Fayval Shirley Williams (born 28 May 1958) is a Jamaican politician who is the Minister of Finance and the Public Service and the Member of Parliament for the St Andrew Eastern constituency.

[5][6] In the September 3, 2020 General Elections Williams was re-elected to the House of Representatives as the member of parliament for St Andrew Eastern.

Shortly after leaving high school, Fayval Williams landed a job at the Bank of Nova Scotia in Kingston where she worked as a teller for three (3) years before she left to pursue higher studies in the United States of America.

[12][13][14] Williams succeeded Dr Saphire Longmore as caretaker, who lost to the People's National Party's (PNP) Andre Hylton by 254 votes in the 2011 General Election.

Preliminary numbers published by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) showed that Williams polling 6,972 votes to her opponent Venesha Phillips total of 4,730.

[19] On 7 March 2016, Fayval Williams was appointed as State Minister in the Ministry of Finance to work alongside Audley Shaw and Rudyard Spencer.

[25] Williams has argued that improving efficiencies through the modernisation and transformation of the public sector is critical in achieving higher levels of economic growth.

[27] On 12 April 2022, Williams reported to parliament that the government had spent $1.8 billion to militate against learning loss across the education sector resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister emphasized that the program is a crucial addition to the curriculum that would help children become more aware of their identity as Jamaicans and progress toward becoming law-abiding, productive citizens in the future.

[31] On 11 January 2023, Williams tabled a report in the House of Representatives, published by the Office of the Advocate (OCA), of the findings of an investigation into the relationship between the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and Carl Robanske, head of the US-based organisation Embracing Orphans.

Williams told Parliament that the police have been given the information necessary for a deeper probe to determine if charges can be brought against persons named in the OCA report.

[36][37] Williams shocked the world when she revealed on October 2, 2023, that over 60 students who attended a school in Saint Ann were hospitalised after they had eaten candy laced with cannabis.

Williams had shared an image on social media platform X showing a colorful packet of "full throttle rainbow sour belts," each containing 100 milligrams of THC.

Following allegations of physical abuse involving eight American teenagers, Fayval Williams revealed that Atlantis Leadership Academy in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, was not officially registered.

[41] The academy, which presents itself as a faith-based institution, targets teens dealing with substance abuse, anxiety disorders, and deviant behaviour.

[42] The CPFSA discovered the abuse during an unannounced welfare check on 8 February 2024, conducted with U.S. Embassy representatives, leading to the immediate evacuation of the teens from the academy.

[43] Williams had announced an investigation into a private institution that serves children, similarly to the Atlantis Leadership Academy in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.

[51] Subsequent to that announcement by the minister, Prime Minister Andrew Holness on 12 February 2019, tabled legislation (The Compulsory Acquisition (Shares in Petrojam) Act 2019) in the House of Representatives to set in motion to compulsory acquisition of the 49 per cent shares held by PDV Caribe, a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

[58] Fayval Williams served as executive director of Kingston Properties, a Real Estate Investment Trust company from 2008 until 2015 when she resigned to take up duties in the Jamaica Labour Party as its caretaker for the constituency of St Andrew Eastern.

In 2016, Fayval Williams got a 32 Million payout from Kingston Properties as settlement for a long-term incentive plan (LTIP), which entitled the executive director to an allocation of shares based on the achievement of certain profit performance targets.

[65] Her other duties at the money market brokers company include interfacing with the Financial Services Commission and the Jamaica Security Dealers Association (JSDA) on issues such as the impact of international accounting standards (particularly IAS39), development of a local Jamaican fixed income yield curve, determining capital adequacy and margin requirement for the local Repo Market.

[66][67] Fayval Williams on her return to Jamaica has consulted with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in the area of risk management, research and policy.

[68] Her working papers included: Regulatory framework for private equity funds in developed capital markets; FSC's Competition Policy Statement; Criteria for Recognizing a Caribbean regional Credit Rating Agency; and The Concept of Accredited Investors in the Jamaican Financial Market.

She also worked on the development of early warning ratios for the brokerage industry; performed analytical work on Jamaica's bond price volatility and liquidity management strategies; developed FSC's input into the Memorandum of Understanding of the International Organization of Securities Commission ("IOSCO"); researched comparative information on Educational Savings Plans; led efforts to complete the IOSCO-Self Assessment exercise for the FSC.

Fayval Williams was a vice president and worked in the area of equity analysis at Putnam Investments, a top-10-global mutual fund manager located in Boston, Massachusetts.

[69] Her investment recommendations span various companies in a variety of industries such as advertising, restaurant, global airlines, telecom, direct broadcasting satellite, environmental services, defense, power systems and technology.

At Wellington Management Company in Boston, Massachusetts, Fayval Williams performed analysis and issued various recommendations for an expansive range of fixed income securities covering a broad spectrum of commercial enterprises including Transportation, Paper & Forest Products, Cable, Chemicals, Aerospace & Defense, Autos, and Railroad.

At Northwestern Mutual Life, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Williams's responsibilities included daily trading of a wide array of various fixed income securities.