels and other holiday imports: his Cul De Sac quarry provided space for relocation of over-1,000 empty containers that had clogged Port Castries and crippled clearance transactions.
Beyond his extraordinary project achievements, Gajadhar stands-out for his deep humanity.
He credits every success to his team, believing that true leadership is built—not imposed and he works shoulder to shoulder with his team members, never above them, leading by example rather than authority.