Nigel Clarke

Clarke currently serves as Member of Parliament for the North West St. Andrew constituency, after winning the by-election to that seat held on 5 March 2018. He has previously served as Senator in the Upper House of the Jamaican Parliament from 2013 to 2015. He is currently the Minister of Finance in Jamaica.

Clarke started his career as a derivatives trader in London at Goldman Sachs, the prestigious international investment bank. Since returning to Jamaica in 1999, he has structured and negotiated over US$1 billion of inbound investment for private equity, business development, acquisition finance, trade finance and infrastructure development. Notable private sector transactions include: the securing of over US$300m of direct private equity and debt investment for Jamaican businesses from major international banks and multilateral financial institutions including Citibank NA, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter American Development Bank, the European Investment Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank; the first ever regionally syndicated, locally arranged loan (US$182 million) spanning several jurisdictions in the Caribbean and Central America and across multiple currencies to fund business growth and development across the Caribbean and Central America; the foundation and development of the first ever fund established in the region to finance regional private equity and venture capital (the US$32m Caribbean Investment Fund); and the foundation of Jamaica's first specialist investment fund dedicated to mezzanine financing for business growth (the US$15m Caribbean Mezzanine Fund). Notable public sector initiatives include the completion of the US$400 million transaction to divest and expand the Kingston Container Terminal; the facilitation of over 5200 new housing starts in 2017 by way of direct construction, direct financing and financing partnerships with financial institutions (representing the fastest pace of low cost housing construction in Jamaica over two decades); and the role of principal interlocutor with the International Monetary Fund, on behalf of the Government of Jamaica, in negotiating the early successful termination of the Extended Fund Facility agreement and the entry into the US$1.6 billion Precautionary Stand-By Arrangement with the Fund. He has delivered policy related addresses to the annual general meetings or other high level fora of the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation of American States, the Clinton Global Initiative and the Caribbean Development Bank.

Clarke holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of the West Indies, Mona on the Jamaica Independence Scholarship where he graduated in 1992 . He also graduated from the University of Oxford with a Master's Degree in Applied Statistics in 1994 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Numerical Analysis in 1997. This was done through the Commonwealth Scholarship and the Rhodes Scholarship respectively.

Nigel Andrew Lincoln Clarke (born 20 October 1971) is Minister of Finance and the Public Service of Jamaica. He is a Jamaican Member of Parliament, company director, business executive and statesman. He has served as chairman or director of over 20 Jamaican public and private sector economic enterprises. His public sector directorships have included the Bank of Jamaica (Jamaica's central bank and financial services regulator); Chairman of the Port Authority of Jamaica (the regulator of Jamaica's ports and the developer and owner of Jamaica's cargo and cruise ports); Chairman of the National Housing Trust (Jamaica's state-owned mortgage lender and housing developer) and Chairman of the HEART Trust NTA (Jamaica's largest tertiary level vocational training and certification institution). In 2016, Dr. Clarke was appointed by the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, to serve as Jamaica's Ambassador-at-Large for Economic Affairs within the Office of the Prime Minister. Ambassador Clarke previously served as a Senator in the Upper House of the Jamaican parliament between 2013 and 2015.

He was an actor, known for BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950), San Demetrio London (1943) and The Hundred Hour Hunt (1952).

Nigel Clarke was born on February 21, 1892 in Epsom, Surrey, England as Herbert Edward Clark.