Scholar-Diplomat | Global Health Advocate | Caribbean Development Leader
Chancellor Professor John Edward “Eddie” Greene is a distinguished Guyanese scholar-diplomat whose decades of service have helped shape Caribbean policy across public health, human and social development, education, climate resilience, regional integration, and sustainable development.
Professor Greene served as Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Social Development at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), where his leadership encompassed some of the region’s most consequential social and development challenges. He also chaired CARICOM’s Steering Committee for Climate Change and Sustainable Development and played an instrumental role in advancing the Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP).
His regional leadership subsequently reached the global stage when he served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV in the Caribbean, advocating for stronger health systems, human rights, greater equity, and collaborative approaches to ending the AIDS epidemic.
A longtime academic, Professor Greene worked across all three campuses of The University of the West Indies in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica, and holds the title of Professor Emeritus. He later became Chancellor of the University of Guyana, continuing a lifelong commitment to education, leadership development, and creating opportunities for future generations.
His work has consistently emphasized a principle central to BTC’s 2026 HEAL & RISE convening: lasting change requires more than identifying a problem. It requires collaboration, informed leadership, community, and solutions that recognize the dignity and potential of every human being.
Beyond academia and public policy, Professor Greene is deeply rooted in Caribbean culture. A pianist and longtime panman who played with Trinidad and Tobago’s legendary Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, he credits the steelpan experience with teaching him invaluable lessons about collaboration, leadership, and bringing people from different backgrounds together.
His continuing work includes diplomacy, mediation, negotiation, consensus-building, sustainable development, and advocacy for a stronger and more connected Caribbean.
At BTC 2026 HEAL & RISE: Youth & Women’s Mental Health, Professor Greene brings an extraordinary intersection of global experience and Caribbean understanding to a conversation centered on healing, resilience, young people, women, community, and the solutions needed to create healthier generations.
Beyond the titles is “Eddie” Greene: panman, educator, diplomat, mentor, Caribbean son, and lifelong believer in the power of people working together to create meaningful change.