BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados Business Enterprise Corp. (BBEC), a public-private sector partnership which manages the newly launched Barbados Entrepreneurs’ Venture Capital Fund, has engaged the services of two young Barbadian professionals to complement its virtual management team.
Barbadians Marita Greenidge and Jeremy Stephen, who recently returned home following post graduate studies in the United States and the United Kingdom respectively, are offering their expertise in marketing and finance to a local company which has been assigned the task of cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit on the island.
Greenidge and Stephen, both first class honours graduates from the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill campus, are deliberately foregoing the traditional safety of a job, instead opting to pursue entrepreneurial endeavours themselves.
Barbadian business professional Marita Greenidge
“I left Barbados with the intention that I would return to start a company that contributed significantly to economic development. At graduate school, I immersed myself in entrepreneurial activities and it is heartwarming to use the knowledge gained there to assist both BBEC and our fellow aspiring entrepreneurs on the island,” said Greenidge, who holds an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester in New York.
The 26 year-old has recently founded the Barbados-based management consulting firm Crimson-Jade Consulting.
Stephen, founder of his own holding company, Damoola Inc., always knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur and an investor. “I have always believed there was the need for a developed venture capital industry throughout the Caribbean. Upon returning to Barbados, I thankfully became immersed in the early stages of such a culture,” said the 25-year-old Stephen, a Commonwealth Scholar who holds an MSc. Finance degree from Imperial College Business School in the United Kingdom.
Jeremy Stephen
Both Greenidge and Stephen are business advisors to BBEC which is being led by experienced Barbadian business consultant Dr. Basil Springer who believes that without such entrepreneurship, there will be no sustainable economic development.
At this month’s launch of the Barbados Entrepreneurs’ Venture Capital Fund, Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson’s announced a government guarantee on any principal amount invested in the fund. BBEC is actively engaged in seeking private sector investment – local, regional and international – now that this government guarantee has been announced.
