INBusiness Summer 2014 Edition

InBusiness SUMMER 2014

EXCLUSIVE

BUTCH

STEWART

TALKS ABOUT THE PAST - AND THE FUTURE

THE PASSION of

RICHARD

haynes

HIS name is synonymous with THE Crop Over FESTIVAL, But Richard HAS ALSO BUILT A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN artist maNAGEMENT AND marketing CONSULTANCY.

Young Leading

Professionals

WOMEN in Business

InBusiness Fourth Edition • Summer 2014 • Barbados

2

in front

Chefette opens new restaurant at Welches Y103.3 launches at Bubba’s Sports Bar Total Office launches Steelcase’s Gesture chair Betty Brathwaite welcomes ACCA volunteer body; Patrick Toppin retires.

6

cover story

The Passion of Richard Haynes

HIs name is synonymous with the Crop Over Festival, but our cover subject has also built a successful career in artist management and marketing.

Publisher & Editor: Patrick R. Hoyos Writers: Amanda Cummins, Pat Hoyos, Ryan Straughn Magazine Consultant: Tony Cumberbatch Published by: Hoyos Publishing Inc. Lot 1A, Boarded Hall, St. George M 230-5687 bsjbarbados @gmail.com Copyright 2014 Hoyos Publishing Inc. All rights Reserved

10

first person

Butch: “I feel more potent than ever”

Chairman of the Sandals Group, Gordon “Butch” Stewart talks about his early days in business, building a team, and his continuing role as chairman almost eight years after passing the mantle of CEO to his son, Adam.

26

outlook

An economy in serious trouble

“Our ability as private enterprise to attract new investment has been deliberately compromised by both fiscal and monetary policy, and these latest figures are the proof of the pudding,” writes Ryan Straughn.

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 1

13 Leading WOMEN in Business

We present our first collection of brief profiles of women in executive positions who are passionate about their work, and who are an inspiration to us. All articles by Amanda Cummins.

14 BETTY BRATHWAITE, Managing Partner, Deloitte & Touche, Barbados 14 CAROL NICHOLLS, Managing Partner, KPMG Barbados 15 VIVIAN-ANNE GITTENS, CEO, Nation Corp., & Publisher, and CEO, Nation Publishing Co. Ltd. 15 PATRICIA AFFONSO-DASS, Group General Manager, Ocean Hotels 16 LISA GALE, Executive Director, Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry 16 SHELLY ANN HEE CHUNG, VP for Sales & Marketing, Columbus Eastern Caribbean Operations 17 SHARON CHRISTIE, CEO, Kensington Court Group 17 GAYNELLE MARSHALL, Programme Manager, Y103.3 FM 18 SUZANNE DAVIS, Managing Director, Realtors Real Estate Ltd.

Young 19 Professionals We present our third batch of innovative, dedicated and highly motivated Young Professionals. All articles by Amanda Cummins.

19 SUNSET SEALY: Creating ads that make people want to tear them out of magazines 20 ANDRE HAREWOOD: Enjoying the challenge of engaging, and sometimes inspiring, his audience as a radio personality.

21 TAMICA LAWRENCE: Finding her true calling as a doctor in obstetrics and gynecology 22 BEN NORRIS: Finding a growing love for the law in its real-world application.

InBusiness IN FRONT

Chefette opens new restaurant at Welches In mid-May, Chefette Restaurants Ltd. held the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 15th store.

Located at Welches, St. Thomas next to Cost-U-Less and The Walk shopping centre, the 6,000 sq. ft. restaurant was designed by Architect Pierre Tatum and features a highceiling retro look in modern pastel colors. It also boasts Chefette’s first-ever three-story kids’ playground.

Managing Director Ryan Haloute said the company had decided to go ahead with the building of the new state-of-the-art restaurant despite the on-going recession because it wanted to show its confidence that the economy would rebound.

“We’re very pleased to open Chefette Welches, our 15th location in Barbados, especially at a time like this when our country really needs this injection of capital investment. We view it as our confidence in the country, not only that it will turn around, but also in job security, as it has helped raise our total staff compliment to over 800 people. We hired 60 people just for this branch because we also had to expand our manufacturing arm to accommodate the branch as well, in terms of our fleets, and cooking the product at Chef Foods, which is our manufacturing arm.”

Mr. Haloute said that no cost had been spared to make it the best designed and outfitted of all the Chefette restaurants to date.

We try not to cut corners or spare costs - you see the ceiling is three or four feet higher than a normal Chefette, the seating area is very large - and most people in the world don’t build a restaurant this large as part of a mall complex.

You’ll see a satellite unit, but our brand is hard to fit in those smaller units because people ex-

The new outlet gets three thumbs up from Chairman Assad Haloute (centre), Managing Director Ryan Haloute and Deputy Managing Director Janine Haloute-Went.

pect playgrounds, they expect drive-thrus, and a lot of seating. They don’t want to walk into a Chefette and not get seating. So our model has always been to build big.”

Chefette’s managing director also disclosed what the company planned to do next.

“Next year we are going renovate our Warrens location to give it a whole new facelift in

terms of a brand new decor for the restaurant, for the Barbecue Barn, we’re going to re-do the entire car park, and we’re going to give a whole facelift to the outside of the building too, in terms of lighting and the whole facade on the outside of the building, so Warrens is our next big project in terms of major renovation, which we will do in 2015.” •

Members of staff ready to serve customers. (Photos courtesy Chefette Restaurants Ltd.) InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 2

InBusiness IN FRONT

Y103.3 launches at Bubba’s Sports Bar

B

arbados’ newest radio station, Y103.3 FM, has been on the air since late March, and in late April it was officially launched at a cocktail party held at Bubba’s Sports Bar on the south coastTop executives from ad agencies, other media houses, and other business and entertainment leaders, as well as lots of friends, came to celebrate the arrival of a sister station to the country’s top radio station in the 20-35 age demographic, SLAM 101.1. Both radio stations are members of the Power Broadcasting Company.

Richard Haynes, who is the sales director for Power Broadcasting, says the station has been well received by advertisers and sponsors.

“Y103 is adult contemporary radio but it’s based very much on a North American template, and it’s just bringing excellent music every day to a targeted demographic. We’re going for that 30-55 year-old person who appreciates great music and I think it’s going to have a massive impact on the market.

It filled a void that had been ignored for quite a while and that we are more than happy to satisfy.” • Above: Power Broadcasting Company owners Habib and Marian Elias with their daughter Danielle at the event.

Left: Y103.3’s Programme Manager Gaynelle Marshall (top right) with her fellow on-air presenters Jude Eastmond , Caroline “CiCi” Reid (centre), and Carlie Pipe (right).

At left is Yolan Pantin, contest winner of an exclusive invitation to the launch and the title of V.I.Y.P. (Very Important Y Person).

(Photos courtesy Power Broadcasting)

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 3

InBusiness IN FRONT

Steelcase’s Kimberly Berlingeri (left) and Matt Williams (second from right), with (from second left) Total Office’s Shona Shepherd, Amy Collier, Natasha Gibbs-Burke and Ryan Proudfoot. (Photo courtesy Total Office)

Total Office launches Steelcase’s Gesture chair

T

otal Office Ltd., which specializes in office furnishings, just celebrated its fourth birthday and CEO Ryan Proudfoot says the company is doing quite well despite the recession.After investing in the company in 2007, Ryan soon took the reins of the company and opened a branch in Barbados in 2010 which is run by General Manager Amy Collier.

The company’s major supplier is Steelcase Inc., the largest office furniture maker in the world, but Total Office also offers full outfitting packages that include Lees carpets, Datum filing systems and Mechoshade shades.

“In the Steelcase world, our best products are there Answer workstation system, which is No.1 in the world. Steelcase also has the Alive seating technology, where the chair customises itself to the user, and those products include the Leap, Think and Amia chairs, and they come with a lifetime warranty.

Recently, Total Office introduced to the Barbados market Steelcase’s new chair, called Gesture.

According to Ryan, when the company introduced the Alive series in 1999, it was designed to fit the work environment it was then, but that was before the advent of the smartphone and the tablet computer.

“What has happened in the last five to ten years is that new technology has entered into the workplace - iPhones, iPads, Galaxy tabs, etc. have gone into the workplace - and what Steelcase has found by doing extensive hours of observation and research is that people are working differently.”

After undertaking a global posture study on six continents, in which they observed 2,000 people in a wide range of postures, Steelcase said it found nine new postures that its new chair would need to support.

