Former CL Financial executive chairman Lawrence Duprey dies

BUSINESSMAN and former executive chairman of CL Financial Group Lawrence Duprey has died.

Although an official announcement is yet to be made, sources told Newsday he “died peacefully” on August 24.

Duprey inherited Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) from his uncle Cyril Duprey and expanded it into a conglomerate CL Financial, which included Colonial Life Insurance Co (Clico).

In 2009, the government “bailed out” the company after a liquidity crisis costing taxpayers over $20 billion.

Former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira, who was instrumental in the CL Financial bail-out, described Duprey as a “great man who unfortunately lost his way.

“I think we have lost a great entrepreneur, a great visionary and obviously more than a great businessman – it goes beyond that for the Caribbean. Being a man of colour, coming…not very far from our colonial past…I’m sure it’s a great pride for people of colour to see someone with who they can relate and who is from the region…achieve what he did achieve.”

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