Kellie McGee, from Savannah-Newlands, is the new recipient of the Cayman 27 2015 Young Caymanian Leadership Award (YCLA).

She won the title las Saturday (17) night that was held at The Ritz-Carlton. She beat four other finalists – Stephen Watler, Robbie Cribb Jr., Rebekah Jefferson and Taylor Burrowes-Nixon,

The winner is employed by Ironshore Pharmaceuticals and Development Inc. She also serves serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization in Geneva and is the current international service director for 52 Rotaract clubs around the Caribbean.

McGee is to be married on Jan 2nd 2016.

The first word she said when she was announced the winner was “Wow!”

Keynote speaker was  British-born adventurer, author and motivational speaker Debra Searle. Searle is famous  rowing across the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to Barbados in a 23-foot boat made of plywood.

Chris Duggan was the Master of Ceremonies (a previous YCLA runner-up) and last year’s winner, Kadi Merren-Pentney, presented the award to McGee.

This was the 15th year of the award with one year missing. That was 2005 because of Hurricane Ivan.

This year saw a record of 39 persons being nominated.