Says Ryan: “What they realized is that if you see how people sit with their iPads and Galaxy tabs, Blackberries and so on, we could have another epidemic of a carpel tunnel-like ailment unless we get onboard and design products that will minimize that, that will support people in this new way of working.”

Gesture is an evolution of the Steelcase’s Alive Seating technology, which is used not only by the company itself in its products but licensed to other

companies to use, for example, airplanes and racing cars.The company has patented close to 50 new technologies developed for the chair. •

Systems Furniture

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Laminate and Wood Private Offices

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Conference & Training Furniture

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Moveable / Demountable Walls

Sound Masking Systems

Seating and Wall Fabrics

Interactive Whiteboards

Raised Access Floors

Office Technology Products

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Floor Tiles - Laminate, Rubber, Vinyl

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Unit 2, Warehouse 28 | Warrens Commercial Centre | St. Michael | Barbados, W. I. T 246 621 1000 | F 246 421 6699 | barbados@totalofficeltd.com | www.totalofficeltd.com

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 4

InBusiness IN FRONT

Betty Brathwaite welcomes ACCA volunteer body

M

anaging Partner of Deloitte Barbados, Betty Brathwaite, says the newlyformed ACCA Voluntary Members Network will create programme of events that will focus on the challenges ACCA members face as professionals.

The new organization will also offer members and guests the opportunity to network and update their knowledge while raising the profile of ACCA and its members within Barbados.

Ms. Brathwaite, who is the ACCA International Assembly Representative in Barbados, was addressing the inaugural event of the Volunteer Members Network recently.

“Together we will organise a diverse annual programme of events, offering members and guests the opportunity to network, develop skills and update knowledge whilst further raising the profile of ACCA and its members within Barbados,” she told the first gathering of the new organisation. “This is a team effort – but I publicly note that leaders are wanted and welcome!”

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, a leading international accountancy body, has the largest and fastest-growing membership, with over 500,000 members and students in 170 countries. •

Managng partner, of Deloitte Barbados, Betty Brathwaite (Photo courtesy Deloitte)

Deloitte’s Patrick Toppin retires

O

ne of Barbados’ most outstanding accountants, Patrick Toppin, has, at age 69, retired as partner with Deloitte Barbados. He will, however, continue to lead the judicial management team dealing with CLICO International Life Insurance Ltd. (CIL). He also remains as a coreceiver on another matter in Trinidad & Tobago.

Until 31 May, Mr. Toppin was the Partner with responsibility for Financial Advisory and Consulting at Deloitte Barbados, having stepped down a year

Pat Toppin, retiring partner of Deloitte Barbados.(Photo courtesy Deloitte) ago as managing partner of the firm, the successor to the local firm of Toppin Walker & Co. Deloitte is a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries, with

around 200,000 professionals.

Mr. Toppin, whose professional career has spanned half a century, was a founding member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) which he served as president from 1981 to 1983, and again from 1990 to 1993.

He also served as ICAB’s director on the board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean and was a member of the inaugural committee of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) which was instrumental in the establishment of the International Assembly, in which he served for many years as the Barbados representative.

During his career he also served as a member of various Government committees appointed to advise on company law, international financial services and co-operatives. He was also a director of the Central Bank of Barbados and the Chair of its Audit Committee. •

With compliments

If you would like to receive a copy of our print edition or a link to our digital edition, simply send an email requesting a complimentary subscription to The Publisher, INBusiness Magazine at bsjbarbados@gmail.com

InBusiness

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 5

InBusiness cover story

THE PASSION OF

RICHARD

haynes HIS name is synonymous with THE Crop Over FESTIVAL, But Richard HAS ALSO BUILT A SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN artist maNAGEMENT AND marketing.

“Where I am now has kind of happened totally by mistake, but I think it’s happened to several entrepreneurs.” - Richard Haynes, early 2014.

F

or most people, Richard Haynes’ name is probably synonymous with that of Baje International, one of Barbados’ most popular Crop Over bands. But Richard has built his career to embrace not only his passion for entertainment but also his love for the marketing business.

He is one of the owners of Baje International, along with fellow directors and business partners Corey Knight, Val Bridgeman and Jason Cozier, and heads his two South Central companies, combining advertising and marketing services for clients with artist Right: Entrepreneur Richard Haynes (Photo courtesy South Central Management.)

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 6

Beautiful models showing off some of the costumes for Baje International 2014 band “Mega Monday.” (Photo courtesy of Baje.) management.

The first, South Central Entertainment (which also trades as South Central Marketing), specialises in marketing and branding, executing marketing and advertising campaigns for a diverse group of corporate clients. The company is also fully-functional booking agency for some of the island’s leading artists and radio deejays. The second, South Central Management, is a publishing and umbrella company for all of South Central’s music and creative works.

South Central Entertainment/Marketing’s only fulltime employee is Shadia Gilkes, whom Richard calls “my backbone.” His business partner in South Central Management is Kevin “Bubbles” Marshall, who produces the music under Studio B.

teenager, he wanted to be a graphic artist.

He also loved history and excelled at English composition.

The eldest son of prominent surgeon and politician, the late Dr. Richie Haynes, and his wife Dr. Carol Jacobs, internationally known for her work as chairperson for the global HIV fund for several years, and locally for her work as chairperson in Barbados with the National HIV Commission, Richard says he never felt he had to compete with their fame in medicine or in politics.

“It certainly was never a pressure that I felt near and dear to my heart,” he recalls, adding “My mom always encouraged me, saying ‘Whatever you want to do, just do it to the best of your ability.’ My old man, God rest his soul, always really pushed the academic side of it - saying to always work your hardest and always have a solid academic background.”

He went on to earn a B.A. in business management, specializing in marketing at the same school, and stayed in the city to do an M.B.A. at Nova South Eastern University.

Returning to the island in January 1998, he was in for a shock. Potential employers saw he had little business experience but might have wanted a high salary because of his M.B.A. So, with no dream job in the offing, Richard says he went back to the job at Simpson Motors where he had spent the previous summers helping out with the advertising.

“The youngster down in the back”

Three months later, the company was launching the Suzuki Grand Vitara in Barbados, and he was asked for his ideas. “I said, let’s veil it and put it on top of a huge he young man who boulder outside, and create this teaser camwould evolve into one of the paign in the press about this new vehicle country’s top entertainment that’s coming.”

Thousands of people converged on the entrepreneurs thus started on dealership for the unveiling event, and his career path with the con“A solid Richard was soon offered a job with Greg fidence of his family’s full support. But he academic Hoyos Associates.

“Greg inquired who never realized the ups and downs he would was responsible for this idea, and Debbie encounter on the way. background” Simpson (at the time) told him “it was our After leaving Foundation, Richard went Richard carved out his graphic artist’s assistant, Richard Haynes, chosen creative/business off to college in Florida, earning his associthe youngster down in the back,” he says, profession in a country ate degree in advertising design at the Art laughing heartily. where his parents were Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Richard had He was hired by GHA to work on the “household names”. At- thought his career was going to be in the Banks Beer account, and he says, “I’ve been tending Foundation graphic arts, but along the way he fell in in the marketing business from there.”

School in Barbados as a love with marketing.

Two years after joining GHA, Richard InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 7

T

was born.”

It was the summer of 1996.

Ten of the hardest partiers on the island had put together their first party themselves.

“We took our lime and made it public,” is how Richard describes it. The Miami “melting pot” influence - heavy Jamaican, Trinidadian and North American vibes all experienced at the events he was attending at college found a new home in the group they now called Baje International.

But after the drama of the first event, eight of the ten founders quit and only Richard and Cory Knight decided to continue with Baje. Val Bridgeman joined the duo for the second party and the threesome formed the core of what became one of the premier event entertainment “A Crop Over band?

As MC at the launch of Y103.3 FM in April 2014. at brands in Barbados. But for Bubba’s Sports Bar (Photo: Power Broadcasting Co.) Cool, why not?” the first few years they only During his entire working life, and his MBA degree, he thought it was a good held fetes and jumped on Kastretching even back to his student days, idea. Today he recalls that everything that dooment Day in other Crop Over bands.

