Cheryl-Ann Lister will hold the first chair of the new Corporate Income Tax Agency, a ministry-level public authority established to administer and enforce the laws enacted in 2023.

Ms Lister is a former Acting Financial Secretary was also previously the chair and chief executive of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, the island’s integrated financial services regulator. Before that, she spent more than 15 years in the financial services sector.

The Chartered Financial Analyst has a Master’s in Business Administration (Finance) degree from the University of Toronto. She was appointed as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2008 for her contributions to sound and effective regulation.

A founding member and former president of the Bermuda Society of Financial Analysts, she served as a governor for the Association of Investment Management and Research — now the CFA Institute — a global body that promotes ethics and excellence in the investment profession.

She also served as president of the International Society of Financial Analysts.

The board appointments were made by David Burt, the Minister of Finance.

Ms Lister is joined on the board by retired top insurance executives George Hutchings, Patrick Tannock and Jacques Bonneau, lawyer Shaun Morris, the tax consultant to the Ministry of Finance, Michael Regan, the previously reported chief executive of the Bermuda Corporate Income Tax Agency Mervyn Skeet, and Laura Barzilai.

The Corporate Income Tax Agency Act 2024 provides the framework for this agency, which will oversee the new tax set at 15 per cent for businesses that are part of multinational enterprise groups with annual revenues of €750 million or more (about $816 million).

The agency's responsibilities include ensuring compliance with the new tax regime and maintaining public confidence in Bermuda's tax system.

At a briefing on the 2025 Speech from the Throne, Mr Burt said that a sovereign fund would be be managed by an independent committee and the Government would examine the recommendations of a report from the Tax Reform Commission as it set up the fund.

The Premier said it was important the new incoming funds be managed prudently.

He said: “The Government will establish a sovereign wealth fund, an independent body that will invest excess proceeds from CIT to benefit future generations of Bermudians.

“This fund will allow for strategic investments in infrastructure and public services while supporting the reduction of Bermuda’s national debt over time, creating a stronger, more stable financial foundation for the country.”

He added: “As Bermuda is moving from a place of budget deficits to expected budget surpluses, we are now going to need to look at how we manage the Sinking Fund and the Government Loans Act.”

Mr Burt said that the sovereign wealth fund would “deal with how we manage these excess revenues in the future”.