meet the team

Chairmen
Mohammed Omar
Mohammed is a founding member of the Guyanese Association of Houston, and a member of the Advisory Board of Guyana Medical Relief Inc. a California Public Benefit Non-Profit corporation that raises funds to provide support for medical related needs in Guyana. He is also President of the Ambassadors International Ballet Folklorico, a non-profit dance organization that promotes Hispanic Texas Culture and cultural exchange between this community and the other people of the various cultures in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the U.S. at large.
Mohammed has been an area governor for Toastmaster's International. For his volunteer work with the Houston Independent School District he has been honored as "Volunteer Teacher of the Year," receiving the 1994 Apple Award.

President & CEO
Wesley Kirton
WESLEY KIRTON is a journalist, community organizer, business executive and former diplomat whose work on Caribbean and Caribbean American issues spans almost four decades. He began his career as a journalist in Guyana at the early age of 15 and has served as a public relations, government a affairs and marketing executive at various leading firms. He also served in Guyana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations; as Di-
rector of Public Affairs and Information in Guyana’s Foreign Ministry, in the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC and as OAS head-of-mission in the Bahamas. Kirton was also an advisor to President Desmond Hoyte of Guyana and Washington bureau chief of the Caribbean News Agency (CANA). Kirton has been very active in the Diaspora Caribbean community in key US cities. He also served as Vice President of the Greater Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and currently is Co-Chair of the Private Sector Council at the Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS). He serves on the Board of a number of companies and nonprofit organization in both the US and the Caribbean. He is currently Director, CARICOM Outreach Program at Outreach Aid to the Americas (OAA).

Secretary
Melinda Gordon
Melinda Gordon is owner of the Highland Agency, an advertising, marketing and public relations company based in Florida. The company has been in business for just over a decade and counts among its clients a number of major companies and organizations including Surinam Airways and the Guyana Relief Council.
She is also a commercial real estate paralegal with more than 15 years experience in office and client relationship, legal and title management.She boasts working knowledge of national commercial title operations and real estate legal department operations.
board members

Joy Agness
The CEO of Joy Agness Events. An upmarket event planning firm which coordinates multiple domestic and international weddings and events. Event designing and management in South Florida, the Caribbean and beyond. Joy Agness is a certified Preston Bailey Wedding & Event Designer with accreditation from Lovegevity Wedding Planning Institute. (LWPI) and holds a Wedding Planning Diploma. Joy has over 27 years of experience in the Wedding & Event Planning industry. She was called on to host the annual Reggae Carnival Fest, a multicultural music festival featuring international artists and promoters in South Florida.

Shaheeda Mandal
Ms. Shaheeda Mandal has extensive experience as a Business Development Director in the Caribbean with a focus on providing new and innovative sources of revenue. She has successfully worked with governments in emerging markets to assist them with implementation of new funding mechanisms for initiatives aimed at improving general socio-economic conditions.
Shaheeda, who is bilingual, (English-Spanish) was born in Georgetown, Guyana and holds a BS degree in Administration from the Universidad Nacional Experimental Simon Rodriguez in Caracas, Venezuela.