The appointment means that Meade, who has nearly four decades of leadership experience, has full powers to sign treaties or otherwise act on behalf of the country.
He is also expected to advise Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Cabinet on, as well as coordinate, national strategic initiatives and projects across ministries, departments and agencies within the Government, a statement issued by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) on Tuesday said.
His appointment took effect on Monday.
Holness has shown an appetite for selecting serving or former military officers to certain positions, including Antony Anderson as national security adviser in 2016.
Anderson was later appointed commissioner of police on March 9, 2018.
The national security adviser post has remained vacant since.
Meade holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam, a Master of Military Arts and Science from the US Army Command and General Staff College, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from The University of the West Indies.
The OPM statement said that Meade has led “various significant initiatives with impact at the organisational, national, and international levels”.
Those include the Jamaica National Service Corps, the expansion and regionalisation of the Jamaica Defence Force, the expansion and improvement of Caribbean regional disaster response capabilities, and the Caribbean Military Academy, which has students from more than 30 countries.
His appointment comes five months after he declined the post of Cabinet secretary following concerns raised about the constitutionality of that appointment.
The Cabinet secretary is the head of the civil service and its most senior policy adviser.
There were questions and concerns in relation to Section 92 (1) of the Constitution, which stipulates that the person appointed Cabinet secretary must come from the public service.
The secretary to the Cabinet is appointed by the governor general, acting on the recommendation of the prime minister, and must be selected from a list of public officers submitted by the Public Service Commission (PSC).
Meade had retired from the military, which is not considered a part of the public service, last January.
“Although I was invited by the Public Service Commission to be considered for the post while I was still a serving officer, the current public discourse does not provide a sufficiently settled environment for the assumption of such a significant office and I will, therefore, seek His Excellency’s understanding of my decision to decline,” he said then.
The Government has not commented on that constitutional controversy and neither has the PSC.
There has since been no announcement of a new Cabinet secretary.
