Hugh Lennox Edwards is the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange, a position he held from August 1982 until his retirement in December 2007. Since then, he has been employed as a Consultant and Corporate Secretary to the Issa Nicholas Group of Companies. Hugh graduated from Fatima College in Trinidad in 1961 and from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, in 1969 with a Bachelors of Business Administration Degree in Accounting. After receiving his education, Hugh worked as an Auditor from 1969 to June 1972 with Deloitte, Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte Touche) one of the big eight Accounting firms in New York.
Following this, he was employed by the New York Stock Exchange from July 1972 to June 1982 in the Department of Regulation and Surveillance as an Examiner. It was while he was working at the New York Stock Exchange that the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago recruited him to return home as the first CEO of the local Stock Exchange. As CEO of the Stock Exchange, Mr. Edwards successfully directed the transformation of the Exchange from a manual trading system to a fully automated Trading, Clearing and Settlement System. He together with his deputy CEO, were the co-authors of the original document that promulgated the Securities Industry Act, 1995, which made provision for the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Internationally, he served as a member of the Development Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), was the Chairman of the Harmonization Committee of the Caribbean Stock Exchanges and also served as a member of the Steering Committee that worked with NASDAQ, with the view of establishing a Blue Print for a single Central Securities Depository for Caricom Stock Exchanges. Hugh’s activities were not confined to the Stock Exchange. In the past he served as Chairman of the Board of the Diego Martin Credit Union, The FNCU Venture Capital Company and Mollineau Optical Limited. In addition, he held Directorships with the Credit Union Stabilization Fund and AIC Finance Limited. Professionally, he lectured for several years at the University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies in Accounting, Financial Planning and Financial Management.