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Thomas used to finding solutions

business environment will be useful tools in furthering the aims of Chamber of Commerce, said that organisation's new executive vice president, Ms Cyanne Thomas.

"I believe I will now be dealing with the same kinds of situations that I have been a part of in the past, only on a much larger scale with the Chamber,'' said Ms Thomas, 28. "I spent much time in my impressionable years being involved in the family business.'' Her parents, Mr. Stanley Thomas and Mrs. Cynthia Thomas, met in Ottawa while attending teacher's college. Mr. Thomas taught for a few years in Canada but then they chose to return to Bermuda and start Bermuda Crafts.

Ms Thomas said her father was one of the first black businessmen to operate on Front Street.

Bermuda Crafts closed 12 years ago when the family opened Stanley Thomas Real Estate Ltd.

As well as exposure to the entrepreneurial spirit, Ms Thomas has a wide range of cultural experiences which resulted from her travels.

After attending a Young Life Group camp in upstate New York at Saranack Lake when she was 16, Ms Thomas later returned to that camp as a counsellor. But prior to serving as a camp counsellor, Ms Thomas was a Rotary exchange participant who spent one year in the Philippines living with three different host families.

"Spending a year in the Philippines was a culturally awaking experience,'' she said.

She arrived in Manila less than one year after the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, husband of Corazon Aquino.

"The Philippines was a complete cultural immersion,'' she said. "And I enjoyed representing Bermuda and was proud to share aspects of the Island with the Philippine host families. "I have an intense interest in different lifestyles and cultures, and in being able to appreciate and accept those differences.'' After her camp counselling, she followed in her paternal twin sister Esther's footsteps and attended Mount Allison University in New Brunswick where she obtained a Bachelors degree in German and French literature. During her summers off, she worked and studied in Germany.

Upon returning to Bermuda, she worked at the family real estate business, at the law firm of Moniz and George then at the Bank of Bermuda where she worked in the corporate trust division for three years.

But the urge to travel returned and Ms Thomas embarked on a two-year association with Up With People.

Ms Thomas had seen an Up With People performance when she was ten then again in 1990 and served as host to a participant in 1992 in Bermuda.

When she was 25, Ms Thomas applied to be an Up With People cast member and was accepted. She deferred her travel date for one year then joined the 1993/94 cast which performed across Europe.

"This experience gave be even more objectivity,'' she said.

Ms Thomas then became an advance team member for a 1994/95 Europe cast.

Advance team members' responsibilities range from publicity to arranging for host families and from presentations to schools and businesses to recruitment.

From a logistics point of view, "you had to find solutions, lack of a solution was not an option''.

Ms Cyanne Thomas