Richard loved to go to fetes. Baje Interna- could possibly have gone wrong with the Soon after Baje was born, the trio of tional’s roots go back to those days. “I used event did. But it was not lost on Richard friends decided to put on a Christmas fete, to come home for summers and we would and his friends that around 2,000 people but were so unsure whether it would sucparty - hard - and then one summer, we had come out for the event. “We went ceed that they changed their name for the through every drama you can in one night event to B.I. Promotions, says Richard, said, ‘Why we don’t throw a fete?’”

And although he was just starting out on and we still had a successful event, and Baje laughing heartily again at the very idea. But it was a big success. In those early days, they Richard (second from left) in 1993 with his brother Kashka, and his parents Dr. Richie also promoted a cricket tour to Trinidad.

Haynes and Dr. Carol Jacobs. (Photo courtesy Haynes family) Richard and his partners only started to think about having a band for the annual festival after Designer Marcia Chandler approached them, saying she wanted to return to Crop Over without the headache of organizing her own band. They jumped in.

“We said ‘Cool, why not?” Richard laughs, saying they really hadn’t a clue as to how to do it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Marcia designed the costumes for Baje International’s first two Crop Over bands, in 1999 and 2000, the first attracting about 600 people and the second 900. But the stress proved too much for the designer who had gotten Baje to take to the streets on Kadooment Day, and she decided she had had enough.

Since the first Baje bands had broken even and revellers were supporting them, they decided to carry on without Marcia. 14 years on, it is still going strong. Richard says the key award which Baje wins almost every was head-hunted to run the client service department at Bowie Cross Advertising Inc., a new agency formed by the late Jim Bowie and Thom Cross. He stayed there for seven years until 2007, and it formed his business character.

At Bowie Cross, he managed all of the existing clients, and was also responsible for getting new business.

With the onset of Jim’s long illness, he says, “I was forced at a very young age to take the steering wheel and assist him.” It taught him a lot about the “bigger side” of the business, as opposed to just the client servicing. “On hindsight it seems like an amazing blessing, but at the time it seemed like a tremendous burden because I was very young and did not have, obviously, all the skills that I required.”

But Jim, he recalls, “had a lot of confidence in me and up to this day I am really grateful for his input, and the fact that he gave me that opportunity.”

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 8

“From big manager to nothing”

Up to this point Richard Haynes was proving to both himself and the business world that he could multi-task while burning the candle at both ends. But the man who believed in synergies had to find a way to combine his passion for entertainment with his love for business.

Things came to a head in 2007, when Bowie Cross Advertising shut down suddenly. “There was a lawsuit which was totally out of everybody’s control,” he recalls. “So there I was, overnight gone from being this big client services manager with the biggest agency in Barbados at the time with massive clients, to nothing.”

But the crisis brought a certain clarity to his mind. “I started to realize that I could combine my marketing world - my advertising agency experience and my networks - with the bands.” This led him to also realize “that there are talents which plug into the bands that I can easily manage.”

It was an epiphany that changed the direction of his career.

He set up his own companies, South Central Entertainment and South Central Management, naming them after his home/business location near the corner of Dayrells Road and Highway 7 in Rockley, Christ Church, which he calls “the center of the south coast.” The companies have since relocated to Beaumont House at Hastings, Christ Church.

By combining a marketing firm with a talent agency, Richard was breaking new ground in Barbados, elevating management of Richard and family at Cruz’ christening earlier this year: (L-R) Kai, Richard, Cruz, Michelle and Jada, and Agyei. (Photo: Haynes family)

“

Baje has been a powerful catalyst for me, in terms of catapulting my brand out to the world. I OWE IT SO MUCH.

“

year is for the band’s theme, called the Fantasy Prize. Of Baje’s 16 bands in Crop Over it has won the award for over half of them, including last year’s, with the Baje theme “Breakaway.”

“We put a lot of thought and effort into our theme so that it connects back to Barbadiana, but not in an old-fashioned, traditional sense, but in a more modern sense, that Bajans can feel proud to be part of this concept.”

artistes to the level normally only associated here with managing of corporate marketing campaigns and client services. Many may have seen the need, but Richard was living it. “I was practicing for years, working in the agency and doing the entertainment business on the side, and figuring out how things worked together, how they could seamlessly fit together, how they could complement one another.”

However, after producing music for a variety of artists, South Central was still losing money, so Richard decided to “flip the script” and make the marketing side the main breadwinner. He had only retained one client from Bowie Cross, so the hunt began for more.

“Entertainment screams loud.”

As he built up his clients, he saw an opportunity looming. Habib Elias, who had built a

track record of success with Bubba’s Sports Bar & Restaurant and Club Xtreme, was launching a radio station.

Richard approached Mr. Elias about selling advertising for the station and learned he was about to hire a sales team.

He made his pitch. “I told him, instead of that, just hire me. I’ll be your sales team, your marketing manager, your sales agent, all those in one. Eventually he took me on

Continued on page 25 InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 9

InBusiness • Page 9

InBusiness FIRST PERSON

BUTCH: “I feel more potent than ever” In a recent exclusive interview with INBusiness, Chairman of the Sandals Group, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, spoke about his early days in business, the lessons learned along the way, bringing his children into the business from an early age, building a team, and his continuing role as chairman almost eight years after passing the mantle of CEO to his son, Adam.

Here are some excerpts from the interview.

“

Chairman of the Sandals Resorts International , Gordon “Butch” Stewart (Photo courtesy the BCCI.)

Our company has a gene where we want to provide more than the customer expects.

”

Q: How did your early experiences in business shape your business philosophy?

A: I started business at 26 years old and I was lucky enough to get the agency from a New Jersey company for Fedders air-conditioning. They were the biggest manufacturer in the world for room airconditioners at the time. And within 18 months we were No. 1, and you had all the big companies (in Jamaica) at the time, Carrier, all of them.

I wanted to give my customer more than they expected. We would go into a house one day, run the electric wires, knock holes in the wall, we’re dealing with the Sixties and Seventies, at the end of it, sweep up the place, clean it up, if the wife has a build somewhere and she needs a ladder, we would get the fellows to do it. I had people call me at 8 o’clock at night, saying “Butch, I forgot the wife’s birthday and I wanted to get her an air-conditioner.

I would go there (telling the husband) take her out to dinner and when she comes back we’ll have it for you.

Q: So you took the same approach in your hotel ventures?

A: I have a little energy, I’ve come this far without being very sick - with a lot of luck. I just want to please, and our company has a gene where we want to provide more than the customer expects.

We genuinely want to do it. You can’t be a fake in that kind of business. And we learn from our misInBusiness • SUMMER 2014 •

takes.

Frank Sinatra had a song, “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off,” and get back in the race. We’ve all have our ups and downs, we’ve all done things that have not worked. Some of them you find a way to make it work, and some of them you say “Let’s try something else.”

But the hotel industry is so vital to all of us. The first hotel I had, everybody said I’d last not longer than the year, because it was right beside the airport. The aeroplanes, when they took off, the noise was shattering. It came out as couples only, wave to the folks leaving, kiss the one you love, and you neutralize a terrible negative, right? I wasn’t the one who invented that, it was the fellow in charge of entertainment at the time.

Q: How did you cope with the challenges you faced?

A: Where we have had problems, we find a solution. Out of the UK, my competitor tied up the big tour operators - they weren’t allowed to sell me. I had to work with some of the smaller ones.

I didn’t know the business - I became hotel association president in June 1984 after being in the business only two-and-a-half years. But there were some issues at the time that the government was doing and they voted me in.

So I did the job the best I could do, but really and truly my mother taught me a lot about pride Page 10

“

I used to run the business from the seat of my pants, with a band of guys that were very enthusiastic but never had the business experience to know what you need and what you don’t.

”

and whatever you do try and do it (well). She was one of the hardest working people. And we’ve been lucky and it has worked out. I think like anything else, you start life as a trainee, you get to know things, you become a manager. You keep using the skill that you’ve developed better and better.

Q: How do you feel now, after nearly 50 years of running your own businesses?

A: This year I’m going to be 73 years old. I think I’m more potent than I’ve ever been. People say to me ‘Butch, when are you going to retire?’

When I fall down, whenever that is, or when you have to pick me up, because I like it and I enjoy it.

But I’m also serious.

Most tourism countries in the world, I have (an invitation) - Belize, I get a note every few months; Dubai, for three years I have been promising them to go there. They want to build a Sandals hotel the name has become strong. The product has become strong. We win every award, but it’s not me.

I can only do so much a day. We have a team that gets better, stronger, more knowledgeable.

Q: What would you say is your primary strength?

