BUSINESSUITE Magazine’s  ranking of Jamaica’s leading businesswomen provides a unique opportunity to secure an insight into the professional lives and activity of some of the most interesting and inspiring women in Jamaica’s private sector today.

How we pick the Power 50

What qualities can adequately describe a woman of power and influence on a national level? She is often described as ambitious, driven, determined, creative, a confident leader and a risk-taker. She allows her passions to order her steps, her gifts and her talents to become her own personal calling card.

Powerful and influential women are thriving in their business lives across Jamaica and so the move by the BUSINESSUITE editorial team to select, based on the format created by FORTUNE magazine editors, the 50 most powerful and influential women was truly a daunting task.

As stated, the selection process for the BUSINESSUITE list of the ’50 Most Powerful and Influential Business Women’ is based on a general format created and used by the editorial team of FORTUNE Magazine. This includes:

1. The general size (Revenue, Profitability and Human Resource) and importance of the woman’s company in the Jamaican economy;
2. The health and direction of the company;
3. The arc of the woman’s career and;
4. Societal and cultural influence of the business as informed by key industry insiders and published information

It must however be noted that since BUSINESSUITE Magazine is not privy to the financial statements of some of the companies mentioned, this was not heavily factored into our final listing and placements. Readers are therefore invited to debate and discuss the names and placement of individuals.

They aren’t just successful executives, entrepreneurs, or administrators who are admired and respected within their own organisations, they are the voices that are heard across the industries in which their companies operate, even across corporate Jamaica as a whole.

The Presentation Event – October 2022
The awards will be given to 50 women business leaders who have achieved strong results in their respective fields. This will be the 1st edition of Businessuite Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Awards, to be held in October 2022. Details to come.

The awards are aimed at honouring remarkable Jamaican women who have made outstanding contributions to their organisations and set new standards of administration and performance across corporate Jamaica and the economy.

We will also be seeking to recognise and identifying Rising Stars and Women Abroad.

The Special Edition – October 2022
The event felicitates the most powerful women in Jamaican business and salutes the spirit of successful business women with a special issue of Businessuite Magazine ‘Most Powerful Women in Business” Jamaica Edition. Details to come

See also

The Top 40 Most Powerful and Influential Women in Jamaican Business for 2016.

Businessuite Power 50 Women in Jamaican Business for 2013

Businessuite Power 50 Women in Jamaican Business for 2012

Businessuite Magazine December 2014 Digital Edition

BUSINESSUITE Magazine October 2012 Digital Issue

Businessuite Women on Twitter Spaces– Every Tuesday 10am to 11am starting Tuesday June 7th 2022

Each week Dr. Anita Davis-Defoe and her guests will delve into informative and insightful conversations on all subject matters impacting women as they work to journey from the backroom to the boardroom, and of their own enterprises.

Dr. Yolanda Petersen
Group Executive Director
[BEGET] Strategic Project Management Solutions
Cape Town, South Africa

BIOGRAPHY:
Ms. Yolanda Petersen is a seasoned Marketing and Communications Specialist – her studies in MBM: BCom. Marketing and Business Management alongside her qualifications in APM -Advanced Project Management having worked for renowned Advertising Agencies (from the oldest in the world to the largest in Africa).

Yolanda is the Group Executive Director of a Strategic Project Management Solutions Company, [BEGET]. The [BEGET] Group hosts end to end Project Management, Supply Chain, Procurement and Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and Analytics Services.

The company is geared towards building clear business, supply chain, marketing and project planning strategies that can adapt to rapidly changing and volatile environments. Providing Strategic Consulting to a multitude of (varied) businesses.

Yolanda has worked her way up from entry level positions to earn her seat at the C-Suite table and is a 1st Generation Entrepreneur.

She is an established Business Strategist, Project Lead, Moderator, Facilitator and Keynote/Public Speaker who delivers high-energy keynote presentations that challenge audiences to leverage their focus and pay attention to what matters most, both at work and in life.

Yolanda has a keen passion for COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT and EMPOWERMENT, especially that of Women and the Girl-child and is very active in the NPO / NGO sector Framing, Drafting and Leading on Strategic Projects and Policy Development.

At the core, her current Social Impact Projects focuses on 2 key pillars: YOUTH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT and (UNEMPLOYED) YOUTH through EDUCATION.
[Active Roles: 2021/22]:
 Group Executive Director –[BEGET] Strategic Project Management Solutions
 Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy specializing in the area of Humanitarianism and Conflict Response, Theophany University, Haiti, USA.
 South African Country Chair for G100: All Ladies League (ALL) –Youth Enterprise & Leadership Wing.
 Global Advisory Board Member – Without You Foundation, Nigeria
 Member of the Charles Walters Society for Innovation and Research (CWSIR) – India
 Business Mentor – First Lady Chamber, South Africa
 Afrikaans Translator and Project Manager -Athenjwa Media, Cape Town
 Advisory Council Member, Special Needs Young Adults – The Shumeez Scott Foundation (SSF)
 Independent Fundraiser –Township Project ‘Love to Langa’ – US Based Non-Profit Organization
 Collaborative Partner at Destiny Consult Advisory Services, South Africa
 Independent Recruitment Officer (ETI Unemployed Youth Programme): Tshwane Institute of Technology (TiT) / South African Institute of
Management (SAIM)
 Christian Ministry Functional Support to: “Flame of the Holy Spirit Ministries” and “Love & Cross Ministries”

She previously held the position of Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communication at Women Lead Movement, South Africa -Heading
the WLM Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme.

