January

• Minna Israel named managing director RBTT Jamaica Limited. Israel – who formerly worked with the Scotiabank group, Canada’s number four bank, and was head of BNS Bahamas before RBTT wooed her – says she sees opportunity to grow her market here by building her strategy on good client service.

• Vernon James, the head of the stockbrokerage unit at investment bank Dehring Bunting and Golding (DB&G) Limited, leaves to join NCB Capital Limited as assistant vice-president, Treasury.

• NCB Capital, last year (2007), lost several managers – including Debra Lopez who is now at FirstCaribbean Jamaica – forcing managing director Chris Williams to hunt new talent and rebuild his team.

• Justin Nam, quit his job as assistant vice-president at First Global to work with the Mark Croskery at Stocks and Securities Limited as Vice-President – Equities & Trading.

• Kevin Donaldson, a manager at Pan Caribbean moved to First Global as AVP.

• Sherene Todd, investment services manager at Pan Caribbean, headed to DB&G as AVP, Sales;

• Brian Frazer, who worked with Scotia Investments up to its merger with DB&G last year, was promoted to AVP of Asset Management at DB&G.

April

• GraceKennedy sent Michael Ranglin, the deputy head of its food division, to London to replace his boss, Irwin Burton, as CEO of WT Foods, the British ethnic foods manufacturer and distributor it acquired a year ago.

• Burton was promoted to deputy group CEO, even as he keeps his position as CEO of the food division, GK Foods.

• Don Wehby was replaced as the boss of GK Investments by Joe Taffe, who is still acting in the post.

• Ryan Mack, formerly the general manager of Grace Foods & Services Company, was promoted to senior general manager of domestic business since January 1. He took over some of the duties Ranglin had in Jamaica.

• Mack’s old job went to Gilroy Graham, formerly the general manager of World Brands Services Division.

• Stanley Beckford, formerly an assistant general manager at GK Foods and sales and marketing manager for its world brands services division, is now the general manager of the World Brands Services Division.

• Lissant Mitchell introduced as Anya Schoor’s deputy at Scotia DBG Investments. Mitchell, who joined the company in October 2007, is senior vice-president with overall responsibility for treasury, trading, stockbrokerage and asset management operations.

• Also at Scotia DBG Investments, Suzanna Holness, to vice-president of operations. Holness who has over 20 years in banking operations and business process redesign joined the group in February in a move from Capital and Credit Financial Group.

• Brian Fraser, who was inherited when Scotia Jamaica Investments (SJIM) was collapsed into Scotia DBG Investments under a swap of shares, is assistant vice-president for pension fund management and general manager of Scotia DBG Unit Trust Manager’s Limited, formerly DB&G Unit Trust.

• David Hunter, former chief executive officer of Digicel Bermuda, was shifted to Jamaica to head Digicel’s operations here, while David Hall was reassigned to a much wider portfolio – head of the telecoms group’s North Caribbean operations.

May

• Leo Williams resigned as managing director of JMMB Securities Limited after seven years with the family- controlled JMMB brokerage, to focus on building his own investment firm, Williams and Associates Investments Limited.

• Julian Mair, director for JMMB Securities is to replace him as representative.

• Today’s Money Limited, a 10-year-old company in the business of providing financial and business information to institutions and individuals, is now on the hunt for a new managing director. Orville Johnson, a shareholder who ran the company, in a return to his insurance roots, left to take up the post of executive director at the Insurance Association of Jamaica (IAJ). He replaces Annette Robotham.

• Dominique and Horace Peterkin, teams up on a new business the couple is launching in September, called Hospitality Services Limited. Peterkin, general manager of Sandals Montego Bay for 16 years, and wife Dominique Peterkin, director of marketing at Chukka Caribbean Adventures, will team up as partners in the new business, starting September.

• Anthony Chang steps down as managing director of T. Geddes Grant (Distributors) Limited, the Desmond Blades-controlled distribution firm, saying that he is going into private consultancy.

August

• Courtney Campbell, recently recruited from National Commercial Bank, has joined the most senior company officials in Grace-Kennedy Limited as a member of the GK Executive Committee. Campbell, the new chief executive officer of GK Holdings Limited, established by Grace-Kennedy to hold its assets in First Global, was appointed to the committee by group CEO and Chairman Douglas Orane.

• Michelle Wilson-Reynolds returns to Capital and Credit Financial Group in a ‘senior’ role, reconnecting with the company that, while she was gone, underwent a reconstruction and shifted from private ownership to a publicly listed company. Two years ago, when Wilson-Reynolds left CCFG to work with Victoria Mutual Building Society, she was the company’s vice-president for marketing and corporate affairs of the merchant banking arm. She returns as senior vice president for marketing and corporate affairs.

September

• NCB Capital Markets Limited lost its vice-president for investment, Karlene Bailey, who officially departed the company in October. Research Manager Joshua Rowe will act in the post until a permanent replacement is identified.
Her resignation has added to the number of senior executives who have left the Chris Williams-led brokerage over the last two years, among them Deborah Lopez who headed up the wealth division, but who is now with the capital markets team at FirstCaribbean Jamaica.

• Philip Armstrong steps up in the ranks at Pan Caribbean Financial Services (PCFS); his new position is deputy chief executive officer (CEO). His appointment cements him as the number-two man at the New Kingston-based brokerage, and chief lieutenant to CEO Donovan Perkins.

• Director of Marketing at Flow Jean McPherson is leaving the organisation next month. Her departure is almost on the heels of the resignation of another key person, Rick Pardy, the former chief executive officer who left in July.

• Mark Linehan appointed as Digicel’s (Jamaica) fifth CEO,

October

• Robert Drummond, who has operated as a project trouble shooter since joining GraceKennedy Limited three and half years ago, was named to head the group’s equities and assessment management arm, First Global Financial Services (FGFS).

• Drummond’s appointment replaces Sandra Shirley who was said to be leaving to pursue new business interests, appears to be the first of the likely casualties from the creation of a new holding company – First Global Holdings – for the First Global financial entities, and the appointment in July of Courtney Campbell, formerly head of retail banking at National Commercial Bank (NCB), as its CEO.

November

• John Lynch, the executive vice- president for worldwide sales in Unique Vacations, leaves the company after 16 years with the Sandals Group.

• Announcement: Raby Danvers ‘Danny’ Williams is expected to give up his chairmanship of the Jamaica Broilers Group early next year, but the five-decade-old poultry company is making plans to link his name to the business through a lifelong directorship. A date for the departure of President Robert Levy, 68, whose family has majority shares in the company, has also been set for next February. Speculation is that his son, Christopher Levy, a senior vice-president in the poultry company, would likely replace him.

December

• Phil Green resigned as Cable & Wireless Jamaica (C&WJ) president making him the fourth president, in as many years, to leave the struggling telecom. Come January 1, Geoff Houston will head the local operations as country manager whilst Green will remain in the group. Green remains chairman of LIME Caribbean and chairman of Cable & Wireless’ Macau business.