A: I’m a salesman. Funnily enough, the marketing of the hotels, even though I am a salesman, gave me the most trouble of all of it, because it’s a different form of marketing, and you have to get to understand the trade and the things that make them tick. Plus the fact that we are Caribbean people. The ad you’d put to attract people for air-conditioning in Jamaica is a whole different approach for New York City. We’re willing to experiment and we have to learn, and these days we know how to buy television (advertising). It is a complex thing in North America and England is worse. But you have to find out, and I don’t necessarily do it - I work with people that know.

Q: With your son Adam becoming CEO in 2006, are you still involved on a day-to-day basis?

I sign off on every single piece of interior design or (other elements for the hotels). The hotel may only have, say, ten categories of rooms, so it’s not hard to sign off on ten different pieces of paper. You have to. I have people coming up that are better, but by the time I get some of it, it’s been vetted and recommended and I can’t find anything (wrong), so I sign off.

But it’s not a runaway thing where everybody jumps in. Like advertising, everybody wants to spend money, everybody wants to try (this or that).

Some people are talented with creative approaches, and some are not, so you have to be careful. But I’m not a control freak, I’m a person who gives latitude with authority, but it has to be guided latitude.

(Editor’s note: Jonathan Stewart was killed at the age of 24 in an automobile accident in Miami. In 2009, Mr. Stewart wrote an article in the New York Times in which he said the following: “In 1990, I rewrote my will for my son Jonathan to move into my shoes if something were to happen. I knew if he replaced me he would be fair to everyone. I had eight children. He looked out for his brothers and sisters. Six months later, he died in a motorcar accident in Miami; he was a passenger in one of the vehicles. He was 24 years old. He was the best guy, good-looking and talented.”)

Some kids get it and some don’t. Some are talented. I have a son, he’s like my father - bright but he’s (into) computers. Everything you talk to him about comes back to the computer. I have a daughter who’s quite talented but she’s concentrating on having children. She now has three - that’s her life. I have another son who doesn’t carry my name because (he was born) when I was at school in England. He’s doing very well, very successful.

He worked with me and then went off on his own.

Brian Jardim - fabulous fellow. Adam is talented talented beyond the norm. From the time he was at school he spent the summers in the hotels, and he has been CEO since 2006….I mean, it’s all I could have hoped for. All of us have kids and we hope, you know, they do well, they follow in your footsteps of some sort. Adam has done it, he’s there.

Q. As chairman, how do you keep up-to-date with everything that’s going on?

A: You know, these days we have much better tools. We have more comprehensive administration. The finance information I get these days during the course of every month - I used to have to wait six weeks after the month to get a P&L these days I get it (snaps fingers) like this. I used to run the business from the seat of my pants.

Instinct. Trial and error, with a band of guys that were very enthusiastic too but never had the sophistication, we never had the business experience, to know what you need and what you don’t.

And then it evolves and compounds on itself.

The better it gets the better you drive it, so we have much better tools to do much more work with less effort.

Q. Barbados is said to be an over-priced destination. Do you share that view?

A: Taxation is the enemy of export. Tourism is export. It’s reverse export because you’re bringing people in but the sale is made overseas, on a competitive basis. But the beauty with it is that, when you sold sugar, it went and you got paid, but when you sell a hotel room the person that comes here, (and) from the minute that the plane lands they spend money - taxi, shopping, restaurants, fashion, the list goes on and on.

Q: How did you manage the succession issue?

So you bring in a well-heeled marketplace, genA: I have seven children - I lost one back in 1990 erally speaking, a wealthier marketplace than what InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 11

Gordon “Butch” Stewart, Chairman of Sandals Resorts heads into the February luncheon of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry with Chamber officials (from left)Tracey Shuffler, Lisa Gale and Lalu Vaswani, and (right) Bizzy Williams, CEO of Williams Industries and (partially hidden) Peter Odle of Mango Bay Hotel. (Photo courtesy BCCI.)

“

in business, if you do something that doesn’t work, you have to fix it. otherwise you go out of business.

”

is there locally. So accommodate it, facilitate it, find ways of marketing and selling more.

Q: Do you think governments are doing enough to develop tourism?

There are some governments that I know, and they are run by people that I think mean well. But to put on a tax (on tourism) it doesn’t work, the economy struggles, so what do they do? They increase the tax. In business you do not have that luxury. If you do something that doesn’t work, you have to change it, fix it, remove it, otherwise you go out of business. Governments don’t go out of business.

But look here: I am not a politician and I don’t want to be one. I am friends with everyone and I wouldn’t want to come to Barbados and say anything bad about the Opposition of the Government. But I do feel strongly that the Caribbean will never get anywhere in any meaningful way until you allow the citizens to do business on a footing with the rest of the world.

Q: Do you support casino gambling and if so, why doesn’t any of your hotels have it?

A: I think casino gambling is great entertainment. There are a lot of people who just want to go to the casino. But I come from the background of my habits. If I enjoy something and if I like it, I’ll make it work. If I don’t have any use for it I can’t pay the attention to it, and gambling, I don’t

have any interest in it. So it’s not a question of me thinking it’s a bad thing or a good thing. There are so many things out there but there is just so much that you can take the kind of interest that you can make it into a business. I don’t miss it.

Q: You’ve mentioned Dubai and other countries asking you to bring your brands to them. Are you considering expanding beyond the region?

For me there’s enough Caribbean. We’re not in Aruba, we’re not in Belize, nor St. Maarten. I have stuck to the British Caribbean, and really, the opportunities have come up and I’ve not sort of steered. Barbados and Grenada, we wanted to be there, no maybe about it. I tried a number of times in Grenada, but it didn’t work, and I tried in Barbados. But I also knew that the minute something came up - because things come up and you don’t know about them (in advance) - that we were going to try. I got very short notice on Casuarina.

Somebody called me and said, ‘Look, if you’re interested you’re going to have to move fast. I moved fast. When we finish with it, it’s going to work and work nice.

My competitors are the cruise ships, not the guy with the hotel down the road. However, it’s very hard to compete in international markets with a guy that doesn’t really have to pay tax. I’m a hotelier, first, second and third, and I know what they (the cruise ships) are doing, and I hope my efforts bring benefits to the country. •

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 12

LeadingWOMEN in Business

“Without passion, life has no meaning, so put your heart, mind and soul into even your smallest acts,” advises one of our first Leading Women in Business, Sharon Christie, who adds, “This is the secret to life!”

Although we had not put it into words at the time, Sharon’s passionate prose sums up the major quality of each of the individuals chosen for this new feature of INBusiness Magazine.

One of the reasons for showcasing “leading women in business” is all those statistics showing that there is still a glass ceiling for women in corporate life, not only here but around the world, and we wanted to present executives who

have broken through it. But besides all the usual “stuff ” you need in order to do that - education, training, hard work, some luck perhaps, and a work ethic to make a drill sergeant feel lazy - there is the passion. These executives are passionate about their work.

It is what makes them stand out, and what keeps them performing at the top of their professions every day, year in and year out. We are therefore proud to offer, on the following few pages, these brief profiles of women in executive positions who are an inspiration to us and who help to make Barbados a wonderful place to live and work. •

InBusiness InBusiness • SUMMER • SUMMER 2014 2014 • Page • Page 1313

LeadingWOMEN in Business Betty Brathwaite

Managing Partner, Deloitte & Touche, Barbados

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etty Brathwaite is the Managing Partner with Deloitte & Touche, Barbados, with responsibility for all services delivered to clients and the overall growth of the firm. She is Deloitte’s first female managing partner within its Caribbean and Bermuda Cluster (CBC) of firms.

Ms. Brathwaite was a partner with the local firm of Toppin, Walker & Co. when it merged with the existing local practice of Deloitte & Touche in December 2004.

In her role as managing partner, Betty is currently responsible for leading the firm’s audit practice and also maintains responsibility for information technology and brand compliance. Prior to this, she was responsible for tax and corporate services. She has served in the past as the director of independence and ethics officer for the firm, and is credited with the Systems, Application and Products (SAP) implementation for the firm.

Carol NICHOLLS

Managing Partner, KPMG Barbados

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fter winning a Barbados Scholarship, Carol Nicholls went to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, graduating with distinction with a bachelor of commerce degree with concentrations in accounting and management information systems.