Yolanda is an avid writer and a mother to very active an adorable little girl

Businessuite Women on Twitter Spaces – Every Tuesday 10am to 11am on Twitter Spaces starting Tuesday June 7th 2022

Each week Dr. Anita Davis-Defoe and her guests will delve into informative and insightful conversations on all subject matters impacting women as they work to journey from the backroom to the boardroom, and of their own enterprises.

“Globally, while as women we have made some strides as leaders, we still face tremendous challenges. Typically, when people think of a leader, the organizational CEO, what immediately still comes to mind is “he” not “she.” Even with mounting research from respected universities and think tanks that suggest women by nature are equipped to be better leaders than men (if you don’t believe me Google this for yourself), and interestingly enough, the number crunchers report that company profits are higher when a woman is at the helm, females continue to encounter a slippery slope as they work to journey from the backroom to the boardroom.”

Dr. Anita Davis-DeFoe is an Experienced Quality Management, Organization and Workforce Development Consultant; Leadership Coach; Author and Speaker

The following is an extract from the The LAB 2021 Annual Report

Financial Highlights
For the financial year ending October 2021, The LAB continued along a path of increased profitability and revenue growth. Revenue and net profits grew by 34.7% and 22.4% respectively. Shareholder equity also increased by $51.4 million to $515.7 million, up from $464.2 million year over year and return on average equity delivered to shareholders was 28.8%.

Revenue
During the year 2021, we generated a significant increase in revenues of $316.0 million to $1.2 billion relative to the prior year. This was attributable to significant growth in our key business lines; Production (up $147.9 million or 63.21%) and Media (up $172.9 million or 35.14%), even though there was a marginal decline in Agency (down $5.4 million or 2.94%).

Profitability
Gross profit increased by 25.8% or $77.1 million relative to the previous year. Also, our net profit was $155 million which was $28.4 million higher than the previous year. Return on equity for the year was 29.8% and earnings per share increased from $0.13 to
$0.16.

Payment of Dividends
We are pleased to advise that on December 29, 2021 our Board of Directors approved a resolution to declare a final ordinary dividend of $0.0133 per share and a Special Dividend of $0.038 per share. These payments were made on January 31, 2022, to all shareholders on record as of January 13, 2022.

Outlook
Propelled by last year’s progress, for the 2021 financial year, The LAB was able to facilitate marketplace innovations that directly aligned with our mission to become the leader in integrated marketing and production in the region. While the year 2020 will be forever remembered as the year everything changed, at The LAB, the year 2021 became the year for realigning and operationalizing in response to the transformed creative landscape.

As the creative industry landscape evolved, we correspondingly realigned the Company’s strategic vision, redefined performance metrics measured against internal targets and external benchmarks, both regionally and internationally.

Financial (including cost optimization and risk management) and non-financial (including client satisfaction, employee engagement and innovation) measures were utilised to monitor our performance periodically, from daily and weekly to monthly, quarterly and annually.

Changing Trends & Innovation
The Company, for the 2021 financial year, continued executing its five-year strategic plan. The LAB saw a five-year innovation timeline accelerate to within a year as both the society and economy were digitised at meteoric speeds. The rapid growth in online platforms like TikTok quickly signalled to us that the pandemic was accelerating the trends on which we based our vision for The LAB, such as having a borderless company, the explosion of digital experiences for customers, and the growing demand from clients for simple, integrated solutions that combine outstanding creativity with data and technological skills.

The actions taken during 2019 and 2020 to streamline our operations including establishing and hiring specifically to address media and digital innovation meant that we entered 2021 with a strong financial position. Although the effects of the pandemic have been devastating on local and regional economies, the Company posted a noteworthy performance for the fiscal year.

This financial success can be attributed to a number of factors including the implementation of cautious, pre-emptive cost containment measures and guiding, and collaborating with our clients virtually, to ascertain their needs and provide inventive solutions, as their companies navigated the effects of the pandemic. The close relationships with our clients, allowed us to understand their requirements, react quickly to changing consumer behaviour and recommend and create solutions to deliver on clients’ needs.

Kimala Bennett, the CEO and founder of The LAB

More information https://www.jamstockex.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/The-Lab-Annual-Report-2021-Web-compressed.pdf

Jamaican fast food chain Island Grill, is expanding! The eatery is seeking to employ 1-hundred new staff, including positions at a new Spanish Town restaurant. But what are their plans beyond Jamaica? And will they ever do an IPO? CEO and Founder of Island Grill, Thalia Lyn, joins us.