Lieutenant Commander Steve R BATCHELOR, enlisted in the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in 1998 and completed his initial officer training with the Royal Navy at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England, in 1999.

Over the years 1998-2013, he had a full-time military career in the JDF where he focused on local and multinational maritime operations. He later qualified as a Commanding Officer (CO) of Her Majesty’s Jamaica Ships (2008) and held this appointment as his primary duty until 2013.
In 2013, he transitioned from full-time military service to volunteer part-time reserve service when he was commissioned in the Jamaica National Reserve (JNR). He took command of the maritime arm of the JNR until 2021 when he was posted to the JNR brigade headquarters as the SO2 G1 (Administration). He currently performs duties as Acting Commanding Officer of the JNR’s joint-force Unit – the Support Battalion (National Reserve).

As a civilian, he served as the Policy Director, Organised Crime and Defence in Jamaica’s Ministry of National Security 2017-2019. As Policy Director, he led a team that focused on government policy development which touched and concerned the areas of national and transnational organised crime.

He is currently an Attorney-at-Law, Arbitrator and Certified Mediator in his civilian life.

In 2005, he graduated from the Caribbean Junior Command and Staff College having completed both phases of his junior staff course. In 2019, he completed the Army Operations Course at the Canadian Army Command and Staff College in Canada. He is also a graduate of the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Shrivenham, England, having successfully completed his senior staff course, the Advanced Command and Staff Course (Reserves), in 2023.

He is a recipient of the United States Southern Command’s Joint Service Commendation Medal which was awarded for his work as the Host Nation Maritime Planner for the multi-national military training exercise TRADEWINDS 2010. He is also the recipient of the Britannia medal from the Britannia Royal Naval College (2020) and the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Caribbean Realm) (2022).

Lieutenant Commander BATCHELOR is the holder of a LLB from the University of the West Indies, Mona. He was awarded the Certificate of Legal Education from the Council of Legal Education which qualified him to be admitted to practise law. He conducted further postgraduate studies with the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, and was awarded an MBA. He is an International Arbitrator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, United Kingdom and he is a Certified Mediator with Jamaica’s Dispute Resolution Foundation.

He is a member of the Maritime Law subcommittee of the Jamaican Bar Association. He is married and has one child.