On leaving university, Carol worked in the audit department of KPMG Montreal as an audit senior from 1984-87, while also completing a diploma in public accounting through McGill’s Faculty of Graduate Studies & Research. She became a chartered accountant under the Ontario Chapter of the CICA in 1987 before returning home and joining KPMG Barbados, where she had interned before attending university.

Having remained at KPMG since then, she has been promoted from the position of senior accountant to manager, then to senior manager and partner. Today, Carol is the managing partner at KPMG Barbados, a position she has held since 2006, and a board member of KPMG Caricom. She manages a diverse client portfolio throughout Barbados and the Caribbean in such industries as telecommunications, international business, insurance, government and infrastructure, and education.

Betty’s experience enables her to serve a wide range of clients, from well-known international corporations to small, family-owned businesses, in industries that include banking, insurance services, mining, manufacturing and retail operations.

Betty was a member of Deloitte’s Caribbean & Bermuda Cluster (CBC) Integration Working Group, which was responsible for the groundwork needed to integrate group BETTY HAS of independent Deloitte firms in eight countries around the region.

PLAYED A KEY She also served as a member of the ROLE IN CBC nomination committee responsible for the selection of the current CEO, DEVELOPING and a member of the Partners Advisory BOTH THE LOCAL Group which established the Deloitte Americas Senior Managers’ School AND REGIONAL (SMS). She was also part of the original faculty of the SMS. ACCOUNTING Betty is a past-president of the InstiBODIES, ICAC tute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC). She has played a key AND ICAB role in the development of the regional accountancy body since first being appointed to the board in 2001, and has chaired ICAC’s membership committee, its task force set up to review its articles of association, and a sub-committee which worked on an agreement for the free movement of accountancy professionals within the region.

Betty has also served as president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB), and she continues to serve as a member of ICAB’s council. She is also the international assembly representative for Barbados for the ACCA. •

Carol was the first female managing partner of a “Big 4” accounting firm in Barbados Carol has also been responsible for the mentoring and training of young recruits, and throughout her career she has held responsibility for the delivery and coordination of training as well as risk management, independence and ethics.

Carol was the first female managing partner of a “Big 4” accounting firm in Barbados, and has also been a council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) for several years, serving as vice-president from 1996-1998 and president from 1998-2000, during which time she was responsible for the revamping of the by-laws of the organisation.

Carol has also played a broader role in the business community, from promoting Barbados’ international business sector to serving as chairman of the Joint Policy Working Group, which advises Government on matters related to international business, to serving as chairman of the finance committee of the board of directors of both the National Cultural Foundation and Invest Barbados.

A mother of three, she is also currently a board member of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/ AIDS (CBMP) and an independent member of the Barbados Private Sector Association. •

InBusiness InBusiness • SUMMER • SUMMER 2014 2014 • Page • Page 1414

LeadingWOMEN in Business Vivian-Anne GITTENS CEO, Nation Corporation, and Publisher & CEO, The Nation Publishing Co. Ltd.

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ivian-Anne Gittens is the CEO of Nation Corporation, and Publisher & CEO of The Nation Publishing Co. Ltd. Mrs. Gittens is a certified management accountant and a trained financial management consultant. She has worked as a management consultant locally and regionally, and as a project and investment analyst with development agencies in the region.

She joined the Nation Publishing Co. Ltd. in 1993 as its chief financial officer, was elevated to vice-president in 1999, and appointed publisher and CEO on the retirement of Founder/Director Harold Hoyte in 2007. She became the Nation Corp. CEO in 2008.

The Nation Corporation is the parent company of Nation Publishing, Starcom Network Inc., and Printweb Caribbean Ltd; and

Patricia AFFONSO-DASS

Group General Manager, Ocean Hotels

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atricia AffonsoDass was born in Roseau, Dominica and moved to Trinidad at the ages of two and later to Antigua before her family settled in Guyana. She gained her bachelor of science degree, with honours, in hospitality and tourism management at Florida International University. Her love affair with tourism began 23 years ago with her first job with the Caribbean Hotel Association (now Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association).

Patricia has held many management positions with business hotels, eco-resorts, attractions and leisure properties in both Barbados and Guyana, where she was a founding member and president of the Tourism Association of Guyana

the majority shareholder of Innogen Technologies Inc, an energy company.

The Nation Group itself is part of One Caribbean Media Ltd., a public company and a pan-Caribbean media organization, headquartered in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. OCM is the largest and most diversified media organization in the Caribbean, operating mainly in Trinidad and in addition to Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, her leading role and St. Lucia.

at the nation, mrs. gittens has also served as deputy chairman of the fair trading commission on the board of sagicor financial inc.

Mrs. Gittens chaired the Public Utilities Board for the last five years of its existence and served as the deputy chairman of the Fair Trading Commission.

She has also served on the boards of Sagicor Financial Inc., Sagicor Life Inc. and the Mutual Bank of the Caribbean, and currently sits on boards of OCM, The Nation Corporation, The Nation Publishing Co. Ltd., PrintWeb Caribbean Ltd., Innogen Technologies Inc. and GraceKennedy Money Services Caribbean, SRL. With regards to volunteer organisations, she chairs the Nation’s Healthy Lifestyles Project, the Future Centre Trust, the Give Back Queen’s College Fundraising Committee and serves as a trustee for the Give Back QC Charity.

Mrs. Gittens is married to Don Gittens, a chemist technologist, and they have two grown daughters, Eleanor and Jo-Anne, and four grandchildren, Adana, Samuel, Benjamin and Joshua. •

Since settling in Barbados in 1998, Patricia has managed Bougainvillea Beach Resort, Ocean Park and Beach View Hotel, and, since September 2009, she has been the group general manager of Ocean Hotels, managing over 200 rooms across three separate three- and four-star properties: South Beach Hotel, Sea Breeze Hotel and Ocean Two PATRICIA HAS BEEN Resort and Residences.

A strong team leader, AN OUTSPOKEN Patricia says that she is ADVOCATE FOR THE constantly encouraging TOURISM INDUSTRY and working with her managers and their teams and worked at the hotels to surpass closely with guest expectations.

Patricia recently the government completed two years of on pending new service as president of the legislation.

Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association, prior to which she served in several positions on the same board over the past eight years, including chairperson of direct tourism services, chairperson of the marketing committee, and second and first vice-president.

As president of the BHTA, Patricia has been an outspoken advocate for the industry on a number of critical issues and worked closely with the government on pending new incentive legislation for the industry. •

InBusiness InBusiness • SUMMER • SUMMER 2014 2014 • Page • Page 1515

LeadingWOMEN in Business Lisa GALE

Executive Director, Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry

L

isa Gale is the executive director of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), and is the first woman to hold that position in the 188-year history of Barbados’ premiere private sector organisation.

In that capacity, Lisa became chair of Barbados ConSOC in 2012 and represented Barbados in El Salvador at the annual ConSOC meeting that same year. ConSOCS are a consulting platform created by the InterAmerican Development Bank to promote dialogue between civil society organizations in the 26 countries where the IDB operates.

Lisa has also represented Barbados at various meetings as a private sector official in places like Canada, Peru and The Bahamas.

Prior to joining the BCCI, Lisa worked as an economist with the foreign trade division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade for over eight years. Overall, she spent almost a de-

Shelly Ann HEE CHUNG VP for Sales & Marketing, Columbus Eastern Caribbean Operations

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cade working as a senior advisor to Government on international trade policy.

She also taught economics for three years at the University of the West Indies. After completing her masters’ degree in international trade policy in 2007, Lisa took specialized training in tourism policy and hotel management. She believes that hard work and determination have LISA is the first been the hallmark and driving force of her career, and says woman to hold that “good leadership skills” the post of have benefitted her not only executive director professionally, but privately as well. of the chamber She is also a graduate of since the the School of International Broadcasting and the Pillars organisation was founded nearly 200 of the Palace School of Ministry and Corporate Training. years ago.

Keeping a good work/life balance is important to Lisa.

She is married and has a young son, and participates actively in her church in dance, drama, motivational speaking and counselling. She is very competitive, she says, loves games and “having a good laugh” or a “good discussion on any topic” with her friends and family. •

marketing, sales, product and corporate communications strategies. She was also a leading voice for the company in various forums.

