The local entrepreneurs who make up the Business Leader Foreign Investor Award selection committee have expressed high praises for the six overseas investors who have been nominated for the 2009 Jamaica Observer award.

As endorsers of the award programme, the committee members have joined the Jamaica Observer newspaper as well as the two sponsors – J Wray and Nephew’s Appleton brand and Pan Caribbean Financial Services – to highlight the value of foreign capital to Jamaica’s economic development.

All the individual endorsers are former nominees for the Business Leader Award, some of whom were named Business Leader. There are two institutional endorsers: JAMPRO, led by Sancia Templer, and Jamaica Tourist Board, led by John Lynch.

The Observer newspaper gave each committee member the names of two nominees, all randomly selected, and asked them to share with the public a synopsis of their views on the contribution that these investors are making to Jamaica’s development. Below, are the responses that arrived in time to meet the Observer’s publication deadline.

The Business Leader Award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, beginning with cocktail reception at 6:30pm. This will be followed at 8pm by the formal event at which the Business Leader Foreign Investor will be named. The actual selection of the Business Leader will be not be made until the evening of the award and will not be known to any of the nominees until the formal announcement.

The Observer will publish its annual Business Leader supplement on Wednesday, December 8 – a keepsake publication that will memorialize this year’s programme; it will feature the nomination stories, and a photographic review of the award ceremony. The supplement will also provide an opportunity for customers, suppliers, and well-wishers of the nominees to express congratulations to them and in particular to the individual who emerges as Business Leader.

Audrey Hinchcliffe is founder and principal of the Manpower and Maintenance group of companies. She was nominated for the Business Leader Award in 2002, and again in 2009 when the award programme focussed on Families in Business. Here is Hinchcliffe’s take on Luis and Carmen Riu; and Michael Lee Chin:

Michael Lee Chin

Michael Lee Chin as an investor and philanthropist embarked on what seemed like a spiritual mission tempered by honesty, objectivity, discipline and patience with a deep sense of commitment to seizing opportunities beneficial to people and organizations in the places where he grew up and lived.

Luis and Carmen Riu

Luis and Carmen Riu saw in Jamaica opportunities looking for investors in the hotel industry, and with their entrepreneurial spirit faced the prospect of failure, head on with the determination to succeed and led the pack in the wave of developing the model for big hotels thereby enhancing tourism.

Ryland Campbell is co-founder, principal shareholder and executive chairman of Capital & Credit financial group. He was named Business Leader in 2006. He was nominated for the award jointly with Andrew Cocking, co-founder and executive of the group, back in 1998. Campbell offers his perspective on Michael Lee Chin and Arthur Lok Jack:

Michael Lee Chin

Michael Lee Chin’s impact on Jamaica has been phenomenal, being buttressed by his personal visibility, passion and commitment which he brought in stimulating investor confidence and bolstering the stock market boom through his majority acquisition of National Commercial Bank and other major investments in telecommunications, insurance, sea-port services, media and the hospitality industry.

Inasmuch as his several acquisitions created a boom in the stock market, it is his taking corporate social responsibility in Jamaica to a new superlative level through his NCB flagship which has been the fulcrum in small business entrepreneurial development, numerous scholarships, examinations subsidy to needy students, physical expansion of educational institutions to mention a few that have given new meaning to nationalistic fervour and creating employment opportunities.

Arthur Lok Jack

Arthur Lok Jack represents the epitome of a quiet giant who exhibits confidence and enthusiasm. With an eagle eye for business in Jamaica, he sees clearly through the foul and ugly mists of intra-regional pessimism. This is represented in his bold decision to acquire Mutual Life in Jamaica and put the indelible stamp of his home-based Guardian Insurance on the Jamaican insurance industry, thus restoring the nation’s confidence in an industry which was at the time dangling close to the precipice.

His crowning achievement in contributing to the Jamaican national economy has to be the Caribbean Airlines acquisition of the world’s best regional airline brand, Air Jamaica, which has relieved our country from the massive operations losses and mounting debt which have been a burden on the public purse.

Gassan Azan is founder and principal of MegaMart stores and the Bashco chain of discount stores. He was nominated for the Business Leader award in 2000. Here are his comments on Michael Lee Chin and Luis and Carmen Riu:

Michael Lee Chin

What stands out the most for me with Mike is his gut instinct. It’s the sort of feeling you get which tells you “I Can Do This” despite all the advice to the contrary. It is what makes the difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur. Apart from the financial gains which he has brought to many Jamaicans, the most important thing is the goodwill which he brings on an international level to Brand Jamaica.

