BY BGIS | JUL 29, 2022
Retired Chief Information Officer, Sharon Lynch poses with her mentor and counterpart Anthony Cave, during her retirement function on April 30. (T. Barker/BGIS)
Sharon Rosemary Lynch, the Barbados Government Information Service’s (BGIS) eighth Chief Information Officer (CIO) and third female in that position, has said farewell to the department after 39 years of service to the organisation.
Her last official day on the job was April 30, and on that day, she was feted by present and former staff and friends of the department at the PomMarine Hotel, Hastings, Christ Church.
During that event, she described her time at the BGIS as a rewarding period of her life, as she was able to grow and develop her leadership skills.
Miss Lynch joined the department in 1983 as an Assistant Information Officer, under the then Chief Information Officer, Anthony Cave, one of BGIS’ leading broadcasters, who she described as one of her mentors.
Over the years, she worked in the press, radio and television sections of the department, and while she developed her skills in all three of those areas, she eventually specialised in television production, which is the area in which she excelled.
As an Information Officer and Senior Information Officer, she scripted, produced and presented numerous television programmes on a wide range of subjects.
She has won several awards for her work, among them, a number of Pan American Health Organization awards for excellence in health journalism, including the inaugural Regional Award.
The former chief stated that she considers herself fortunate to have played a leadership role in the department in an era of exciting and fast paced technological change and is proud to have piloted the introduction of the department’s social media presence in 2014, and created a separate Web and Social Media section for the department in 2018.
With regard to her role in management, Ms. Lynch revealed that while she has always relished her work in television production, she embraced the human resource aspect of the job as CIO and particularly enjoyed working with and mentoring younger members of staff and assisting in their development.
She noted that the BGIS now has a talented and dedicated cadre of young members of staff, who, along with more experienced persons, continue to do the department proud.
In addition to her work at the BGIS, she developed a special interest in verbal and non-verbal communication and has been a trainer/facilitator in presentation skills for several years.
Miss Lynch is also an experienced master of ceremonies and has performed this role and that of orator for a wide range of official and national events over the years.
She is a trained, classical singer, and one of her favourite hobbies is choral singing. She hopes to be able to pursue more of this and other pastimes, such as gardening, reading and travelling, in her retirement.
