Council Members
Fazir Khan
JCC President
Fazir Khan is the Managing Director of Alpha Engineering & Design (2012) Ltd. He has over 30 years’ experience as a practicing professional Civil Engineer and Project Manager, working locally and within the Caribbean Basin. Fazir graduated from the University of the West Indies, Trinidad with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Civil Engineering. He has obtained a diploma in Management from Henley University (UK) and certificates in Project Management, from the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School. Fazir is a certified modeler for Detention Pond Systems; Urban Storm Water Management; and Hydrological Modeling for sustainable solutions on large sites. He has a certificate in Integrated Coastal Zone Management from IHE Delft University. Apart from the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago (APETT) where he was a Past President (2016/2017), he is also a registered member of the Board of Engineering of Trinidad and Tobago and the British Hydrological Society, England. Fazir also currently serves on the Industry Liaison Board of the UWI since 2017. He served as the APETT Rep on the JCC Council from 2017 to 2018 before becoming the current President.
Dr. James Armstrong
Immediate Past President
James Armstrong has been an Urban and Regional Planner for the past 47 years. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Design; a M Sc in Urban and Regional Planning and a Ph. D. in Development Planning. He spent most of his career as a Human Settlements Technical Advisor at the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements and has been in private practice since 2001. He has worked in various countries around the world providing technical advisory services in urban and regional planning and development. He was and adjunct lecturer in planning at the University of the West Indies and has been a mentor to many younger planners. He has served as an Independent Senator in the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago. He has served as President of the Trinidad and Tobago Society of Planners and is the Immediate Past President of the Joint Consultative Council.
Ian Cox
APETT REPRESENTATIVE
Ian Cox is a practicing Civil Engineer with over 20 years of experience in the construction industry. His path has allowed him to encounter a diverse but balanced blend of private and public sector projects as both the client and service provider allowing a ground up understanding of the construction industry. This is firmly planted having begun his career as a Civil Technician at the then John Donaldson Technical Institute. Advancement came from attaining a B.Sc. (Hons) in Civil Engineering and a Post graduate Diploma in Construction Management from the University of the West Indies; these were followed later by PMP certification.
Ian is currently the Managing Director of IC Solutions Limited which is focused on niche domestic and commercial projects within the local construction sector. He is currently an executive member of the APETT council in his second term as Chair of the Civil Division and is APETT’s representative on the JCC.
Rodney Cowan
TTCA REPRESENTATIVE
Rodney Cowan is a Construction Industry expert with over 26 years’ experience with CEMEX/Trinidad Cement Limited in the areas of Commercial and Supply Chain and most recently has assumed responsibility for Government Relations.
He has operated in both the local and regional markets, pioneering the market entry into Brazil as well as led a team to implement Soil Cement Stabilization into the Trinidad market.
He holds a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Industrial Management from the University of the West Indies and an MBA from the Herriot Watt University. He previously served on the Board of the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturer’s Association and has been a Board Member of the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors’ Association for the past 10 years and is currently serving as Vice President.
Mark J.H. Franco
TTIA REPRESENTATIVE
Mark J. H. Franco was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A.) in 1983 and returned to Trinidad to continue being mentored by his father, Architect Hayden Franco. In 1988, Mark and Hayden established their Practice, FRANCO and FRANCO Architects Limited, and continued their work in Trinidad, extending to Guyana, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Kitts in all sectors of the industry, in particular residential, commercial and hospitality.
Mark continued the Practice after Hayden’s death in 1998. In the early part of this millennium he began collaborating with colleagues Colin Basso and Sean Leonard of Basso Leonard Architects Collaborative Limited on several projects. The discussions during the collaboration evolved into conversations about creating a more formal relationship and Architect Charmaine Solozano-Ward of CSW Architect Limited joined the three in the conversations. These developed into the creation of the consortium of Practices, co-rd Limited, to which all of the founding practices vested their personnel and assets. co-rd began operating formally in January 2006 as an Architectural Practice and as a service company to the founding practices. Mark is an owner and director of co-rd.
Mark is a Past-President of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects, a past Chairman of the Board of Architecture of Trinidad and Tobago, and a current elected member of the National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago’s Council. He is the TTIA’s Representative on the Joint Consultative Committee for the Construction Industry.
Grace LesFouris
TTSP REPRESENTATIVE
Grace LesFouris has worked as an Urban and Regional Planner for over forty (40) years, mainly in Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. She received her undergraduate training at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and post-graduate at the Loughborough University of Technology, Loughborough, England. Ms. LesFouris is also the holder of a Certificate in Recognition of Satisfactory Completion of a One-Year Program as a Fellow in the Fulbright Fellowship Program at the Department of City and Regional Planning of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
During her ‘Fulbright Year’ she was also attached to the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management for a period of six weeks during which she focused on Coastal Area Management, and subsequently benefitted from a follow-up attachment to the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Since 2005 she has worked as an independent consultant on a range of spatial planning and environmental management projects for local and regional agencies in Trinidad and Tobago. She was engaged as a Senior Urban-Regional Consultant on the JCC sponsored James Armstrong Independent Review Committee on the Debe to Mon Desir Segment of the San Fernando to Point Fortin Highway in 2012/2013.
Ms. LesFouris is the current President of the Trinidad and Tobago Society of Planners which organisation she represents on the JCC.
Emile Peter Elias
JCC Co-Founder and Past President
Emile Peter Elias founded Emile Elias and Company Limited in July 1965, then acquired or founded additional companies. He serves as Executive Chairman in all Companies in the Group.
Mr Elias co-founded the JCC in 1978 and served on the Council representing the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association for many years. He continues to sit at the JCC as a Founder.
Mr Elias co-founded the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association in 1968 and served as President for three terms, retiring as President in April 1998.
Winston Riley
JCC Co-Founder and Past President
Winston Riley is a Professional Engineer with over fifty (50) years experience in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean. Mr Riley is a Past President of the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association, the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago and the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry of Trinidad and Tobago (JCC).
Mr Riley has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to the development of the Construction industry in Trinidad and Tobago, as President of APETT, where he initiated and managed the first Caribbean Housing Conference. He also served on several Cabinet Appointed Committees in the industry. His last serving was as a member of the Cabinet Appointed Committees on Procurement and Full Employment in the Construction Sector.
Mr Riley served as president of the JCC for ten (10) years. During his tenure, he prepared and presented the industry’s submissions at the Commissions of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Construction project and the Construction Sector (UFF Commission). Mr Riley through the JCC has advocated relentlessly for the reform of the public procurement processes and practices. He is currently the Chairman of the Private Sector Civil Society Group for public procurement that has successfully campaigned for the introduction of procurement legislation. (this current profile of Mr Riley will soon be updated)