Luis and Carmen Riu

The most important reason why I personally like Luis and Carmen Riu is their courage in opening new ventures in markets which are unknown to them half way across the globe. This shows true entrepreneurial spirit. As far as Jamaica is concerned, we have benefited from a new and dynamic tourism product, which has revolutionized the industry, while creating thousands of jobs, and heralding a new era in foreign investment.

Alexander Melville is a principal of Chukka Caribbean Adventures; and Tropical Batteries Ltd. The Melville family – Alexander, Marc, Danny and Daniel – were named Business Leader Family in Business in 2009. The two elder siblings – Alexander and Marc – were previously nominated for the award – back in 2005.

Here, Alexander speaks about Luis and Carmen Rius; and Carlos del Rio:

Luis and Carmen Riu

One of the things I like about the fact that Luis and Carmen Riu pumped over US$400 million into Jamaica is the fact that Brand Jamaica continues to get benefits from their ongoing marketing and promotional spend every day, every month of the year. Also, the Rius have created indirect employment and business partnerships with many local businesses through their resorts.

Carlos del Rio

First impressions can last a lifetime; hence the Abertis investment in Sangster’s International Airport that was led by Carlos del Rio, will go a long way with visitors and investor in creating a lasting positive image of Jamaica. The airport is also the last Jamaican institution that the visitors will come in contact with before flying out of the island, so again that positive image will be with the tourists for a long time.

Fred Smith is principal of Tropical Tours – the Montego Bay-based tour bus and rent-a-car company. He and his father Ralph – the founder of the company – were jointly nominated for the award in 2007. He comments on Carlos del Rio and Denis O’Brien:

Carlos del Rio

In today’s vibrant and dynamic tourism industry, Carlos del Rio (Abertis) has brought Sangster International Airport onto a global level by revolutionizing its facilities. He has worked tirelessly at improving and expanding the services and infrastructure to accommodate the growing travel market.

The opportunity to control the airport was presented to him and he seized it. Under his leadership, the airport has gained international standards and reputation. It is the number one airport in the Caribbean, having won several international awards including the World Travel Award for being the Caribbean’s Leading Airport in 2010. Carlos del Rio has managed to increase Jamaica’s visibility internationally and deserves to be recognized as an outstanding business leader.

Denis O’Brien

A visionary with unlimited insight, Denis O’Brien has forged a marriage that has worked for both parties; if something could be considered to be ‘win-win’, then this is it! Jamaica has been good to Denis O’Brien and Denis has been good to Jamaica and, by extension, the Caribbean. His work through Digicel is praise-worthy. His accolades, especially through his contributions to numerous charities, will continue to ring out across the length and breadth of the island. I do hope that both continue to grow from strength to strength. It is not surprising that Jamaica Observer has used its Business Leader Award programme to shine the spotlight on Denis.

Donna Duncan-Scott is a principal of Jamaica Money Market Brokers, a company that was co-founded by her late mother, Joan Duncan. She was named Business Leader in 2002, and remains the sole female entrepreneur to be selected Business Leader. Below are her comments on Brendan Paddick of FLOW, and Arthur Lok Jack.

Brendan Paddick

With all of his accomplishments and various titles, including chief executive officer of Columbus Communications Inc. and its operating subsidiaries – Cable Bahamas Limited, Cable Trinidad Limited, FibraLink Jamaica Limited, New World Network, Ltd. and Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited – at heart, Brendan Paddick is a Possibility Thinker. A hardnosed strategist, Mr. Paddick’s recognition of the opportunities which existed in the local telecommunications market six years ago captures the unique vision of this Canadian businessman, who was able to look past the rubble of Hurricane Ivan’s aftermath; in the blackout which resulted from the storm, Brendan Paddick saw new growth competency in Jamaica, through enhancing its telecoms business sector.

