by JULIE WILSON

THERE HAS BEEN a management buyout at TMR, the island's leading air-conditioning and electrical sales and service company.

As a result, chairman Dick Stoute has tendered his resignation and the company is now being managed by Peter Thompson, the service manager, and Jimmy Clarke, its former contracts manager. They have each been with TMR for eight years.

Thompson and Clarke, both engineers, are equal partners in the business and own 90 per cent of the company's shares; the remainder are owned by 41 of TMR's 131 staff members.

Stoute, the company's head for more than 20 years, confirmed to the BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that his role at the Fontabelle, StMichael company came to an end last month.

Although his working career at TMR has come to an end, he has been retained as one of the company's directors. Stoute said both Clarke and Thompson had been effectively running the company for the last two years and he was confident they would continue to run it as well as they had in the past.

Stoute said he would continue to serve as Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry president until April when a new head would be elected.

Clarke has a first degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from the University of Surrey through BIMAP.

Prior to working with TMR, he was an electrical engineer with the Barbados Agricultural Management Company.

Thompson has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of the West Indies' St Augustine Campus and previously worked for West Indies Rum Distilleries.