‘Paco’ Kennedy dreamt of a better Jamaica
Francis ‘Paco’ Kennedy, a St George’s College, Georgetown Prep, and Holy Cross old boy, joined GraceKennedy, of which his grandfather was a founding partner, in 1959, starting as a billing clerk.
He worked closely with former legendary Grace CEO Carlton Alexander, and retired 46 years later as chief project officer. In-between, he got married in May 1973 to Marjorie Kennedy, moved to Montreal, had two children — Charles and Cathrine — and, after a stint at Harvard Business School, spent much of his working life running the shipping division of GraceKennedy, the most profitable division in the Group at that time.
In his speech at Paco’s funeral, GraceKennedy Chief Executive Officer Don Wehby, speaking from the heart, described his friend Paco as a “visionary” and a walking encyclopaedia on Grace, who passed on through his “stories” the history of GraceKennedy to the next leadership team, particularly the importance of hard work, and its key ethical values, many of which became part of Grace’s written code of ethics.
One of his pieces of advice, according to Wehby, was never to be afraid to “put your point to the government forcibly, but with respect.”
However, despite the heavy demands of a successful professional career, his desire for service led him to serve not only as a director of GraceKennedy but also as a member of the Jamaica Civil Society Coalition, chairman of the Kingston City Centre Improvement Company, and president of the Shipping Association of Jamaica in 1987, to name only a few.
His daughter Cathrine, who now also works at Grace, observed that when she joined the company fresh out of university, her father gave her some great advice. “Stay humble and treat everyone equally. Take the job that nobody else wants, try and align yourself to people that you admire and can learn from, and always, always, always stick to your principles and never compromise your integrity.”
This advice is well worth repeating, even memorising, and not just for those entering family, or formerly family businesses, but for those entering management generally in Jamaica, both public and private.
Cathrine added: “He was an egalitarian. He saw no boundaries for what an individual could achieve through hard work and acting with integrity. He believed that if each person could do better, GraceKennedy and our country would be better and so, one person at a time he effected an enormous amount of change by mentoring and caring for as many people as he did.
“That care meant a lot to people, from the chairman and CEO to the front-line staff. There wasn’t and isn’t a month that goes by that someone doesn’t come up to me and talk about how Daddy impacted their lives and helped them in some way or the other, and how that help changed their lives forever. Little by little, through those stories told to me by his colleagues and friends, I was able to glean the impact he had on the company by finding out just how many subsidiaries he started and ran throughout the Group and the policies and procedures he created and implemented that are still in force today.”
She observed that after her father’s retirement from GraceKennedy, she was privileged to have worked even more closely with him over the last six years at the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.
As she put it, his qualities “were now available to Jamaica through his public service on many boards and committees”, and until shortly before his death, “Daddy was working assiduously with all sectors of society to realise the dream we all have for this island we call home.”
Shortly before his passing, he was re-elected as president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), having already served two full terms in that post, and formerly as first vice-president under then president Milton Samuda.
His sister-in-law, Patricia Francis, former president of Jampro, who also served at the very prestigious International Trade Centre in Switzerland, said that Paco was fully aware of Jamaica’s need to be more outward-looking if it wanted to grow.
“I think it was in trips to places like Dubai, Panama and Guatemala, where he saw policies like these providing results, that he found convincing.”
She said that, for Paco “Caricom and CARIFORUM should be seen as domestic markets; regional should be Central America, the northern rim of South America and the southern rim of North America, and all the rest as global markets. We need that size domestic market to have any meaningful interest in investment in Jamaica and for our domestic businesses to grow. Also, we need these kinds of trade agreements to give us market access to the newly emerging markets of ASEAN and Africa as well as South America without diluting our current arrangements with North America and Europe.”
She observed, correctly, that his plans for his new mandate included “The Chamber to become more aggressive in rejoining the International Chamber, providing training for SMEs, making strategic linkages to other organisations and generally promoting the internationalisation of Jamaican businesses.”
All of this was planned for implementation on January 1, 2015, after a period of deep internal consultation supported by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.
The new JCC mission and vision, quoted directly from Paco’s incoming president’s speech in September, and written by him but delivered by then first vice-president Warren McDonald, explained the mission thus: “To facilitate our members to be drivers of growth and prosperity for Jamaica” and very importantly, the vision that “we will support the growth of Jamaica by facilitating our members’ integration into the global economy”.
In fact, in his last president’s report for the JCC, Paco had outlined an ambitious growth agenda for Jamaica, where the JCC had agreed to lead, on behalf of the wider private sector, on the following issues: regeneration of Downtown Kingston, Customs Reform (meaning Customs to become facilitators, not blockers), internationalisation of Jamaica’s Customs Tariff, implementation of Port Community System, partnering with the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce to establish Jamaica as the world’s fourth International Logistics Hub (joining Singapore, Dubai and Rotterdam), and partnering with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in trade negotiations.
Importantly, Patricia Francis added, the Logistics Hub Initiative was very dear to Paco’s heart and the JCC had hosted one of their most successful seminars on the topic in downtown Kingston earlier this year under Paco’s leadership.
“It was seen as a tool for transformation and a stepping stone to link Jamaican companies to global and regional value chains. Jamaica would be sold as a jump-off point for investment looking to penetrate the sub-region.
“Another important point Paco would always make was that we had to find a way to co-operate with other ports in the region and see ourselves as offering a regional solution rather than a ‘beggar thy neighbour’ approach of cut-throat commerce.”
Perhaps showing he fully understood the message of his namesake St Francis of Assisi, “To preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words”, as former JCC President Milton Samuda noted in his opening remarks at his funeral, “Paco found time to work for the poor and vulnerable in the Downtown Kingston community. Whether he was working towards the restoration of peace in a troubled community, or seeking jobs for unemployed youth, or helping to establish homework centres, Paco demonstrated genuine concern. His was not lip service, but service evidenced by presence. He evinced a visceral understanding of the power of inclusion.”
Indeed, one of his biggest regrets would certainly have been that he did not live to see the rebirth of Downtown Kingston, on which he had many ideas, a topic deserving a whole article by itself.
He also showed his sense of inclusion and partnership in his untiring work for the partnership for Jamaica, whose members said he always showed a constructive, practical and patriotic approach, as he had also shown in his previous involvement with Acorn (a joint private sector and union dialogue mechanism that Grace had helped start nearly two decades ago).
Walk good, my friend.