Estella Betty Ann Bailey Leslie

Mrs. Estella Betty Ann Bailey Leslie was born on 25 November 1968 in Belize. She graduated from St John’s Primary School, Anglican Cathedral College and St John’s College Sixth Form. On 3 October 1988 she joined the Belize Customs and Excise Department (BCED) as a Customs Examiner Grade II. In 1992, she successfully passed the Ministry of Public Service Clerical Examination and the Customs & Excise Departmental Examination, which led to her promotion to Customs Examiner Grade I. During this period, Mrs. Leslie researched and wrote the History of the Belize Customs and Excise Department, which is still used extensively in the department for training, educational visits to schools, and at information fairs. She then pursued and attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University College of Belize in 1994. As a junior officer, Estella gained experience working in various areas of the department, such as the invoice inspection section, the valuation section, the shipping section, and the international airport. She later became the Supervisor of the Queen’s Bonded Warehouse.

In June 2001, Mrs. Estella Leslie was promoted to Senior Customs Examiner, where she was assigned duties such as Officer-in-Charge of the International Airport and the Examination Section. The in-dept knowledge and experience she gained in Customs laws and procedures, as well as her managerial and interpersonal skills, prepared her for upward mobility. Mrs. Leslie obtained a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with distinction from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill School of Business in 2007.

In January 2008, Mrs. Leslie was promoted to Assistant Comptroller of Customs & Excise, with responsibility for the training and development for the staff of the Customs & Excise Department. This marked the beginning of a significant era in her life. Estella played a major role in the reform and modernization of the Belize Customs and Excise Department, which began in 2009. She was a member of the Reform and Modernization project team as the National Functional Officer. In this role, she was responsible for implementing and managing the functional aspects of the ASYCUDA system. Mrs. Leslie served as the link between stakeholders and the project team, equipping her with vast knowledge of the entire ASYCUDA World System and supporting her advisory role to management on decision-making in the Reform & Modernization process.

Upon completion of the implementation of the ASYCUDA World System project in 2012, Mrs Leslie resumed her role as Assistant Comptroller and assumed responsible for managing the Information Technology Unit, the ASYCUDA World System, the Post Audit Section, the Excise Section, the Valuation Section, and the Warehousing Section.

She utilized her expertise in customs and her professional experiences to propel the department into the modern era. In 2016, she became the first female Deputy Comptroller of the Belize Customs & Excise Department. As Deputy Comptroller, Mrs. Estella Leslie oversaw the Corporate Directorate Affairs, which included the IT Unit, Training Unit, Risk Management Unit, Finance and Record Sections, and she also led the newly established Trade Unit. The Trade Unit collaborate with the Directorate General for Foreign Trade (DGFT) and assist in administering trade agreements for Belize. She represented the BCED on Belize’s Trade Technical Team (TTT) and is co-chair for Belize’s National Trade Facilitation Committee. She also represented the BCED at customs and trade conferences and meetings on a national, regional, and international level.

In December 2020, Mrs. Estella Bailey Leslie became the first female comptroller of the Customs and Excise Department in Belize. As Comptroller, Mrs. Leslie played a key role in creating a strategic plan for the BCED to guide its future direction. This plan outlined four main goals for the department to achieve its vision: revenue enhancement, trade facilitation, border security, and human resource management. Her focus for customs in the modern era is to implement strategies to ensure compliance with customs regulations while balancing trade facilitation and national security. This is accomplished through continued reform and modernization of the department using IT solutions, updating the legal and policy framework, and emphasizing on strengthening collaboration and coordination with national, regional, and international customs partners.

With a wealth of knowledge and experience acquired over her thirty-five years, Mrs Leslie is fully committed to further assisting the Belize Customs and Excise Department in achieving its vision “To be known nationally, regionally and internationally for excellence in Customs services.” Estella Bailey Leslie is married to Stanley Leslie, and they have one daughter, Miracle Melaka Leslie.

In her poem "The Dash," Linda Ellis speaks of the dash in a person’s life as representing all the time spent on earth. As a career Customs officer, I spent thirty-five years of my dash in public service at the BCED. While my journey was not always sunshine, I must describe the Belize Public Service as a place where dreams can be transformed to reality.

In my role as a career public officer, I have seized several opportunities, including:
* Engaging in daily learning both on the job and in the classroom, as public officers are granted study leave for professional development.
* Travelling worldwide, both regionally and internationally, for meetings, conferences, and workshops.
* Establishing friendships both within and outside the department.
* Working diligently and achieving what was initially considered a distant dream.

For me, that dream was becoming the first female Comptroller of Customs, an achievement that seemed almost impossible in 1988 when I entered the service in a male-dominated department, where the ratio of men to women was 10 to 1.

Inspired by Barack Obama's words, "We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it." I am driven to focus on improving the BCED and the Belize Public Service for the benefit of the officers, the people, and the country of Belize.