After resigning from Columbus 2010 to head a marketing and event management consultancy firm with her husband, Shelly Ann returned to Columbus in 2012 as regional director of corporate marketing and communications for the Flow brand, was responsible for the regional shelly has played and branding efforts and coordination of major Flow product and channel a key role in strategies. She also supported the the rollout marketing, communication and launch activities for Flow World of columbus’ Barbados, which coincided with media strategies, the launch of Columbus Barbados operations in April 2013. and is a leading Today, Shelly is vice-president voice for for sales and marketing for the company’s Eastern Caribbean the company operations, and leads the residential in various forums. sales, marketing and communications portfolio in Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and St. Vincent & The Grenadines.

Shelly holds several diplomas in public relations and marketing, and earned a telecoms Executive MBA while working with Columbus. She is currently pursuing an MBA, specializing in strategic planning. Based in Barbados, Shelly finds time for family life and recreation. In her spare time, she enjoys Zumba, the Latin-inspired dance-fitness program, swimming, and doing what she calls “boy stuff ” with her three young sons and husband. •

fter starting her career in 1998 as a reporter with a leading daily newspaper in Trinidad, Shelly Ann Hee Chung went on to gain corporate communications’ experience in other sectors before joining McCann Erickson as an account executive. At McCann she became part of the core team to re-brand the then mobile brand “mpower” to bmobile.”

Shelly Ann first joined Columbus in 2005 as manager of marketing and communications for its Trinidad operations.

She has handled several different portfolios and directed many branding and communications projects in her time with Columbus. For the first five years at the company, Shelly played a key role in supporting the development and implementation of the InBusiness InBusiness • SUMMER • SUMMER 2014 2014 • Page • Page 1616

LeadingWOMEN in Business Sharon CHRISTIE CEO, Kensington Court Group

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recipient of the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award in 1977, Sharon Christie aspired to excellence in her career. She became a Certified Management Accountant in 1991 after working as an auditor at Pannel K Forster, an Accountant at Simpson Group until 1986, and as the Supervisor of the Business Advisory Division at PricewaterhouseCoopers until 1991.

In that year, Sharon became the Chief Financial Officer of the Kensington Court Group, and was promoted to the post of CEO the following year, 1992.

The Kensington Court Group operates the subsidiaries H. Jason Jones & Co. Ltd., a wholesale and retail company specializing in frozen food and beverages and building products; and Regional Business Systems Inc., which provides sales, service and support for IT-related business solutions, with special emphasis on the hospitality

Gaynelle MARSHALL Programme Manager, Y103.3 FM

T

he name Gaynelle Marshall has been synonymous with ‘radio’ in Barbados for the better part of two decades, even though in the beginning, she didn’t envision her “stint” on radio lasting more than two years.

Gaynelle, who holds an associate degree from Barbados Community College and a diploma in marketing management from BIMAP, began her career on Voice of Barbados during its transition from 790AM to 92.9FM at the then Barbados Rediffusion Services Ltd. - later renamed Starcom Network Inc. - in 1995. She honed her talents in the fast-paced environment of the station, becoming expert in broadcasting skills, including interviewing, doing commercial voice-overs, remote (outside)

industry.

Four years after taking up the post of CEO, in 1996, Sharon became a chartered accountant, and went on to gain her MBA at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in 1998.

Along with her successful career, Sharon is passionate about most water sports, especially sailing. “It brings a feeling of openness and freedom, gives opportunity to my without passion, competitive spirit and life has no meaning,” encompasses the need for says sharon, who teamwork to achieve an embraced common goal,” not only leads her she says. company, but has She served at the Barbados Yacht Club for served with the BCCi 30 years in various and its revitalisation over roles, up to and including of bridgetown those of vice-commodore and commodore. She also committee. loves to travel and is an avid amateur golfer.

In addition to all her other pursuits, Sharon has and continues to serve on several councils and committees, including as a council member of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry since 2011, and as chair of The Revitalisation of Bridgetown Committee since 2012. “Without passion, life has no meaning, so put your heart, mind and soul into even your smallest acts,” she advises. “This is the secret to life!” • broadcasting, scripting and promotion design.

In 1997 she moved over from VOB to the then 104.1 YESS FM, which later became Love FM, and in 2001 took on the role of supervisor for that station, managing all on-air personalities, as well as programming. This was whole new territory for her, and she faced many over the years, challenges in the dayto-day operations of gaynelle honed a radio station, while her talents in new radio stations the fast- paced were emerging across the island. world of radio, Twelve years later, all preparing her the opportunity arose for her to leave for A new rolE Starcom and beas programme come the programme manager with manager for the new Y103.3 FM, a sister y103.3 Fm. station to SLAM 101.1FM, both members of the new Power Broadcasting Network.

The station was launched in late March 2014. The new challenge is exciting, and Gaynelle faces it with enthusiam. “It is my goal to bring the highest standard of radio to the region, and to ensure that radio continues to hold a place of high prominence in fast changing, Internet centric world,” she says. •

InBusiness InBusiness • SUMMER • SUMMER 2014 2014 • Page • Page 1717

LeadingWOMEN in Business Suzanne DAVIS

Managing Director, Realtors Real Estate Ltd. On October 1, 2012, after sixty years as one of the leading companies in its sector, Realtors Ltd. was split into two entities.

The first, Realtors Real Estate Ltd., does sales, long term-rentals, valuations and auctioneering, and the second, which retains the original company name of Realtors Ltd., does property management and villa rentals.

On that day, Suzanne Davis became the major shareholder, chairperson and managing director of Realtors Real Estate Ltd. Back in 1987, Suzanne had joined Realtors Ltd. as personal assistant to the managing director, Michael Parravicino. In that role, she says, she was able to learn the business from her boss, whom she has described as “the foremost of teachers.”

In 1993, Suzanne was promoted to the post of manager of reservations and sales, and in 2002, upon Michael’s death, she became general manager of the company.

In 2008, with the opening of a Realtors branch at Hastings, Christ Church, Suzanne became manager of south coast branch sales & property management, and a year later the company’s manager of real estate & business development. Suzanne says that she became successful in her chosen field because of the rapport she has been able to build with her

clients and over the years has developed a loyal client base.

Since 2003, Suzanne has served on the committee of Barbados Estate and Valuers Association Inc. (BEAVA), first as secretary, then vice-president from 2004 to 2006. She first served as its president from 2007-2009 and once again, from 2011 to the present.

She balances her career with being a mother, wife, activist, and student of art. Suzanne has also been involved with Rotary Barbados as a partner in service, through which she started both the Junior and Senior Special Needs

besides helping to build a major real estate firm, suzanne helps raise funds for kids with special needs classes at the Ursuline School, as well as assisting with the opening of the School House for Special Needs, on whose board she serves.

Suzanne is responsible for introducing the on-going fund raising for these projects in the hope of building a new facility to be able to accommodate more students and to have a wider scope of activities for them. She is also very involved with other Rotary fund-raising activities for breast cancer research and care, the Geriatric Hospital and orphanages.

Of the company, Suzanne says proudly that “Realtors Real Estate Ltd. has cultivated a sales department with vivacious energy,” whose personnel work together “to create the best possible experience for their clients.” •

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 18

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Professionals

“clients SAY my business personality and fun - loving character reveal themselves in my work. I think I’m a different kind of creative.”

H

ighly creative from a very young age, Sunset Sealy graduated from Harrison College in 1998 and went on to obtain her bachelor of fine arts degree from the Barbados Community College, followed by a masters in advertising design from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

She had began freelancing in the design and advertising field while still a student at BCC, and in 2010, Sunset established Strawberry Samurai, a creative design and photography agency. She says that was when she “began taking things more seriously,” attracting bigger clients which meant “more work.”

Now 32, Sunset says that the strength of her business lies in “capturing those amazing moments from the kiss on your wedding day… to producing ads that make people want to tear them out of magazines.” Her aim has always been to produce truly “unforgettable” work. “I’ve learned a lot, I’m growing, my work is definitely improving, so I say I’m on my way to achieving my objectives,” she says.

Sunset explains that her major challenge starting out was the general stigma associated with careers in the creative arts. “Being in the creative field, it was difficult at first to get people to understand that this was my way of life and not just a hobby.” She maintains that in her experience, creative professionals are not taken seriously in Barbados, and while she feels it is very slowly improving, it still poses a great challenge to her and raises her ire in the approach some people have to her profession. “I’m not taking photographs for fun, I’m taking them to pay my bills,” she says. “So no, I can’t just ‘walk with my camera’ or ‘sketch it up real quick’ for you.”

