For most Trinidadians, a barrier is simply a passing thought. During Carnival, it is not unusual to see doctors, lawyers, and professionals of all walks of life celebrating in the streets of Trinidad and Tobago. This inspires a pertinent question. If, say, an engineer can partake in culture and revelry — why can’t an engineer organise it?

A mechanical engineer with experience working for the petrochemical industry’s biggest names, Hasani Wattley was also always a big fan of Carnival. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, he was awed as a boy by its magnificence — with his participation somewhat mandatory, due to his father’s job as a calypso judge. His father, taking a keen interest in his son’s growth, also ensured that he worked in the family’s shoe store in Port-of-Spain. Here, in the very heart of the Carnival capital of the world, he learned not only his father’s business, but also his father’s passions — understanding that a man need not relinquish his interest in many things. 

In fact, it is proven that people who excel in more than one field foster unique abilities to innovate, to adapt, and to lead. In applying the strengths of one industry to another — of the project management skills learned in engineering to entertainment, for instance — Wattley discovered that he could become  an unstoppable force across all of them.

In 2006, Wattley partnered with Jules Sobion to form the now beloved events brand, Caesar’s Army. While Caesar’s Army is responsible for some of the festival’s most memorable parties across the globe, it has also become a brand that has proven the industry’s economic viability many times over — cementing Trinidad and Tobago’s status as the blueprint for contemporary Carnival. 

Wattley is also a shareholder and Senior Manager for ROGUE Carnival, a member of the legendary, award-winning TRIBE family of bands. It is easy to identify Wattley’s imprint on ROGUE, a band  credited for its sense of rebellion and innovation. Featuring an LED street parade — the first of its kind to take place during Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago — ROGUE proudly flouts rigid convention, and gathers a dedicated following in the process.

Throughout the years, Wattley has cemented his role as one of Caribbean entertainment’s most masterful organisers, strategists, and business minds. In 2020, both the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival Bands Association and the Carnival Institute of Trinidad and Tobago recruited him to play a key role in the making of history. Wearing his strategic planning hat, Wattley carried these organisations to victory in the form of helping them to win an important pitch. Soon afterwards, Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival Museum was established in its birthplace, Port-of-Spain. Wattley remains an integral consultant and manager on the project. 

In keeping with Wattley’s goals of shaping and modernising all elements of Carnival, including its production, he is also the cofounder of Spöol, a facility aimed at transforming at-risk women into a formidable labour force in the sphere of garment manufacturing. Through this project, Wattley and his partner, Anya Ayoung Chee, will prove Trinidad and Tobago’s capacity for producing its own Carnival costumes — just as it did in the past, before outsourcing to other countries. This noble and economically viable mission is currently supported by the Inter-American Development Bank.

In 2018, Wattley formally incorporated his company, North Star Consulting Services, aimed at executing engineering, entertainment, and educational projects in both public and private sectors. These projects all represent a full-circle moment for Wattley, who as a boy asked questions about ways to serve his country and beyond  — and who, as a man, has capably answered them.