Research On Five Jamaican Entrepreneurs

Research on five Jamaican entrepreneurs

Name: Rannoy Maye
Subject: Principles of Business
Teacher: Ms. McKenzie
Date: April 13, 2015.

Gordon “Butch” Stewart

Gordon "Butch" Stewart was born the 6 July 1941 in Kingston, Jamaica to Gordon L. Stewart, an engineer for JBC and Jean, his wife. He is a Jamaican businessman and the owner or Chairman of over two dozen companies throughout the Caribbean, North America and Great Britain. These companies include: Sandals, Beaches Family Resorts, Appliance Traders, Ltd., The Jamaica Observer, among others.
Stewart began working at the age of 17 as a salesman and eventually rose to become the sales manager of Dutch-owned Curacao Trading Company. After saving up some money, Stewart later left in 1968 to found his own business, Appliance Traders, Ltd. which specialized at first in manufacturing air conditioning units but has grown to sell almost everything. The company also founded the Jamaica Observer newspaper.
In 1981 Stewart purchased two hotels and began to turn the venture into a profit with heavy investment. A number of years later he purchased Resorts Royal Caribbean which catered for an adult-only clientele. The brand 'Beaches' was developed for families while the company expanded around the Caribbean.
Stewart was a recipient of Caribbean World Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Jamaica, and has been called one of Jamaica's most-admired businessmen, by Kamal King President of Cambridge College and Community Services Jamaica in an address to graduating students.
Audrey Marks

Audrey P. Marks, is the founder of Paymaster (Jamaica) Limited, a multi-transaction company which she conceptualized and started in 1997. Paymaster operates payment agencies from which all types of bill payments and application services can be made. In its 13th year, Paymaster has created 150 agencies in Jamaica and the USA, providing services to over 1.4M customers and employment for over 400 persons with annual transactions of up to $60 Billion Dollars. It is the first multi-transaction agency in the Caribbean. A Career Entrepreneur, Ms. Marks started and operated six previous businesses, ranging from a 100-acre banana Exporting Farm, Transportation Company, to a Real Estate Sales and Development company. She has also operated a Venture Capital Company with diverse investments, including manufacturing, travel and entertainment companies.
Ms. Marks holds both a Bachelors and Masters degrees in Business Administration from the University of the West Indies, Mona and Nova Southeastern University Florida USA, respectively.
She is the recipient of numerous citations and recognition from her peers and various organizations for her pioneering work, entrepreneurial endeavors and commitment to social causes. These include:
Ernest & Young Nominee for the "Caribbean Entrepreneur of the Year 2000"
Business Leader of the Year Award nominee for year 2000
Florida University, FIU Female Business Leader of the year 2003 award
Ms. Marks is the Deputy Chairman of The Urban Development Company (UDC), Chairman of the Central Wastewater Treatment Company Limited (CWTC) Director of the Board of Jamaica Trade and Invest Company Limited (JTI), National Health Fund (NHF) and The University of the West Indies (Mona School of Business), Immediate Past President of the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AMCHAM), among several other private and public sector boards.
Widely respected among her peers, Ms. Marks is constantly sought for speaking engagements on the academic circuit as guest lecturer and also guest speaker for a wide range of business and community functions.

Michael Lee-Chin

The Honourable Michael Lee-Chin, OJ (born 1951) is a Jamaican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder and Chairman of Portland Holdings Inc., a privately held investment company which owns a collection of diversified operating companies in sectors that include media, tourism, health care telecommunications and financial services. Among other positions, he was the Executive Chairman of AIC Limited (a Canadian mutual fund), and, as of December 2014, the Chairman of the National Commercial Bank of Jamaica. Canadian Business has named him as one of the richest people in Canada and one of the richest Jamaicans and estimates his wealth to be over CAD$2.0 billion.
Lee-Chin also currently sits as chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University.
Lee-Chin worked briefly as a road engineer for the Jamaican government, but unable to find work in his qualified field, he returned to Canada. At first he worked as a bouncer, but later found employment as a financial advisor for Investors Group.
Lee-Chin spent two years at the Investors Group, in the Hamilton, Ontario office and in 1979, moved to Regal Capital Planners and became regional manager. While at the company, in 1983, he secured a loan from the Continental Bank of Canada for C$500,000 to purchase a stake in Mackenzie Financial Group and formed Kicks Athletics with Andrew Gayle. By 1987, the investment was worth C$3.5 million.
In 1987, took the proceeds from his Mackenzie investment and he bought a Kitchener-based company called the Advantage Investment Council (a division of AIC Limited) for $200,000. At the time, the company had holdings of around C$800,000. He renamed the company AIC, and developed it to a fund that today controls around C$6 Billion, with hundreds of thousands of investors.
Following the acquisition of AIC Limited, Lee-Chin set up the Berkshire group of companies – comprising an investment planning arm, a securities dealership and an insurance operation. By 2007, Berkshire amassed more than C$12 billion of assets under administration. In 2007, Manulife acquired Berkshire from Portland Holdings in exchange for shares, making Portland one of the largest shareholders of Manulife.
In 2009, Lee-Chin sold AIC Limited to Manulife for an undisclosed amount. The following year, Manulife rebranded the heritage AIC funds and eliminated the AIC name from the mutual fund line-up.