Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer

Dr. Sandra Palmer-Peart, CEO of SSP Aptec.

Several thousand feet of storage space in the SSP APTEC warehouse contain enough computers and electronics to outfit most Jamaican companies in a single day.

In its offices on Red Hills Road in St. Andrew, open spaces painted in calming, sky-blue is perhaps the first indication that this is the business place of a woman.

Liberal arts graduate Dr. Sandra Palmer-Peart, CEO of SSP APTEC, headquartered on Red Hills Road in St. Andrew, with offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is in what some might think is a woman in a man's world, but she is completely at ease.

Dr. Palmer-Peart has successfully sojourned into business because, basically, she has always found it hard to take 'no' for an answer.

Intensely competitive, Sandra grew up in the hills of Manchester in Topsham, with dreams of making her mom proud of her for 'being someone important'.

But, the first taste of failure came with the Common Entrance Examinations in which she did not succeed at first attempt.

It took a school transfer and another year of trying before she was successful and obtained a place at the Bishop Gibson High School for girls in Mandeville.

Highest grades

Dr. Sandra Palmer-Peart and her husband and business partner John-Paul, along with their daughter J'Nae.

At Bishop Gibson, Sandra would try to get the highest grades consistently in a bid to steal the spotlight.

She recalls, "I was obsessed with being on top, to the extent that, if I didn't get the highest grade on a test I would withdraw and sulk."

Missing out on the chance of being head girl, she nevertheless asked to be valedictorian and was given the green light.

She left Bishop Gibson High School as valedictorian and, later, proudly collected results which she had for having passed nine GCE O'Levels.

While her competitive streak might have caused her sleepless nights, later in life it was to help her to overcome odds that would have terrified others into giving up.

In 1986, she was employed to National Commercial Bank in Mandeville, and she requested a transfer to Matilda's corner, St. Andrew, in orderto attend the University of the West Indies as a natural sciences student.

She recalls, "The reason why I did physics and mathematics was for everybody's purpose but my own. I had no interest but everyone else thought that I should be a doctor."

Demotivated and working full-time while attending classes on a part-time basis, it was no surprise that when examinations came around at the end of first year she was not ready, and failed.

Sandra was asked to sit out for a year but such an act would have gone against her nature. She decided that she could not.

Arts and General Studies

"I went and begged the dean who sent me to Arts and Gneral Studies," she recalls.

Happy to be back in school again, Sandra started doing economics and politics, realising that these subjects were what she really loved.

In her final year at the UWI, she quit her job and started attending classes full-time.

Despite her efforts, Sandra missed getting a first-class degree by one point. But, there was a good reason for this.

In November 1990, Sandra was badly injured when she was hit off a motor cycle. She was told by the doctors in hospital that all the bones in her ankle were so badly broken they could do nothing about it. But, in Sandra's mind, not only would she walk again, but she was intent in completing her studies.

Her husband-to-be - John-Paul Peart - would collect assignments and take these to her each morning and she would complete them for him to return to her tutors by the next day.

When finally the doctors decide to pin her ankle with a metal stabiliser, she began commuting to classes by bus, using her crutch to walk long distances to catch these vehicles on the days when friends could not take her to school.

She nevertheless graduated with an honours undergraduate degree at the University of the West Indies (specialising in political science and economics).

Palmer-Peart went on to take the distinction in her master's in business administration (MBA) from Nova Southeastern University.

For her doctorate,she again took an honours degree from Nova Southeastern, specialising in information technology management.

Today, Dr. Palmer-Peart is described by those know her as a hard-driven, highly motivated and hands-on CEO.

Her company, SSP APTEC Incorporated, was started in 1997 with her own meagre equity, as no one would lend her money.

Launching pad

After leaving the UWI, and a short stint teaching at Jamaica College, she found employment with WTG APTEC, an information technology firm which was to be her launching pad into the industry.

She next worked as a senior marketing executive at Eagle Information Systems, where she marketed Oracle, Microsoft and other products. She was also corporate account executive at InfoGrace, where she was a member of InfoGrace's strategic planning team and marketed IT solutions to the corporate sector.

In 1997, she earned the coveted title of Account Executive of the Year and decided to launch out on her own.

She recalls, "I was promised promotions but these were given to an overseas recruit."

Palmer-Peart used her own savings to create an IT start-up. There was no money to be had from any bank.

"Financial institutions asked for collateral I did not have."

Shaky start

Ten years after an admittedly shaky start, SSP APTEC today markets computer hardware and software to corporate and government entities alike, and is one of the few local companies to specialise in multimedia products, providing such things as electronic screens and surround sound for conferences and churches.

She is grateful, Dr. Palmer-Peart says, for the support of her husband and business partner, along with her brother Gairey Palmer.

The company now has two other arms: Speciality Coatings, Paints and Supplies run by brother Gairey, and SSP APTEC Trucking, which is run by her husband John-Paul.

In 2002, Palmer-Peart checked into a hotel in Fort Lauderdale and set up a meeting with a local lawyer, who coached her on the legalities of setting up business in the United States.

She had made up her mind to go to Florida , she says, as the spending power in Jamaica is limited. Jamaica's population is 2.5 million compared to 16 million in the southern state.

Being a minority - black female and young - with no connections, the entrepreneur had to delve deeply into her creative mind in order to get started.

While working on getting her L-1 (business) visa, she "went to every networking function" in the county.

Golf

She also picked up golf, joining the Inverrary golf club and Rotary.

"I had to find a short cut to get to know people," she reflects.

Four years later, her success in Florida has provided a boost for business in Jamaica, as the strategic move has given SSP APTEC more local credibility.

Dr. Palmer-Peart states that she delights in encouraging other Jamaicans to venture into business.

A lecturer at the Mona School of Business, where she teaches New Ventures and Entrepreneurship, and at Northern Caribbean University, where she lectures in the module Managing Organisational Behaviour, she comments: "I am not saying that business is for everyone, but many shy away because of fear - fear of not having enough money, not having the right colour, the right name and the right connections. I am here to tell them that they do not need these to succeed."

Health benefits

She had been pregnant with her only child when she walked off her last job. She needed health benefits, but this did not stop her.

"If you are doing something that you really do not want to do, do not do it another day," she counsels. She states, "My life has been about being persistent."

Hard work invariably pays off.

"At all times," she notes, "you get what you put in."