BAS rejects claims Paul was fired or barred from meeting

The Barbados Agricultural Society has rejected suggestions that former chief executive James Paul was abruptly dismissed or deliberately locked out of a recent membership meeting.

Amid mounting speculation, BAS President Henderson Williams and board member McDonald Stevenson said Paul’s departure was the result of a long-planned retirement and an organisational restructuring, a process of which the former chief executive was fully informed.

Speaking on behalf of the 12-member board of management, Stevenson said the decision to transition leadership had been in the works for quite some time. Paul, who is in his early 70s, had reached retirement age, and the board needed to make structural changes to elevate the organisation, he added.