Fast forward to 2010 and, Columbus Communications Jamaica Limited’s (Flow’s) unique business model has clearly differentiated it from local competitors, making the company a formidable player in the telecoms market, with its high-capacity broadband offerings, retail internet service and cable television. The company is poised to transform the technological platform in Jamaica, thereby giving businesses a competitive advantage and keeping households entertained. While concentrating on further growth initiatives across the region, Columbus Communications has provided employment opportunities for over 500 Jamaicans on a full-time basis and approximately 200 contractual. Corporate social responsibility is extensive, with free internet being provided to schools across the island to enhance the technological education of students. His recent recognition as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine for his significant successes having not yet reached the age of 40, and being named one of Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEO’s by Atlantic Business Magazine on three occasions, are further evidence that as a visionary and change agent, Brendan Paddick fully lives the mantra of Columbus Communications Inc. – ‘Don’t Predict the Future, Enable it!’

Arthur Lok Jack

Arthur Lok Jack’s story is that of a successful risk-taker; a foremost entrepreneur who had a distinctive vision, who dreamt beyond the confines of his homeland. Through his acquisition of a chocolate factory (Charles Candy Co) from friend Vernon Charles in his late 20s, Lok Jack began his foray into the consumer market, constantly looking for new opportunities, thereby establishing a presence in larger, foreign markets, such as Malaysia and Venezuela.

Through the years, his confidence in the Jamaican people, and his innovate and strategic thinking were the driving factors in the acquisition/expansion of various entities (Carib Cement Company, Guardian Life, RBTT) and the disposal of others (Terra Nova Hotel, Hedonism II, Grand Lido), as he extended his entrepreneurial prowess in Jamaica. The people of the Caribbean have benefited from his endorsement of globalization, through exporting products overseas and diversification, through his involvement in various business sectors – financial, manufacturing, and commercial. Despite his many accolades, Lok Jack remains modest and self-evaluating, with a notably easy-going disposition, humility and warm laugh. With his strong negotiating skills, penchant for success and reputation as the benchmark for what the Caribbean businessman should aspire towards, Arthur Lok Jack’s story is nothing shy of an entrepreneurial epic.

Charles Ross is co-founder, principal and managing director of Sterling Asset Management Ltd. He was nominated for the Business Leader Award in 2007. He writes about Digicel’s Denis O’Brien, and Carlos del Rio of the Abertis Group.

Denis O’Brien

Denis O’Brien is the archetypal entrepreneur, not content with having taken on and beaten the mighty British Telecom in Ireland, he decided to risk a significant part of his gains on that investment to take on the mighty Cable & Wireless in a small, poor developing country that was just liberalising its telecoms market. The fact that the economy of the country had been more or less stagnant for over two decades did not deter Denis; he smelled an opportunity and did not hesitate to put down nearly US$50 million to secure a licence to offer cellular phone service in Jamaica. The rest, as they say is history! In less than 10 years, Digicel, the company he founded in Jamaica now dominates the local telecoms landscape and the country now has one of the highest penetration rates of telephone service in the world. (Boy, don’t Jamaicans love to chat!) Of course, Digicel has grown far beyond the shores of Jamaica and now has operations in the Caribbean, Central America and the South Pacific. Perhaps it’s a case of ‘Yesterday Jamaica, today the region, tomorrow the world….’

Carlos del Rio

Carlos del Rio’s Albertis Airports was a vital part of the flood of Spanish investment in Jamaica’s tourism sector that took place in the first decade of the 21st century. Carlos is part of a bold entrepreneurial group which rode the late 20th century wave of infrastructure privatisation to build a multinational company specialising in this area. Airports are the gateways to island states and it is inconceivable that Jamaica could develop a 21st century tourism product without having a thoroughly modern airport with the facilities and capacity to cope with strong and consistent growth in passenger traffic. Such developments are capital intensive and long term and when undertaken by a large sophisticated multi-national, they represent a significant vote of confidence in the country.

Patrick Casserly is co-founder of e-Services, a company he sold last year to American Fortune 500 giant ACS. He is now chairman of Maximilian Ltd and president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce. Casserly was named Business Leader in 2004.

He offers comments on Brendan Paddick of FLOW, and Arthur Lok Jack:

Until the entry of FLOW into the Jamaican market, the country’s national and international telecommunications infrastructure was severely limited as there was only one significant fibre optic cable connecting Jamaica to the rest of the world. With the passage of Hurricane Ivan this became glaringly evident as the Maya One facility was severed in Cayman by the storm surge. For some enterprises this meant limping along on the often-unreliable satellite platform. With FLOW’s entry the entire landscape changed. FLOW has transformed the telecommunications industry in Jamaica in a myriad of ways. First and foremost, Jamaica now benefits from telecommunications redundancy with high availability; by availability it is meant the FLOW’s sub-oceanic facility is operational 99.999% of the time. This has dramatically impacted employment opportunities, as customer service has become a focal point for many existing and emerging enterprises using FLOW’s infrastructure. The other significant change has been the cost of service. On FLOW’s entry into the market, it drove telecommunications and high-speed broadband Internet prices down by almost two thirds of the prevailing pricing pre Flow. A happy spin-off to these facilities, as a residential customer of FLOW, is the superior entertainment services now widely available to the public.