Sunset does consider her business to be part of a niche market in Barbados, as the arts tend to be marginalized in favour of more socially acceptable careers in medicine, law and the like. As such, she feels that there are few creative professionals who truly strive for excellence, “because they figure ‘what’s the point?’”

She relishes the opportunities to preserve memories, capture moments, and create arresting content. Like any small business, she would like “more business, more consistently,” but she says that she hasn’t noticed a huge decline in business even with the lean economic climate. “People are still getting married, getting pregnant, and having it all photographed,” she explains. “People are still building business that need to be branded.”

At Strawberry Samurai, based from Sunset’s home, she handles

Photographer, graphic artist and designer Sunset Sealy. (Photo courtesy Sunset Sealy) graphic Design

Sunset sealy

Creating ads that make people want to tear them out of magazines all the design and branding for her business, and for photography partners with her boyfriend, also a photographer. She explains that photography is generally done on location, and she outsources printers, makeup artists, designers, and the like. Social media, Sunset says, is vital to her business, having received “massive” exposure and referrals via her Facebook page and other social media platforms such as Twitter and her website. Sunset also exhibits work at various expos throughout the year, such as Animekon.

“My clients tell me that my business personality and my funloving character definitely reveal themselves in my work. I think I’m a different kind of creative to what exists presently, and it definitely works in my favour.” Sunset’s future plan, she says playfully, is to “take over the world of design and photography. Seriously.” •

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 19

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Professionals

Knowing the misconceptions that surround any creative job, Andre says, “we radio announcers are a special sort. You have to be special to sit in a little box and effectively talk to yourself for hours on end.”

He explains that developing exceptional time management is crucial, and that radio announcers need to have vocal training, as well as training in advertisement and news reading. Andre says he was also given courses in libel and defamation, which have served him well.

Broadcasting personality André Harewood. (Photo courtesy André Harewood) BROADCASTING

ANDRE HAREWOOD

Enjoys the challenge of engaging, and sometimes inspiring, his audience as a radio personality.

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ndre Harewood, a self-professed “highly creative person with a background in writing and drama,” wanted a job that would be well suited to his strengths and talents. In his final year at the UWI Campus pursuing a degree in English Literature, he answered an ad for radio announcers from the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation.

After a few interviews, he was offered the job., and began in 2004 as a trainee on 98.1 FM and 94.7 FM. Six years ago he moved permanently to Q100.7 FM. Andre tells Young Professionals that “learning how best to use the various computer programs for playing music and ads as well as for sound editing was relatively easy,” and he enjoyed his training.

His greatest challenge has been in managing on-air callers and guests. “You can encounter guests with very strong personalities and views, or who meander off topic, or who are terrified of being live on air, or who have any number of quirks that might not make for good radio. I had to learn early on how to be helpful yet firm in making sure interviews ran smoothly and without grounds for a libel suit.” Andre, now 33, has been doing this for ten years, and still loves it. He enjoys the challenge of engaging his audience.

“It’s always a balancing act between trying to determine what our audience wants and how best to give it do them.

There’s also the need to present things that go beyond simple entertainment and information, things to positively impact listeners’ lives.” He continues to say that planning each show to make sure it’s as engaging as it can be for listeners is extremely important. This involves selecting music, sourcing interesting news stories, inviting interesting guests and extensively researching the topics at hand, managing live events on-air, creating series of shows based on Independence or Crop-Over, for example, and little personal touches like his “weird trivia” tips, all in an effort to be both entertaining and informative. “Q FM is very much about community outreach,” Andre notes.

He says that he tries to keep things light-hearted on air, and also to share inspirational stories which really connect with people, especially during these rough economic times. “I’m usually the one in the studio when the other announcers go out and have their face-to-face interaction with the public, but I also connect with my listeners via phone calls, requests, emails, and we’ve recently had a chat room set up on our website.”

Andre says that the way his career is perceived by the public is mixed. “On one hand, there’s the sense that you’re doing something special, and there’s an appreciation for that. On the other hand, some people think all you do is turn on the mic and start talking, that anyone can do it.”

Knowing what he personally puts into each of his radio shows but also the misconceptions that surround any creative job, Andre says, “we radio announcers are a special sort. You have to be special to sit in a little box and effectively talk to yourself for hours on end.” •

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 20

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medicine

TAMICA LAWRENCE

finds her true calling as a doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology

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amica Lawrence, born in Trinidad to a Trinidadian mother and a Barbadian father, came to live in Barbados at the age of two. She attended Harrison College and then went on to study medicine at the UWI St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad. After medical school, Tamica came home to Barbados to do her internship, and then returned to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to begin her postgraduate training in obstetrics and gynaecology.

Tamica chose this specialty, she says, because she found that it fit her personality best. “The patients requiring an OB/GYN’s services are not always sick,” she explains. “Even when they are sick, generally their problem can be solved, (whereas) in some specialties the inevitable is just being delayed, and I find that depressing.”

The added bonus for during her exams, her is that caring for a mother and baby, which she recalls, she became so ill from is for the most part a happy time for the stress that her patients and their famimother had to fly lies, provides a “unique perspective” for her. out to take care says she did of her so that she notTamica enter the medical could complete profession for the potential financial return. them.

Rather, she chose to pursue Medicine because, “I like the puzzle of disease… putting the pieces together until they fit into a diagnosis. You can only help a sick person if you can figure out what is wrong with them!”

Tamica muses that studying medicine is challenging because of the sheer volume of material involved. As a young person, it can be hard “to watch all your friends having time off and enjoying themselves when you’re exhausted and stuck in the library,” she says, adding that “it was also really hard to be away from my family and support system while studying overseas.” She goes on to tell how, during her final exams, she

Dr. Tamica Lawrence. (Photo courtesy Tamica Lawrence) became so ill from stress and the heavy work load that her mother had to fly out to be with her and take care of her so that she could complete her exams.

Tamica says that the current economic climate has only affected her in that, as a doctor at a hospital, there is always a small worry that contracts can be terminated if the hospital has a problem with funding. Another challenge she faces is studying while still working the long shift hours kept by doctors. She does plan to specialize further when she completes her postgraduate course.

For Tamica, the rewards of watching a patient get better and being able to leave the hospital through her efforts, alongside those of her team, are exceeded “only by the experience of happy mothers who squeal when they see me and hand me the babies I delivered.” •

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 21

Young

Professionals

AS a newlywed, he says, juggling work and family life can be a challenge as he tries to gain more knowledge and experience in the law.

Attorney-at-Law Benjamin Norris. (Photo courtesy Ben Norris) LAW

BEN NORRIS

Finds a growing love for the law in its real-world application

F

rom an early age, says Ben Norris, he was interested in pursuing a career in law. While at Harrison College, he says, “I enjoyed writing and problem solving. I also focused on business studies, accounts and history - not quite your ‘typical’ combination!” Benjamin explains that he went for this combination because “they are areas of core competency and transitioned well into the legal profession.”

Now an attorney-at-law in the litigation group at Clarke Gittens Farmer, where he also did his internship, Benjamin says that he never intended to go into that area of the profession, but rather “just sort of ‘fell’ into it.” He specializes in civil litigation, real estate law, foreign judgments and labour and employment, among other things.

After completing his secondary education, Benjamin obtained his bachelor of laws degree with honours from the University of London in 2006. He went on to complete the legal practice course at B.P.P. Law School at Holborn and a masters in international business and management at the University of Westminster in 2008. He then undertook legal studies in New York, being admitted in June 2010 as an attorney and counselor at law in all courts of the state of New York.

Completing his transitional course in 2011 at Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and receiving his legal education certificate, Benjamin was admitted to the Barbados bar that same year.

Benjamin recalls that during his undergraduate studies, he struggled with some of the more abstract concepts and principles of law. It was when he moved to the professional training that his “love and appreciation for the legal profession” truly began to grow. “At this stage I could see the correlation between legal principles and their real world application...to solve clients’ actual problems.”

The current economic climate has affected Benjamin in that, as he says, there has been an increased demand in the recovery, insolvency and litigation fields. While it means a heavy workload for him, he maintains that he is excited for the “opportunity to gain experience in different areas and deal with many different problems and issues faced by our clients.”

Benjamin is very particular about his approach to clients, aiming to not just be a lawyer but also an adviser in an effort to find the “optimum solution” to his clients’ needs. So far he considers himself fortunate to have assisted in several highprofile matters in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

Future plans include branching out into more real estate law.

He also hopes to be involved in some Caribbean Court of Justice matters in the future.

