#8: Nestor Alfred of the Saint Lucia CIU - "Our Best Year Ever"

We had the pleasure of hosting Nestor Alfred, the CEO of Saint Lucia's Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) on the Mobility Standard podcast last week. We covered a wide range of topics, including (timestamped):01:11 - Who is Nestor Alfred? Nestor told us about how, from humble beginnings as the middle child among seven siblings, he was able to rise through the professional ranks in both the public and private sectors thanks to his emphasis on education. He also explains why he chose to leave a successful career in the banking world to help his country run a CIP.11:34 - Now that Saint Lucia has had a change of government, what can we expect to happen to the CIP? What plans does the new administration have for the program? And does Nestor feel comfortable that he'll be able to continue to lead the CIU?19:53 - What are the latest trends for the Saint Lucia CIP? What's happened to application volumes and investments in the last year? Are approvals up? What's changed in terms of applicant nationality distributions?26:02 - How was the Saint Lucia CIU able to go from one of the Caribbean's slowest CIUs to its most efficient? We asked Nestor about what has changed in the CIUs work to bring about the turnaround.39:32 - What's happening with CIPA? Nestor's peers elected him chairman of the Citizenship by Investment Program Association nearly three years ago. He made a number of attempts to more closely integrate the five Caribbean programs, such as regards sharing of information and due diligence work, but also in terms of pricing. Few tangible results from these efforts have materialized, however, and we questioned Nestor as to what's holding CIPA back.Some highlighted excerpts from Nestors answers:On whether he worries for the future of the program under the new government: "At this stage, I don't have that kind of fear, no."On whether he will stay on as the head of CIU: "This is not within my purview but within the purview of the new government and, therefore, I would not want to speculate on this and there's not really much I can say about it at this point in time."On recent trends in the program's application volume and nationality distribution: "It has been, absolutely, our best year in regard to application growth. And, surprisingly, though the Middle East and China have always held the top two spots in terms of applicant nationalities, as of now, the US has actually taken over the number two spot."