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Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesBrief: DeJongh Nominates Three to Commissions and Boards

Brief: DeJongh Nominates Three to Commissions and Boards

Gov. John deJongh Jr. has tapped noted agronomist, environmentalist, educator and social advocate Mario Francis for a spot on the V.I. Civil Rights Commission, according to Government House.
For more than 10 years, Francis worked for the V.I. Department of Agriculture, and also worked for the U.S. Forest Service at the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. Between 1985 and 2000, he owned and ran Paradise Plants and Landscaping Service Company.
Among the many other hats he wears, Francis is an elected delegate to the 5th V.I. Constitutional Convention, chairs the Territorial Committee of the Independent Citizens Movement, and is a noted local birding expert and president of the Audubon Club of St. Thomas.
DeJongh has also renominated Cassan Pancham and Gordon Finch for the governing board of the V.I. Port Authority. Pancham has chaired the board since 2008 and chaired its finance committee since 2007. He is executive vice president for First Bank of Puerto Rico, which has the largest bank operations in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Pancham has served as president of the U.S. Virgin Islands Bankers Association, and as president of the St. Thomas/St. John Chamber of Commerce.
Finch, a mechanical engineer, has previously been commissioner of Public Works, and more recently, between 1991 and 2002, served as executive director of the Port Authority. Finch holds a bachelor’s from Howard University and a master’s from Carnegie Mellon University. He started his engineering career as a member of the Army Corp of Engineers and has worked for the military, private industry, the federal government and the V.I. Government over the last several decades.

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