For him, a young newlywed, “juggling work commitments while keeping a reasonable work/family life is always a challenge,” Benjamin says. He explains, however, that his wife is very understanding in his push to “soak up as much knowledge and experience” as he can while still being “fresh in the field of law.”

As he continues on his journey in the field, Benjamin maintains that he is grateful for the opportunities having been afforded to him working with Clarke Gittens Farmer. “I enjoy litigation,” he explains, “and the diversity it brings to my career.

I enjoy tackling new issues head-on and being able to find real-world solutions which may not always be based purely in law or the court room.” •

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 22

“

it was nothing that I had not been accustomed to from the time I left university - being told ‘no’ and having to prove why I think it should be ‘yes’.

RICHARD HAYNES - Continued from page 11 and gave me a shot,” he says, “and four-and-a-half years later, here we are, with two radio stations and doing well.” Those two stations are the hugely successful Slam 101.1 FM and its new sister station, Y103.3 FM. Looking back, he thinks Mr. Elias gave him the shot because of his “fighting spirit.” But the reality was that there were already well over a dozen radio stations on the island,” says Richard, “so it was knocking on doors and sometimes being told ‘no’. But it was nothing that I have not been accustomed to from the time I left university - being told ‘no’ and having to prove why I think it should be ‘yes’. That’s life.”

South Central, born out of desperation, is now a growing young company. Clients include SMJ Jaleel (beverages); Power Broadcasting (Slam 101.1 FM & Y103.3 FM radio stations); The National Cultural Foundation (arts and culture); Coconut Walk, Bridge Street Mall and Sky Mall (retail space); Burger King (fast food); ETAS Vocational Training (education); Baje International (event promotion); Laff It Off Productions (annual comedy revue); The Ackee

Tree (restaurant); Esso Hastings (service station); and Sandals Barbados (all-inclusive resort).

Deejays and artistes represented by South Central include Rupee, Bobo, Nikita, Salt, Gorg, CiCi, Infamous HD, DJ Rass, Wizard, Verseewild and Smokey Burke, and King Bubba.

B

aje International, meantime, was enjoying growth in both numbers and brand image. “We used to do a band with 2,500 people on the road, but we limit it now to 1,500,” he says, “because the experience is what really builds the brand, not the numbers. We also measure our success by how many people know us globally - we get hits from all over the world.” In fact, he says, half of Baje’s revellers are from abroad.

Baje International, he says, “has been such a powerful catalyst for me, in terms of catapulting my brand out to the world. I owe Baje so much for that, you know, because entertainment screams loud. When you’re in entertainment and you do well, people hear you. You can work in an office all day and do brilliant things and no one may ever know who you are. So I’ve always taken the value of Baje and balanced it with financial gain, because without it I would have had to invest so much money, time and effort to get my name and what I do out there.”

“The old man would be happy.”

His younger brother Kashka manages the real estate holdings left by his father for the family. “I think the old man would be very happy, with me going out there and taking the family name in new directions, and Kashka being the anchor and keeping the family business solid.”

Richard got married three years ago to the former Michelle Gay. Richard has two sons, 16-year-old Agyei and 15-year-old Kai, and a nine-year-old daughter, Jada, from previous relationships. Early this year, the couple had their first child together, whom they named Cruz.

Looking to the future, Richard says he is excited, both for his businesses and the country. “When I look back at the last five years and all that has happened, I am just thankful. To be honest, I love what I do.”•

“

InBusiness It’s business. And it’s personal.

Just read our “up close and personal” stories on Richard Haynes, Gordon “ButchStewart, Ralph Taylor, Elias Habib, Paul Altman and Bernie Weatherhead, or any of our profiles of rising young professionals, and you’ll see what we mean. We’re passionate about our reporting and we hope it shows.

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InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 23

InBusiness outlook

an economy in serious trouble

by Ryan Straughn

“

if the level of profit is too low to genErate a return on capital, the firm’s resources will be transferred to some other use.

T

his article examines the issue of profits, taxation and its relationship with business confidence. By necessity the private sector builds their various businesses in the pursuit of above-normal profits rather than normal profits.

Normal profit is profit that is just sufficient to ensure that a firm will continue to supply its existing goods or services. Further, if the level of profit earned in a particular market is too low to generate a return on capital employed comparable in other equally risky markets, then the firm’s resources will be transferred to some other use. Therefore, it is the pursuit of above-normal profits over the long run that by nature incentivizes the firm, business person, entrepreneur, partners, and shareholders to continue reinvesting.

All firms from time to time may realize real economic losses but have a legitimate expectation that over the long term their profitability would more than make up for periodic losses. Thus, as a matter of course, the management of all firms routinely examines the overall market dynamics in order to assess and address the following: • Whether it is worthwhile pursuing the existing line of business • whether diversification of product and services offerings will deliver greater returns • whether to devise appropriate exit strategies.

Naturally the performance of firms is largely determined by market forces in general but certainly also by the level and intensity of economic activity.

As business people we all want to pay less by way of taxation as this allows for more returns to investors and shareholders along with enhancing the opportunity for firms to reinvest more into the company to allow for greater expansion whether domestically or in foreign markets.

Governments and central banks must always be concerned about the state of the domestic economy since it is the clearest barometer for both business and consumer confidence. More specifically, the business climate should and must inform public policy because it is firms and their associated employment generation opportunities that allows a

wide range of taxes to be levied in order to provide public goods and services.

The vibrancy of the domestic business climate also plays a significant role in attracting foreign investment.

When local firms are making abovenormal profits, this demonstrates that Ryan Straughn is the strength of the Managing Director economy is sup- of Abelian Consulting porting possible Services new entrants to the market (foreign or domestic), the pursuit of other opportunities and therefore the activation of new investment.

Figure 1 shows the performance of corporation tax revenue collection over the period 2006/2007 to 2013/2014.

The objective observer not knowing the complete circumstances surrounding the Barbados economy could only conclude that there was some drastic reduction in the rate of tax levied on firms. Because there is simply no other reasonable explanation for the performance of this category of taxation over the period.

A policy to depress economic activity

This brings me to confidence. The objective observer/new investor would be horrified to know and note that it is the expressed policy of both the Government of Barbados and the Central Bank of Barbados to depress economic activity in the domestic space. The proper translation is that this twinned fiscal and monetary policy effectively means that firms will over the foreseeable future observe less than above-normal profits, which erodes business confidence.

With the exception of tax rates on international business companies, which projected a net loss of $23 million in the last two years, there was no reduction in corporate tax rates, but the decline in corporate taxes collected over the past six consecutive years is the clearest and most decisive indica-

InBusiness • SUMMER 2014 • Page 24

“

InBusiness outlook Performance of corporation tax revenue collection 2006-07 to 2013-14

tion of the trading environment firms have been operating under. What is particularly alarming is that the absolute level for the fiscal year 2013/2014 is approximately 60% less than in 2006-07.

Therefore, unless one is enticed by significant concessions and other tax incentives it would be difficult for any new entrant to enter the Barbados market space and invest significant capital when existing businesses are experiencing significantly less profits than in previous periods.

These numbers indicate an economy in serious trouble because when businesses, foreign-exchange earning or not, fail to realise even normal profits, then the management of firms have to make criti-

Fiscal Year 2006/2007 2007/2008 2008/2009 2009/2010 2010/2011 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014

Corporate Taxes ($ million) 445.5 521.0 447.2 372.8 294.2 286.1 261.4 181.5

% (+/-) 16.9% -14.2% -16.6% -21.1% -2.8% -8.6% -30.6%

cal decisions as they relate to the continuation of operations.

Without the specific details available, I conclude that the magnitude of the reduction in corporate tax revenue must span across the various sectors and industries of the economy. Though some individual companies may be doing better relative to their competitors or even when compared to their own past performance, these figures communicate an environment that is particularly hostile to doing business.

Declining return on investment

Our ability as private enterprise to attract new investment has been deliberately compromised by both fiscal and monetary policy, and these latest figures are the proof of the pudding.

The private sector is by no means a homogenous grouping but we all exist to deliver returns on investment to our shareholders, business partners and investors. We all employ persons or engage services to provide the range of goods and services we offer to our clients and customers. Therefore, as business people we must be concerned when our fiscal and monetary authorities embark on policies and programmes that inhibit the realisation of our long-term goals. Even more importantly, is that the private sector must also be prepared to act if only in its own self-interest.•