A PROFILE: LAWRENCE B. ESIN
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| Engr. Larry Esin |
Lawrence (Larry) Esin was born on April 19th, 1965. The son of the Late Justice O.A Esin and Dr. Elizabeth Henshaw, Larry Esin hails from Eyo Abasi village in Oron local government area of Akwa Ibom State. Esin began his primary education at the Preparatory School in Calabar in 1970. And completed his secondary education at the Federal Government College in Port Harcourt in 1982. He proceeded to Boston, Massachusetts to study Civil Engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 1986 with honors. He began his professional career as a project engineer with B&M Technological Services in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Esin’s interest in economic development in Africa would lead to other employment stints in Prudential Bache, McKenzie and CITI; all in Boston.
In 1992 Esin emerged one of two finalist in a global contest to fill a Crane Rogers Institute of World Affairs Southern Africa Fellowship. His Fellowship topic “The Competitive role of Private Business Enterprise in National Economic Development and Nation Building in Southern Africa” was selected as the best proposal in the competition. However, an appointment with Formosa Petroleum of Taiwan that same year to head the company’s operation as Country Officer in Nigeria forced Esin to abandon the Fellowship opportunity.
Between 1992 and 1996, Esin lived and worked in Nigeria as Formosa petroleum’s Country Officer. In 1997 Esin was accepted into a Master’s program in Economic Development at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts, administered by Harvard and Tufts University. Upon graduating, though a non-indigene of Cross River State, Esin was appointed by the newly elected government of Donald Duke as Head of the Cross River State Office of Economic Affairs in Washington DC in 1999.
While in Washington, Esin directed CRS’ foreign direct investment program and developed initiatives to encourage private enterprise development in strategic industries. He contributed as well to public policy initiatives towards efficiency in the Cross River State’s public sector, good governance and the development of a sustainable private/public partnership in development.
In 2003, upon Duke’s re-election, Esin was appointed Managing Director of the Cross River State Tourism Bureau. He would return to Nigeria to direct and supervise CRS’ tourism potential. Esin contributed immensely to the development, implementation and management of CRS’s tourism Master Plan under the Duke administration.
Esin directed the development of the CRS tourism policy framework and regulatory regime that currently contributes to the macro economic development of CRS. In January 2006, Esin was appointed Special Adviser on Infrastructure to Governor Duke and charged with the responsibility of bringing to birth, a mono rail link between the Margaret Ekpo International airport and Tinapa. Esin held his post as Special Adviser for six months when he resigned to seek elective office in his home State of Akwa Ibom on the platform of the PDP.
Larry Esin contested the Akwa Ibom State 2006/7 governorship race on the platform of the PDP and came 3rd after just 30 days in the race. He would later serve as National Chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), the third largest party in Nigeria after the 2007 general elections, in late 2009 through the end of 2010 when the PPA merged with the PDP. Larry Esin returned to the PDP in 2012.
Larry Esin is currently Chaiman of First Grand Enterprises Incorporated, a Taipei, Taiwan based holding company. First Grand currently has under its management, RailNet Corporation Nig. Ltd, Africa Cassava Nig. Ltd and Interactive Data Management (IDM) Corporation; a Hong Kong based ICT company.
Larry Esin is married with three children and currently lives in Abuja, Nigeria.
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