Personal bio
Grenville Phillips II is a chartered structural engineer and the president of Walbrent College. He has worked on a wide range of engineering projects in the Caribbean over the past 30 years, and has trained engineers, architects, contractors, artisans and inspectors in current multi-hazard design and construction methods. Mr Phillips holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics, a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Civil Engineering, a Master of Applied Science degree in Environmental Engineering, and a Master of Urban and Rural Planning degree in land use planning. He is currently completing doctoral research on reducing the vulnerability of masonry buildings to earthquakes and hurricanes. Mr Phillips is, among other things, a past President of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers, a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation. Almost immediately following Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Mr Phillips developed training materials and taught workshops in every parish in Grenada to train Grenadian artisans to rebuild to higher standards. Almost immediately following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Mr Phillips was deployed to Haiti where he trained Haitian building supervisors to evaluate the safe structural condition of buildings, and to design effective and economical building repair and strengthening measures. Almost immediately following the impacts of Category 5 hurricanes Irma in Anguilla and Maria in Dominica in 2017, and Category 5 hurricane Dorian in Bahamas in 2019, Mr Phillips did damage assessments of their infrastructure. Mr Phillips is the principal author of the “Regional Code of Practise for the Construction of Houses”. He has formally trained over 500 artisans around the Caribbean in better construction. Mr Phillips was awarded the Barbados Coalition of Service Providers’ Visionary Award in 2009, and is the 2014 winner of the National Innovation Competition