QUOTE ofthe day

'Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.'

- Abdul Kalam

On Friday, April 3, a forum on the financial crisis and job security in higher education will be staged at the the University of the West Indies (UWI) by the Association of Caribbean Higher Education Administrators, in collaboration with the West Indian Group of University Teachers Jamaica.

The forum, which takes place at 9 a.m. at the Multifunctional Room, Main Library, will feature a panel discussion with Danny Roberts, vice-president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions; Dr Kofi Young, associate professor of education and financing, vice-president of planning and operations, University of Technology, Jamaica; Robert Gregory, president, Jamaica Trade and Invest; and Charles Ross, managing director, Sterling Asset Management.

The panel will be chaired by Professor Neville Ying, director, business development, Mona School of Business.

Contact: 977-5941 or email patricia.valentine02@uwimona.edu.jm

Joel Gordon started out in the mail room at a Kingston branch of National Commercial Bank (NCB) straight out of high school in 1988.

Now the Kingston College old boy is a senior relationship manager with the bank's corporate banking division.

An eventful career in finance involved studying and working abroad. He was appointed to his current post in October 2008 on his return to Jamaica after 17 years abroad.

Today, Gordon describes his core competence as that of relationship management.

"Relationship management means getting to understand a company, learning the business, learning their everyday needs and applying my knowledge in partnership with them towards success," he tells Careers.

"It's definitely something needed in a competitive environment. It's putting the customer first."

His responsibilities now include managing and developing corporate loan portfolios with company clients engaged in the tourism, services, manufacturing/distribution and the construction sectors.

Focus is placed on companies generating revenues in excess of J$100 million.

Products and services offered include large syndicated loans, general working capital lines of credit (US- and Jamaican-dollar-denominated) trade and guarantee facilities.

Humble beginnings

From what he describes as humble beginnings, Gordon spent his first six years in Trench Town - a low-income community in Kingston - where he walked to school and remembers seeing the late reggae legend Bob Marley and his friends playing football.

At NCB, he worked his way up to senior teller in three and a half years, before migrating in 1991, to study and join his young wife in Michigan in the United States.

There, he acquired a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Arts in finance from Wayne State University, Michigan.

Hired as a summer intern during his period of study, Gordon later became an employee and then chief executive officer of Gateway International Building and Materials Group LLC, a company based in Florida.

In this capacity, he was responsible for developing financial programmes in conjunction with private investors and government agencies to develop low-income housing and warehouse/ distribution facilities in developing countries around the world.

"I entered a rigorous credit-training programme which taught me the fundamental skills of relationship management, as well as understanding and managing risks," said Gordon.

He moved up the ranks to vice-president in charge of a US$600, million loan portfolio that included some Fortune 1,000 companies based in New York and New Jersey.

"Focus then was on companies generating revenues of US$250 million and higher," he said

Gordon was recruited from Comerica in 2005 to join HSBC's Middle Market Lending team based in Miami, Florida, focusing on companies with revenues of US$250 million and below.

He left HSBC in 2007 to head up a commodity-trading company's subsidiary focused on facilitating low-cost home developments in the developing countries in which they did business.

Praising teachers

He credits teachers at Kingston College for the drive he developed to achieve.

"I remember a very caring and nurturing environment. The school was diverse in terms of the students' socio-economic status and backgrounds but that did not matter," Gordon said.

"What you saw, instead, was a group of young men who were driven academically and athletically, with a marked school spirit. I loved my time there. As a young man, Kingston College was exactly the kind of place I needed to really get a sense of my value and purpose in life."

avia.ustanny@gleanerjm.com