For more than 35 years, Annette Severin-Lestrade has been driven by a simple belief: organizations succeed when people are developed, leaders serve with integrity, and governance provides the foundation for sustainable performance.

Throughout her executive career across the Caribbean, including the OECS, Barbados, and St. Maarten, she has led organizations through growth, transformation, regulatory change, and customer experience improvement. Most recently, as Managing Director of the National Bank of Dominica Ltd., she spearheaded a comprehensive transformation agenda that strengthened governance, modernized operations, enhanced customer experience, reinforced compliance, and positioned the Bank for record financial performance and regional recognition.

In 2019, Annette founded 767Compliance & Business Services after identifying two emerging challenges facing Caribbean organizations. The first was the increasing impact of de-risking on small island economies and the urgent need to strengthen AML/CFT/CPF awareness, governance, and regulatory readiness. The second was the growing realization that many organizations struggled to deliver consistently exceptional customer experiences.

While many viewed compliance and customer service as separate disciplines, Annette saw a powerful connection. She believed that every interaction with a customer carried both a service responsibility and a compliance responsibility. As she often says:

“Every customer conversation is both a service opportunity and a compliance responsibility.”

That philosophy shaped her approach to leadership and organizational development: sustainable success is achieved when governance, leadership, compliance, and customer experience work together rather than in isolation.

Today, that vision has evolved into ASL Advisory—a leadership, governance, and business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations build stronger leaders, more effective governance, customer-centric cultures, and resilient, future-ready institutions.
Beyond her professional achievements, Annette is passionate about developing people. She believes leadership is fundamentally an act of service and considers one of life’s greatest privileges to be helping others recognize their potential, believe in themselves, and grow into confident, capable leaders. Whether coaching an executive, facilitating a leadership programme, or advising a board, her purpose remains the same: to inspire growth, strengthen organizations, and leave people better than she found them.

Her philosophy is simple: