Belize City, Monday, 2 June 2025 (CRFM)—The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) Secretariat, based in Belize and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Thomas Marc Xavier Williams of Saint Kitts and Nevis as its new Executive Director, effective today, Monday, 2 June 2025.

Dr. Williams takes over from former Executive Director, Mr. Milton Haughton, who retired in December 2024 after having served the CRFM since its inauguration in 2003—first as its Deputy Executive Director and since 2011 as Executive Director. The CRFM expresses its sincerest gratitude to Mr. Haughton for having rendered over 44 years of exceptional and dedicated service to the region.

Building upon the foundation established over the past two decades, Dr. Williams will now lead the charge for providing technical, consultative and advisory services to seventeen (17) CRFM Member States in the development, assessment, management, and conservation of marine and other aquatic resources. He is also responsible for spearheading bilateral and international engagements on behalf of the region’s fisheries and aquaculture sector.

On Monday, 9 June 2025, Dr. Williams will represent the CRFM at the upcoming UN Ocean Conference, in Nice, France. He is also scheduled to deliver a keynote presentation at a side event to be hosted that same day by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda entitled, “Blueprints for the Future: Marine Spatial Planning, Financing, Ocean Data Driven Decision Making & Global Cooperation.” 

Dr. Williams comes eminently qualified, having worked as the Director of Marine Resources, responsible for the overall management of the Department of Marine Resources in Saint Kitts and Nevis, from 2011 to 2023, after which he served at the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources until April 2025.

His breadth of knowledge and experience also reflects his tenure as the 2019-2020 Chair of the Caribbean Fisheries Forum, a CRFM body which determines the technical and scientific work of the Secretariat; as well as his contributions to global sustainable ocean management through his role as the International Whaling Commissioner (IWC) for Saint Kitts and Nevis since 2014.

Dr. Williams earned his Doctorate of Business Administration Degree from William Howard Taft University in Lakewood, Colorado, USA, in October 2020. He also holds a Master of Business Administration Degree in Financial Management from City University in Bellevue, Washington, USA. (More details can be found in his bio here.)

As a son of Saint Kitts and Nevis, he is passionate about the ocean and the vast marine wealth it encapsulates as well as the promise for the region’s food and economic security. He has been a proponent for commercial and small-scale aquaculture development and innovation in capture fisheries, through the use of  Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs).

During his tenure at the Department of Marine Resources in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Williams was actively engaged in several sustainable and innovative Fisheries projects, both at the national and regional levels.