Marcia Brandon is an entrepreneurship development expert who has pioneered and championed the growth and development of the non-traditional sector of youth entrepreneurship development in the Caribbean. She is responsible for creating and developing over 20 business start-up programmes for young and matured under-served males and females wanting to start businesses in Barbados and the Caribbean. Since 2011 she has been the founder/managing director of the award winning Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Livelihoods (CoESL). She specializes in establishing entrepreneurship development organizations and their supporting programmes, including effectively lending capital to young and matured under-served and growth oriented males and females for business start-ups and scale up. Her expertise lies in business mentoring, building strategic partnerships and sharing best practices and results, through knowledge transfer and learning techniques and systems. She works with international donor organizations to design, monitor and evaluate entrepreneurship, people development, business mentoring, education, NGO and other similar projects/programmes. She has worked with Caribbean countries/organizations and individuals in Europe, Africa, Asia and Central America to establish entrepreneurship programmes and/or similar entities. As the Executive Director of the award winning organization, Barbados Youth Business Trust for 15 years, many of the programmes she has created and developed over the years have been replicated throughout the region, within the Youth Business International network and elsewhere. Using knowledge transfer and learning techniques she has helped 8 regional youth business trusts to start-up and implement the best practice programmes she has developed at BYBT. For the 12 years she has been the Regional Coordinator, helping countries in the region to establish youth entrepreneurship organizations, or similar organizations. She has been a judge for TIC Americas Business Plan Competition and a Business Labs trainer for Young Americas Business Trust (YABT); a consultant for Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), USAID, CARICOM and UNDP. She has written numerous manuals, hand books and “how- to” operational guides as well as articles on the topic of entrepreneurship, NGO challenges and business mentoring. She has spoken at several national, regional and international conferences, and sits on the Boards of some local, regional and international development organizations. She has been recognized via awards for her work from many partners, including Global Leaders’ Coalition, Constructive Solutions Inc, the Golden Rule Global Initiative, BYBT, Rotary West- Barbados and The St. Lucia Youth Business Trust. She has also been consulted with and quoted on issues relating to entrepreneurship development globally. She is a Jamaican national, married to Professor E.P. Brandon and they have two adult children. She was educated at UTECH, UWI, City & Guild and United College and Seminary International with professional qualifications from entities including Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) as well as .