Gladstone “Fluney” Hutchinson

Hutchinson joined the faculty at Lafayette in 1992. Between 2001-06 he served as the College’s dean of studies. In 2007 he founded the College’s Economic Empowerment and Global Learning Project, which has been featured as a thought leader by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Hutchinson is a specialist in the economics of developing and emerging-market countries. He took a leave of absence from the College between July 2010 and January 2013 to serve as director-general and executive chairman of the Planning Institute of Jamaica. Reporting to the prime minister, he oversaw the country’s first long-term development plan, Vision 2030. He served as chief adviser to the Cabinet and Parliament on economic, social, and environmental management issues, was a member of the team that negotiated a new economic program with the International Monetary Fund, and was Jamaica’s interlocutor with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the European Union. He had served as economic adviser to Jamaica during the 1990s.

Hutchinson’s 2012 book (co-edited with Professor Donald Harris of Stanford U.), A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term, serves as the platform for Jamaica’s economic program, and his scholarship on privatization is recognized among the leading works in the field of privatization and public policy. The IDB has published his essay on how public scholarship strengthens civil society and enhances economic development.

In 2013, Hutchinson was recognized as one of Jamaica’s nation builders and awarded the Prime Minister of Jamaica Medal of Appreciation for service to the country’s economic and national development.