GraceKennedy Stalwarts to Deliver 34th Annual Lecture

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The GraceKennedy Foundation (GKF) has announced that its 34^th annual lecture titled A Century of Excellence. GraceKennedy’s Recipe for Success. will be presented on Thursday, October 20 at the Jamaica Conference Centre. The lecture will commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the GraceKennedy Group.

GraceKennedy Stalwarts

The lecture will also be live streamed on GraceKennedy’s YouTube channel and will feature a panel of three distinguished GraceKennedy stalwarts exploring different aspects of GraceKennedy’s history – Dr Fred Kennedy, educator, author and Chair of GKF; Hon. Douglas Orane CD, retired Chairman and CEO of GraceKennedy; and Senator Don Wehby, current CEO of the GraceKennedy Group.

Caroline Mahfood, Chief Executive Officer of GKF, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, commented, “GraceKennedy’s 100^th anniversary is a milestone that is very rare in business, and it has provided an opportunity for much reflection and discussion. People are curious about what contributed to GraceKennedy’s longevity and growth over a century.”

Mahfood went on to say that the genesis of the lecture was a soon-to-be published biography by the current GKF Chair Dr. Fred Kennedy, titled FIRSTBORN, The Life of Luis Fred Kennedy 1908-1982.

GraceKennedy’s History

Dr Kennedy explained, “During the lecture I will cover the period of GraceKennedy’s history when it was a family-owned business. Those were the years when it was managed first by my grandfather and then by my father Luis Fred Kennedy and James Moss-Solomon Sr, who were succeeded by Carlton Alexander and Rafael Diaz. Douglas Orane, who took over from Diaz in the 1990s, will discuss the successes and challenges of the evolution of a family-owned company into a publicly traded, global business, during the particularly difficult era of globalization and the increasing competitiveness of free trade. Don Wehby will discuss the expansion of the Group in the 21^st century and give us a peek into GraceKennedy’s vision for the future.”

The lecture will be moderated by Simone Clarke-Cooper, CEO, Simspeak Communications.

Through the annual lecture series, which was inaugurated in 1989, GKF has proven itself a trusted source for intellectual discourse and dissemination of information. The lecture continues to inspire the Caribbean community with innovative ideas, many of which have been tested, and applied in an effort to address the social and economic challenges facing our region.

Lecture Panelists

This year’s lecture panelists will join a cadre of distinguished scholars including Vivian Crawford, Marjorie Whylie, Rev Burchell Taylor, Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee, Dr. Michael Abrahams, Dr. Maureen Samms Vaughn and Professors Patrick Bryan, Michael Taylor, Barry Chevannes, Elsa Leo-Rhynie and Mona Webber.

Registration

To register to attend the lecture in-person or virtually, visit www.bit.ly/GKFLecture2022. In-person attendance is limited, therefore early registration is encouraged.

Electronic copies of past lectures can be found at www.gracekennedy.com