Charles Johnston
The third generation of Johnston leadership advanced to the helm of Jamaica Fruit and Shipping in 1978 when Charles H. Johnston became managing director. Educated at Jamaica College and the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, his career has spanned a wide range of business activities in Jamaica and overseas. Like his father Ernest, Charles Johnston also served as president of the Shipping Association of Jamaica and continues to serve on the SAJ's managing committee. Today, Charles Johnston is the executive chairman of both Jamaica Fruit and Shipping and Jamaica Freight and Shipping. He is also chairman of Jamaica Producers Group and sits on the board of several major companies.
During his tenure, C.H. Johnston has modernised and expanded the business. Changes include a partnership with Tankweld Ltd., (TS Crane) that supplies stevedoring equipment, such as cranes, stackers, forklifts and trucks. Jamaica Fruit and Shipping is also partnering with Zim Integrated Shipping Services Limited in the creation of the Kingston Logistics Centre (KLC). KLC is offering to Jamaica the same services offered in the Free Zone in Panama.
"We are offering an all-inclusive logistics centre", Charles Johnston states, explaining that KLC provides a full-service portfolio that comprises:
Free Zone
Transhipment
Consolidation and Deconsolidation
Bonded Warehousing
Distribution
Customs Brokerage
Inventory Management, and
Information Technology
Among the current generation of national leaders that are directors of Jamaica Fruit and Shipping Company today are: Marjory Kennedy (nee Johnston), President of the Jamaica Exporters' Association; Patricia Francis (nee Johnston) former President of JAMPRO, and Michael Bernard, current President of the Shipping Association of Jamaica.
Michael Bernard
Educated at Kingston College and University of the West Indies, Michael Bernard joined the Jamaica Fruit and Shipping team in 1976 in the merger with Sprostons Shipping Limited where Mr. Bernard had proven himself to be an excellent manager.
With 34 years' experience in the field of shipping, in the areas of agency operations, cargo claims, ship broking, accounts, marketing, stevedoring and equipment services at the highest level of management, Michael Bernard's professional skills are complemented by a deep commitment to the development of Jamaica's Shipping Industry.
He served on several subcommittees of the SAJ rising to chairman of the safety and disciplinary committees.
He was elected president of the Shipping Association of Jamaica for 2006 and 2007 and has been serving on the association's managing committee for eight years. Mr. Bernard was the SAJ's vice-president from 2003 to 2005 with responsibility for industrial relations and he and his team have been responsible for industrial harmony on the port for the past 20 years.
President
Mr. Bernard also holds the posts of president of the Marine & Allied Industries Co-operative Credit Union, board member of the National Quarantine Committee, board member of the Caribbean Maritime Institute, board member of Amalgamated Stevedoring Limited, managing director of Shipping Services Stevedoring Limited, and director of Jamaica Freight and Shipping. He is also a member of the Port's Award Committee of the Caribbean Shipping Association and was instrumental in establishing the scoring system used in the adjudication process.
He was inducted in June 2005 as a Gold Member of the International Association of Business Leaders, and is President-Elect of the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains.
In 2006 he was elected to the executive of the Jamaica Employers' Federation and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, and continues to serve in those capacities.
Marjory Kennedy
Since birth, Marjory Kennedy has been a part of the world of international trade. She remembers that father Ernest and grandfather Charlie would discuss with her and her youthful siblings the new developments in shipping, the government's policy on trade and business plans. Her own international experience began at the age of 15 years when she voyaged to England on 'the banana boat' as the Jamaica Producers Ships were then called. Then, after leaving Wolmer's High School for Girls, she attended college in Spain where she enrolled in a special programme offered to foreigners in Philosophy and Letters.
Marjory returned to Jamaica fluent in Spanish, and became a vital asset of Pan American Airways in Sales on their Latin American routes. She left the airline in 1973 when she married Francis 'Paco' Kennedy, son of Luis Frederick Kennedy who, like her grandfather 'Mass Charlie', was a founder of the SAJ in 1939. 'Paco' served as President of the SAJ from 1987 to 1988 and then again in 1992.
Mrs. Kennedy began working in the family business after the birth of her second child, when she served as secretary to her father (Ernest) at City Retreading Ltd, a manufacturing company then located at Elletson Road. It wasn't until after her husband retired from a competing business in shipping that her brother, Charles, invited her to join the team at Jamaica Freight and Shipping.
As the company's representative to Jamaica Exporters' Association (JEA) meetings, Marjory found herself getting more and more involved in discussions and activities of the association and was elected to the board in 2002, and then vice- president. She was elected president of the JEA in 2006 and has set about modernising the operations of the organisation and seeking opportunities for Jamaica's export sector.
Tasks we face
"A major task we face as exporters" Marjory explains, "is getting the government to see itself as facilitators of export growth". She notes tha some things have been done to reduce the onerous 'red tape' to which JEA members are subjected, Jamaica is competing with countries that have far less obstacles.
But even while lobbying for a more business-friendly environment, Mrs. Kennedy and the JEA are being proactive is seeking new sources of investment financing for members and in providing training and technical assistance that can make the export sector more efficient and competitive.
Patricia Francis
Pat Francis, the former president of JAMPRO, is a director of Jamaica Fruit and Shipping. Like her brother, Charles, and sister, Marjory, she had an early introduction to the world of international trade thanks to father Ernest's insistence that all his children, girls and boys, be knowledgeable of developments in business globally.
It was under her leadership that JAMPRO was named the World's Best Trade Promotion Organisation at the fifth World Conference on World Trade held in Malta in 2004. Interestingly, JAMPRO was selected ahead of Singapore's trade promotion organisation in that competition.
Since June, 2006, Mrs. Francis has been serving as executive director of the International Trade Centre, the joint technical cooperation agency of UNCTAD and WTO for business aspects of trade development. The appointment was made by then Secretary-General of the U.N., Kofi Annan and the WTO's director-general Pascal Lamy.
Wealth of experience
"Patricia Francis will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to ITC. I look forward to working closely with her to further the interests of developing countries", Mr. Lamy said upon her appointment.
With her extensive management experience in the fields of trade promotion and technical assistance to developing countries, Mrs. Francis is now playing an important role in further developing the International Trade Centre, whose mission is to help to promote exports of developing countries and countries in transition.
Mrs. Francis has held several important posts in both the public and the private sector. She served as president of JAMPRO, Jamaica Promotions Corporation for 10 years, and is a former president of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies. Prior to her current appointment, she worked with ITC to develop a national export strategy for Jamaica. Mrs. Francis was chair of the China-Caribbean Business Forum and, as a management consultant, advised Latin American and Caribbean countries. Mrs. Francis is on leave from the Jamaica Fruit board.
