The Institute of Business Leaders, an organisation that promises to champion the cause of entrepreneurism in Jamaica, is to be formally launched on Thursday at a ceremony on the grounds of the Jamaica Observer headquarters, 40 Beechwood Avenue in Kingston.

The institute, whose patron is the governor-general, Professor Sir Kenneth Hall, is founded jointly by former Observer business editor Moses Jackson, and Observer’s principal and chairman, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart. It is being promoted by the Jamaica Observer newspaper.

The membership of the institute will comprise those entrepreneurs who are nominated for the annual Observer Business Leader Award. About 100 business persons have been nominated for the awards since the inception of the programme in November 1996. Future nominees will have an automatic rite of passage to the institute.

Thursday’s launch will mark a continuation of the effort by the Jamaica Observer newspaper to highlight the achievements of indigenous entrepreneurs, and to deepen public awareness of the role and importance of this group in fostering economic and social transformation.

The Business Leader Award programme has been for the Observer, a tour de force in the promotion of business in Jamaica. Under this programme, between six and eight of Jamaica’s most dynamic and creative entrepreneurs are nominated each year for the Business Leader Award.

It is these individuals, mostly with self-made and heartfelt rags-to-success biographies, who will pool under this new umbrella to share their expertise and provide mentoring to would-be and small entrepreneurs, to deliberate on public policies, and generally offer leadership for the promotion of business success in Jamaica.

The governor-general, at a meeting at King’s House last Wednesday with Observer CEO Ed Khoury and Jackson, welcomed the opportunity to participate in this programme which, from his perspective, aims to shape the country’s business culture in line with his own vision of what is possible in Jamaica.

Earlier this year, the Observer invited Sir Kenneth to be patron of the institute – to which he consented. Khoury said that the solicitation of the G-G’s patronage in part reflected the convergence of the institute’s own ideals and the vision that Sir Kenneth had continuously and publicly expressed for Jamaica.

The institute will be led by a chairman who will be selected each year by the membership. However, in establishing a basic framework for the organisation ahead of the formal launch, the Observer asked Ryland Campbell, the Business Leader for 2005 and the principal and executive chairman of Capital and Credit Financial Services, to be the inaugural chairman.

After Thursday’s launch, the members of the institute will meet on a quarterly basis to discuss and set in motion specific programmes that will help to promote business development. The chairman, in consultation with the members, is expected to set the agenda during the period of his/her leadership.

As the inaugural chairman, Campbell hinted at his plans to quickly promote a mentoring programme between companies represented in the institute, and those tertiary institutions across the island that offer business as part of their curriculum.

“Students from participating institutions could be attached to companies and get exposed to the practical side of business,” explained Campbell. “Their performance could also be assessed to form part of their overall grade.”

As patron, and former principal of the University of the West Indies, the GG welcomed the marriage between academia and real world experience that the institute promises to forge, arguing that this approach held the best promise of actually creating entrepreneurs of the future.

“It is important to get all the tertiary institutions across Jamaica involved, not only those in Kingston,” he stressed.

With nearly 100 nominees over the 12 years of the Business Leader programme – about 80 per cent of whom are still active in business – all the major sectors that make up the Jamaican economy will be adequately represented in the institute. They include: tourism, manufacturing, agro-processing, technology and financial services, as well as retail and distribution.

Campbell believes that this broad spectrum of business interest will provide an opportunity for sector-specific focus in the deliberations and programme development of the institute.