{"id":2827,"date":"2026-08-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/uncategorized\/kirk-benjamin-appointed-customs-commissioner\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:38:57","slug":"kirk-benjamin-appointed-customs-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/trust-news\/kirk-benjamin-appointed-customs-commissioner\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolmerian Kirk Benjamin appointed Customs Commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jamaica Gleaner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

August 31, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kirk
Kirk Benjamin, appointed Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of Customs. Jamaica Gleaner, 31 August 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kirk Benjamin has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of Customs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) announced today that Benjamin\u2019s appointment will become effective tomorrow, September 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin had been acting as Chief Executive Officer since April, in what the JCA said then followed a reference from the Office of the Services Commission and was \u201cpending the completion of the recruitment process\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin, who previously served as Senior Director for Central Operations, succeeds Velma Ricketts Walker, who demitted office in April after serving for a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JCA describes Benjamin as \u201ca distinguished Customs and Tax Administration expert, with over 25 years\u2019 experience in Customs modernisation, revenue enhancement, and international trade policy development\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He holds a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management, postgraduate diplomas in Public Sector Management and Tax Audit & Revenue Administration, and a Diploma in Business Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his previous role, he was \u201cresponsible for shaping the operational and regulatory framework that governs cross-border trade, ensuring efficiency, transparency, and strong revenue performance while supporting national economic growth\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JCA also credits Benjamin with the modernisation of the Customs environment in Jamaica and improvements in its business model. It also says he was instrumental in shaping tax policy and legislative reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: Jamaica Gleaner<\/a>, 31 August 2026. Republished for the Wolmer\u2019s Trust community with attribution.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirk Benjamin is a Wolmerian and an active old boy of Wolmer\u2019s Trust High School for Boys. A JIS caption of the 5 September 2014 groundbreaking for the Douglas Orane Auditorium names him as president of the Wolmer\u2019s Old Boys Association.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamaica Gleaner August 31, 2026 Kirk Benjamin has been appointed Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of Customs. The Jamaica Customs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trust-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2829,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2827\/revisions\/2829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wolmers.org\/trust\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}