Executive Members
CEO
Michael Symonette CEO
Mr. Michael Symonette was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of URCA and is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the affairs of the Regulator and will give advice and guidance in the execution of URCA’s functions.
Prior to his appointment as CEO, he served as Executive Director of the Public Utilities Commission from 1 October, 2008 to July 31, 2009. Prior to his appointment, he served as a member of the Commission from 1 July 2007 to 30 September 2008.
Mr. Symonette was previously employed with the Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation which later became the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited (BTC) from 1960-2006. He spent the last eleven years of his employment with BTC as President and Chief Executive Officer.
Prior to becoming CEO of the company, Mr. Symonette was head of the technical divisions, and had overall responsibility for the planning, engineering and maintenance of all telecommunications systems. He worked with Intel’s engineers on the planning and engineering of the first Standard ‘A’ Satellite Earth Station for The Bahamas. He also worked with AT&T on the planning of the Bahamas-11 Digital Submarine Cable System between The Bahamas and Florida. Mr. Symonette’s experience also include the planning and engineering of analog and digital telephone exchanges, tropospheric scatter and digital microwave radio systems, analog and digital cellular systems. He was also involved in the planning of the Bahamas Domestic Submarine Fibre Cable System currently being implemented by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited.
Mr. Symonette is a graduate of the South Hall College of Technology and holds the diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He also pursued several management courses and holds diplomas from the University of Miami, Harvard University, and the National University of Singapore. He is a member and Past Vice President of the Bahamas Institution of Professional Engineers.
Director of Policy and Regulation
Usman Saadat Director of Policy and Regulation
With more than 14 years of global experience, Usman Saadat, URCA’s Director of Policy and Regulation possesses a wealth of consulting experience in telecoms regulation and competitive strategy and is known for his skill in service innovation and external stakeholder management. He also has a proven track record in leadership roles of successfully restructuring operations, motivating teams and transforming customer experience.
In the role Director of Policy and Regulation for URCA Mr. Saadat will provide direction on all matters of policy and regulation. Mr. Saadat will direct the development of methodologies for market reviews and universal service obligation assessment, licensing policy and structure, numbering, spectrum policy and the approach to local number portability.
Mr. Saadat has held several senior positions in the telecoms sector throughout the Caribbean. His most recent responsibility was as Chief Executive Officer of Cable & Wireless St. Lucia, prior to which he served as Business Development Director of Cable & Wireless International.
His regulatory experience in the telecommunications markets includes over 5 years in economic consulting with UK based National Economic Research Associates (NERA) and Europe Economics. While consulting he served as advisor on major regulatory projects for the European Commission, and led projects for European and Asian national telecommunications regulators including OFTEL in the UK, ODTR in Ireland and OFTA in Hong Kong. Mr. Sadaat also spent three years as an Economist with the regulatory team in the head office of Cable and Wireless PLC. During this time he helped implement regulatory best practices in businesses transitioning from monopoly to liberalised markets. Mr. Saadat also worked with Governments in a number of Caribbean countries to liberalise telecommunications markets and establish new legal and regulatory frameworks and compliance.
Mr. Saadat holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics (Hons.) and a Master of Science Degree in Economics (Development Studies) from the London School of Economics.