EDWARD Seaga and Danny Williams, who separately created some of Jamaica’s most iconic and enduring financial institutions, will be presented with the Jamaica Observer Lifetime Achievement Award tonight at the gala banquet where the Observer Business Leader (Family) for 2008 will also be named.

The annual business event that celebrates and turns the spotlight on entrepreneurism in Jamaica will be held at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, beginning at 6:30 pm.

Seaga is perhaps remembered by most as Jamaica’s prime minister during the 1980s, and for many years, leader of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP); while Williams etched his name in the country’s entrepreneurial history with the founding in 1970 of the insurance giant Life of Jamaica – now Sagicor Life of Jamaica.

But, dating back to his early years in government in the 1960s, Seaga has made a profound and indelible imprint on the business sector, that, though overshadowed by his colourful political career, places him within the pantheon of Jamaica’s business class.

His achievements include the creation and/or promotion of:

. the Jamaica Stock Exchange,

. Jamaica Unit Trust,

. the Jamaica Mortgage Bank,

. the National Development Bank,

. the Agricultural Credit Bank,

. Ex-Im Bank,

. the Self-Start Fund,

. the Students’ Loan Bureau,

. HEART Trust.

Collectively, these institutions have served as a foundation for the growth and development of the private sector in Jamaica.

Seaga’s political career dates back to 1959 when Sir Alexander ‘Busta’ Bustamante, the founder of the JLP, nominated him to the Upper House of the Jamaica Legislature, the Legislative Council (later renamed

the Senate).

He served as minister of development and welfare in Busta’s administration, and later as minister of finance under Hugh Shearer.

In 1961 he established Things Jamaican to nurture the development of Jamaican handicraft and made Devon House a national monument to showcase heritage and craft. He also initiated and completed plans for the redevelopment of Port Royal, Seville and Spanish Town as archaeological parks of international renown.

Like Seaga, Williams has had involvement in both politics and business, but in his case, his business life – primarily through his success in growing LOJ into Jamaica’s largest life insurer at one stage – eclipsed his brief stint in politics where, between 1977 and 1980 he was senator, minister of state and then minister of industry and commerce.

Williams founded the National Development Foundation of Jamaica, an institution designed to facilitate the underprivileged by converting their entrepreneurial ideas into actual businesses, and to provide funding to help existing small businesses grow and thrive.

Having served as chairman of the Jamaica Broilers Group for eight years, and a member for many more, he was named director emeritus of that company in 2008.

Williams is also known for his humanitarianism, serving as president of the Jamaica Association for the Deaf for 10 years, chairman of the then Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL), as well as vice-president of the Jaycees of Jamaica and the West Indies Jaycees, now Junior Chamber.

In 1972 he was conferred with the Commander of the Order of Distinction, and in 1993 the Order of Jamaica (OJ), the country’s fourth highest honour. In 1997 he was inducted into the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica’s Hall of Fame.

Both Seaga and Williams were selected for the Lifetime Achievement Award by the chairman of the Jamaica Observer newspaper, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart.

At tonight’s awards ceremony, eight families in business who have been nominated for the Business Leader Award will be honoured. One will be named Business Leader for 2008.