ALEXANDER
PORT OF SPAIN (Trinidad Express):
"I BELIEVE that you must always upgrade your skills and prepare yourself for the next job," says Dehring Bunting & Golding (DB&G) country manager for Trinidad and Tobago, Lisa-Maria Alexander.
With 15 years in the working environment, Alexander's pro-active attitude captured the attention of the Jamaican-based investment company, Dehring Bunting and Golding, within two weeks of emailing her resumé. She was offered the job on the spot when she flew to Jamaica for an interview.
DB&G set up office in Trinidad on July 15, the first non-Jamaican branch established by the company, which has eight branches in Jamaica. The official launch of the T&T office takes place in November.
EMPLOYMENT
Coming from St. Joseph Convent, San Fernando, and from a family where all the females went to that school, Alexander obtained employment with RBTT even before A-Level results were made available.
After spending a year with the bank and moving through eight branches, gaining a feel for different cultures and environments, she went to the University of the West Indies and obtained a degree in industrial management.
Three years later, she returned to RBTT during the holiday period to earn some money, preparing herself for graduation.
With her degree, she worked at an electrical company TYE and then with Peakes Manufacturing in the air-conditioning department, doing purchasing for both.
Sanctuary Villa Resort in Tobago then hired Alexander in 1995 to purchase construction material. She was also responsible for setting up the accounting systems.
MARKETING
While at the resort, she got involved in the marketing of the company.
"It was a small business and if a client comes for information and no one was available, I helped them. Therefore, I ended up being part of the sales process and actually started marketing."
Alexander stayed in the industry for four years, then went to the Bureau of Standards as quality auditor for services.
Marketing seemed to be the area that Alexander often found herself in, as the following positions would show. She worked at Tobago Plantations Resort as assistant manager of marketing. In the health area at Sagicor, she entered as senior marketing officer, then assistant marketing manager for health and left as assistant marketing manager for all services.
"My career seemed to take on the path of marketing. I did it for about 10 years," said Alexander. "I had some hurdles, but the movements I made have always been upward. I always worked as though I have the next job.
"Industrial management is a management studies degree that gives a broad perspective on a host of things. When you are in a purchasing job and then you go to a marketing job you are actually a lot stronger simply because you have been buying, so that when you now have to sell to people you have a very good understanding of what customers want and need. What the demands are like.
"That has really been my strength, in addition to combining it with my quality management skills."
PIONEERING
"My responsibility now is leading DB&G Trinidad. We are a registered securities company with the T&T Securities Exchange Commission and we are licensed to do investments, underwriting and other trhings. Right now, we are starting with two unit trust products, a premium and growth fund and a money market fund. Starting and growing that business is my main portfolio.
"Essentially, I am pioneering the brand and what it represents and making sure that we adapt it and tailor it to suit our market."
"Managing diversity is one thing that I do not think can be conquered. It is something that you must continuously work at. It is not just different ethnicities, but men and women. It is about managing people with different goals and competing with resources."
