Senator Matthew Samuda, Chairman of the Standards Council has announced that Hopeton Heron, a former Deputy Director General of the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), has been appointed Executive Director of the Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ), effective 01 March 2019. Heron’s appointment follows a competitive selection process which was initiated in September 2018 in accordance with the guidelines outlined by the Public Services Commission. 

Heron, an engineer, has also had stints at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), the National Environmental and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Jamaica Public Service Company Ltd. 

As Deputy Director General of the OUR, Heron had regulatory responsibility for the electricity and water sectors and chaired the Quality Management and Risk Management Steering committees. Under his watch at the OUR, Heron oversaw the procurement of 115 MW of Renewable Energy, implementation of the Net Billing Programme, the completion of the 65 MW New Generation Capacity Project as well as the OUR’s initial certification to ISO 9001: 2008 Quality Management System and later the upgrade to ISO 9001:2015. 

Heron is regarded as a strategic leader, committed to an enabling environment of sustained viability, Senator Samuda, in making the announcement to the Management and Staff of the BSJ on Friday, indicated that Heron’s skills and abilities would augur well for the organization that has seen a shift in focus to the facilitation of industry. 

The Standard Council Chairman expressed the Council’s deep appreciation to Dr. Dwight Ramdon who acted as Executive Director of the BSJ since 02 January 2019, following the departure of Stephen Wedderburn whose tenure ended in December 2018.