APETT Honours Engineers At 57th Annual Honours & Awards Ceremony

On Saturday 16th September 2017, APETT hosted its 57th Annual Honours & Awards Ceremony.

This year the Ceremony was held at the Cara Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Claxton Bay

and was attended by approximately 165 persons. Twenty (20) engineers were honoured for their

contribution to the Engineering industry, and by extension, the nation. This was the first year that

there were three (3) recipients of the Outstanding Young Engineer Award and this was duly noted in

President Imtiaz Easahak’s address.

This year’s Awardees were as follows:

• Career of Excellence in Engineering Award- Eng. Denis Singh

• R.V.S. Aleong Award for Sterling Service to APETT- Eng. Dr. Rae Furlonge

• Outstanding Young Engineer – Eng. Anna Warner

• Outstanding Young Engineer – Eng. Jonathan Chang

• Outstanding Young Engineer – Eng. Alain Sirju

• Elevation to Grade of Fellow – Eng. Wilbur Walrond, Eng. Glenford Stewart, Eng. Valerie

Kelsick, Eng. Clayton Bruce, Eng. Dietrich Schoeller, Eng. Kenneth Sirju, Eng. Patrick Bynoe,

Eng. Wayne Reid, Eng. Allan Brammer, Eng. Beverly Ann Wilson, Eng. H. Derek De Freitas,

Eng. Peter Sammy, Eng. Dennis Sumadh, Eng. Neil Dookie, Eng. Cathy-Ann Fuentes

Eng. Matthew Julien and Chemical Division Secretary, Krisshala Sinanan aptly performed the duties

of Masters of Ceremony with Eng. Sarmad Yaseen as stage hand. Eng. Fazir Khan, APETT’s

Immediate Past President, delivered the welcome address followed by the Presidential Chain

Ceremony, symbolic of the appointment of the new President at the Annual General Meeting in

March of this year. In his address, President Imtiaz Easahak congratulated the awardees and spoke

on the topics of leadership, sustainability, and development of human capital.

Feature address speaker, Ms. Maxine Attong was very well received in her address on leadership in

the field of engineering, and the various challenges encountered when making the transition from

technical aspects of engineering to management positions. She highlighted that while a good

engineer may not automatically make a good manager, there are tips which can be used to make

the transition effective.

Figure 1 Some of the Awardees

Standing – Eng. Peter Sammy, Eng. Wayne Reid, Eng. Glenford Stewart, Eng. Kenneth Sirju, Eng. Clayton Bruce, Eng. Valerie

Kelsick, Eng. Beverly Ann Wilson, Eng. Cathy-Ann Fuentes, Eng. Dennis Sumadh and Eng. Neil Dookie.

Seated – Eng. Alain Sirju, Eng. Dr. Rae Furlonge, Eng. Denis Singh, Eng. Jonathan Chang, Eng. Anna Warner

Career of Excellence awardee, Eng.

Denis Singh, thanked the Association and

the Honours and Awards Committee for

this prestigious award and he reflected on

his career in the electricity supply

industry, which was enriched by other

committed engineering professionals he

worked with. Eng. Singh noted the

valuable contribution that engineers make

to society through the use of technology,

and wondered whether the public at

large grasped the true value of the engineer to society. He touched on current and relevant issues

facing this country such as the economy, public safety and generation of employment.

Figure 2 Eng. Denis Singh receives the Career of Excellence Award from

Eng. Winston Riley

Upon congratulating the other awardees, he publicly recognized

his wife and daughter who were both in attendance. Mrs. Singh

was later presented with a bouquet of roses from APETT, a

token of appreciation and recognition for the undoubted support

she would have been to her husband over the years. For Eng.

Singh’s full speech, go to www.apett.org.

APETT PRO Eng. Suzette Baptiste delivered the vote of

thanks, recognizing the members of the Honours and Awards

Committee of which President-Elect Eng. Valerie Kelsick is the

Chair. Other members include Engs. Narine Singh, Vaughn

Lezama, Hanna Wei-Muddeen, Richard Saunders, Dr. Haydn

Furlonge, Ahmin Baksh, Jerry Medford and Trevor De Landro.

She also thanked the Honours and Awards Planning Committee

led by Eng. Valerie Kelsick, Chemical Division Chair Eng. Anna

Warner, Vice Presidents Eng. Vince Ramlochan and Eng. Jainarine Bansee, Assistant Secretary

Eng. Everson Peters, Office Manager Trainee Ms. Anna Lisa Salick, Event Planner Fayola Bostic, as

well as herself, all well supported by President Eng. Imtiaz Easahak. Special recognition was given

to Eng. Onika Anthony, Secretary of the Tobago Chapter, for making the trip from Tobago that day

specially to attend the event. Sincere thanks also went to sponsors of the event, Republic Bank

Limited, Lee Young and Partners, and Ramps Engineering Services Limited for their contribution to

the event and for supporting APETT in honouring our achieving engineers.

The awards ceremony was followed

by a buffet dinner and live

entertainment was provided by Ms.

Valarie Hill of A Millien Concepts.

Many persons thoroughly enjoyed the

Awards Ceremony and the social

interactions throughout the evening.

Check APETT’s Facebook page for

photographs taken during the

evening.

Article Author: Eng. Suzette

Baptiste

Figure 3 President Imtiaz Easahak delivers

his address

Figure 4 Cross section of those in attendance