The Accelerator Lab in Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Guyana, and Suriname

Frontier Challenge

More to come.

Our Mission        

Hand-in-hand with our grassroots partners, we will utilize an agile experimental approach to uncover innovative and localized solutions, tools, and approaches to address the most pressing development challenges and collaboratively accelerate sustainable progress.

Our Guiding Principles

·       We are driven by data and evidence

·       We are adventurous and risk tolerant

·       We are relentlessly curious

·       We are open to trying multiple things simultaneously

·       We are grounded in partnership, collaboration, and engagement

·       We will start small, learn fast, and forge partnerships to grow impact

·       We believe in learning together

·       We aim to evolve mindsets, perceptions, approaches, and tools

Our Team

The Accelerator Lab for Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Guyana, and Suriname is comprised of three core members. This includes a Head of Exploration, Head of Solutions Mapping and Head of Experimentation.

Gregory Smith joins the organization as our Head of Exploration. He previously worked as a senior organizational strategist and manager with over 9 years’ international experience in financial analysis for mergers and acquisitions, e-commerce product management, IT systems implementation, strategic planning, and market analysis. Gregory holds a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering, an MBA from Howard University, and a MPP in Public Policy Analysis and Economics from the University of Chicago. He is passionate about working collaboratively and applying a rigorous analytical approach towards developing sustainable, courageous, innovative solutions that directly improve the lives of everyday people.

Christalle Gemon is our Head of Experimentation. She is an International Development Specialist with over 15 years’ experience in the development sector.  She has a BSc in Political Science and International Relations from Long Island University and an MSc. in International Development and Management from Lund University, Sweden. After working with various international organisations globally, she returned home where she led work on policy development and reform in multiple sectors.  She has significant experience in child protection and juvenile justice reform and was a member of the core team that established the Children’s Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.  For the past two years she has led UNDP’s Citizen Security and Justice work.  She passionately believes that development must be directed at impacting the lives of society’s most vulnerable.

Alan Cooper has assumed the role of Head of Solutions Mapping. Alan holds a BSc. in Economics from the University of the West Indies, an MSc. in development economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, and professional certification in project management from the Project Management Institute. His varied career spans more than 18 years and includes investment banking, entrepreneurship development, NGO leadership, and consulting in innovation. Most recently, Alan worked with the Enterprise Development Division of the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Labour, while also co-founding and leading Future Fishers, an environmental NGO in Trinidad and Tobago focused on the empowerment of rural fisherfolk.  He is fluent in Spanish and competent in Portuguese and French.