Foundation Board

vDenis O'Brien is Chairman of the privately-owned Digicel Group, one of the fastest growing cellular companies in the world.

Mr. O’Brien founded Digicel in 2001 when the company launched a GSM cellular phone service in the Caribbean. The Digicel Group has extended its operations to 22 markets with more than 4 million subscribers in the Caribbean, Central and South America region.

Digicel Pacific recently acquired a business in Samoa and has secured licences in Fiji and a number of other markets in the region.

Mr. O’Brien is one of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs with extensive investments across several sectors including international telecoms, radio, media, property, aircraft leasing, golf and other leisure interests. He also founded Communicorp Group which owns and manages a portfolio of media and broadcasting-related companies in Ireland and seven other European countries.

Prior to establishing Digicel Denis O’Brien founded the Esat Telecom Group plc and built it throughout the 1990’s until its sale to British Telecom plc for € 2.4 billion.

Outside of his extensive business interests, Denis chaired the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Ireland. It was the first time the Summer Games were staged outside the US with teams from 160 countries and over 30,000 volunteers, the 2003 Summer Games were the most successful ever.

He is Chairman of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Judging Panel, having previously been a recipient of the award. He serves as a Director on the US Board of Concern Worldwide.

In addition, he is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Frontline, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. Based in Dublin, Frontline is working to ensure that the standards set out in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted in 1998, are known, respected and adhered to worldwide. Frontline’s work consists of research, advocacy, communications/technical assistance and emergency evacuation of human rights activists.

In 2000 he established The O’Brien Foundation to identify and assist projects in Ireland and internationally which aim to alleviate disadvantaged communities.

Denis holds a BA degree from University College Dublin and an MBA from Boston College.

Mrs. Lewis obtained a Bachelor of Science from the University of the West Indies in 1990 in Computer Studies. In 1991 she joined Cable and Wireless Jamaica then known as Telecommunications of Jamaica as a management trainee in the Credit and Collections Department. For the next five (5) years she assumed several roles within that department with the most senior being Collections Manager in 1996. In January 1999 she was appointed Call Centre Manager for Cable and Wireless's main call centres located in Kingston with responsibility for 215 staff.

In May 2000 she joined Digicel Jamaica as the Billing Project Manager in charge of acquiring and implementing both the customer and interconnect billing systems. In May 2001 she was appointed Customer Care Director with full responsibility for the Call Centre, Credit and
Collections and Dealer Support and Commissions Management.

Following her successful tenure in these roles, Lisa was then appointed the Group Projects Director in April 2003 where she was put in charge of Roaming and roll-out projects in the Cayman Islands and Turks & Caicos. With the successful acquisition of over twelve (12) telecommunications licences for the Cayman Islands in October 2003,

Lisa became a full member of the business development team in late 2004 where she is now in charge of new licence acquisitions for the Caribbean, Latin America and the rest of the world. In December 2007, Lisa was appointed Chairman of the Digicel Foundation.

Major General Neish is the Executive Director of the Digicel Foundation. This non-profit, philanthropic organization, established by Digicel Jamaica, seeks to identify and support genuine needs in communities across Jamaica and the region. These programmes will be mainly in the educational, social and cultural areas.

From 1996 to 2004 he served as Chief Executive Officer, Mona Rehabilitation Foundation, a charity based at the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre.  This foundation developed and managed programmes to provide employment for persons with disabilities.

From 1990 to 1996 he was a security consultant, managed the Jamaica Society for Industrial Security and chaired the Bustamante Institute of Public and International Affairs.

Prior to that he served as an officer in the Jamaica Defence Force for 32 years and his career included infantry, flying, staff and command positions culminating in the appointment of Chief of Staff from 1979-1990 with the rank of Major General.

Born in Kingston in 1940, he was educated at Munro and Jamaica Colleges, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and the Army Staff College, Camberley, UK. He studied at the Central Flying School, Manitoba, Canada, the Navy Post-Graduate School, Monterey, California and the Jamaica Civil Service Management Course (where he also lectured). He was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) in 1968 for bravery and Commander of the Order of Distinction (CD) in the National Honours and Awards list 1983.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Jamaica Legion and Vice President, Royal Air Forces Association (Jamaica Branch). He is a board member of Crime Stop and the Private Security Regulation Authority. He is also President of the Jamaica Paraplegic Association (affiliated to the Jamaica Olympic Association) and a Past President of the Rotary Club of Kingston.

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