It is important to recognize that this significant investment represents for FLOW a long-term commitment to Jamaica’s future development.

Arthur Lok Jack

In reading Arthur Lok Jack’s Business Leader story and prowling the Internet to garner more information, I was struck by many elements of his life, but most of all his unflagging commitment to an idea. Mr. Lok Jack sees value in enterprise where all others see loss and failure. It is impossible to enumerate the extent of the impact that this Caribbean entrepreneur has had on the Jamaican economy – from re-engineering Caribbean Cement, to the entry of Guardian Holdings through Guardian Life, the entry of RBTT, and investment in the hotel and petroleum industries. Many may view Mr. Lok Jack as a business mogul, I see him as a true visionary that believes in the future of Jamaica and its marketplace. Arthur Lok Jack has largely transformed Jamaica’s financial collapse of the 1990s into the stable forward-thinking environment we enjoy today. While we may not have achieved Federation, Mr. Lok Jack has quietly created financial and product integration across the region and most importantly to the ultimate benefit of Jamaica.

Paul Hoo is co-founder and chairman of Supreme Ventures. He was jointly nominated for the Business Leader Award with Peter Stewart in 2002

Here is Hoo’s take on Digicel’s founder Denis O’Brien and AIC’s Michael Lee Chin:

Denis O’Brien

As one of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs with extensive investments across several sectors including international telecoms, radio, media, property, aircraft leasing, golf and other leisure interests, Mr. O’Brien provides a “can-do” approach to investment in Jamaican business. With an initial US$100 million, he was able to surpass the first year’s target set for Digicel and his unchanging vision of the potential in Jamaica was made clear when a further US$700 million was invested despite being cautioned by his bankers about investing in Jamaica. He has altered the Jamaican landscape by bringing technology to Jamaica that we were otherwise not exposed to and by reducing the price of Jamaicans trying to keep communication active. Partially his success is due to being interested in the Jamaican community and its welfare which is commendable as a foreign investor.

Michael Lee Chin

Widely regarded as a visionary entrepreneur, Mr. Lee Chin has grasped the idea of making the right decisions for Jamaica and the Caribbean and has made strides in order to make these ideas become a reality. He has assumed the role of Jamaica’s most noticeable promoter of investments in the country, and has proven this by his acquiring of NCB and his resurrection of the business after it was brought to the verge of collapse. Through his role in increasing the bank’s profit to approximately US$130 million from US$30 million, and his significant contributions to business and philanthropy, he has proved that he is truly no average financier.

Sancia Templer is president of JAMPRO, the state-run investment promotions agency, one of two institutional endorsers of the Business Leader Foreign Investor Award:

She comments on Flow’s Brendan Paddick and Arthur Lok Jack

Arthur Lok Jack

The importance of having a clear, strong vision and matching it with the requisite fortitude and action in order to achieve success in the world of business is something that cannot be overly emphasised. Trinidadian businessman Arthur Lok Jack is the embodiment of this formidable mix of foresight, boldness and firm resolve, which has served him well in reviving the fortunes of Caribbean Cement Limited, creating a powerful entity in Guardian Life, venturing into the Jamaican tourism industry with Beaches Boscobel and the area of banking with RBTT, among many other pursuits. The country has benefited immensely from Mr. Lok Jack’s prolific entrepreneurial activities, which have resulted in the retention and creation of jobs in critical sectors.

Brendan Paddick

Brendan Paddick’s firm belief in Jamaica as an investment destination and his clear grasp of the island’s limitless potential has been duly rewarded by the success enjoyed by Flow Jamaica – the country’s first broadband network that seamlessly offers digital cable television, digital landline and high speed Internet service. Flow’s investment of US$250 million in Jamaica has allowed it to significantly enhance the country’s information, communications and telecommunications (ICT) landscape, and has served as an effective enabler of innovation and development. In the context of global business challenges, Flow has increased Jamaica’s business competitiveness and has made the country an even more attractive destination for investors.