The nephew of the founding Secretary General of the Barbados Olympic Association Michael Simmons, Erskine Simmons was introduced to the Olympic movement by his uncle in the 1980s. He was first elected as a Director of the BOA in 1986 and later elected Assistant Secretary General in 1992. In 1996 he was elected Secretary General, a position he still holds.
Mr. Simmons has vast experience in the Olympic movement and team management. His first major assignment as Chef de Mission of a Barbados team was in 1990 to the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mexico City. This was followed with Chef de Mission assignments to the 1995 Pan Am Games in Argentina and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
In addition he has served as General Team Manager to the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, USA, the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. In 1994 he was the first Barbadian to participate in the International Olympic Academy’s Young Participants Session in Olympia.
During his tenure in sports administration, Mr. Simmons has served as Assistant Secretary of the Barbados Football Association and was the founding president of the Barbados Amateur Gymnastics Association. He was a member of the Pan American Sports Organization’s Technical Committee from 1988 until 2004 and was a board member of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees from 1998 until 2007.
Mr. Simmons also serves as the BOA’s representative as Board Member of the NADO and Arts & Sports Promotion Fund.
He has been twice nominated for National Sports Council awards and was the recipient of the Sports Administrator of the Year award in 1996. In 2000 he was awarded the International Olympic Committee’s “Sport and Universality” trophy. Mr. Simmons was recently appointed to two government statutory agencies namely the National Sports Council and the Sanitation Service Authority where he serves in the capacity of Deputy Chairman.
Mr. Simmons is a Financial Advisor with the Barbados division of Sagicor Life Inc.