Glenford ‘Glen’ Christian and Ambassador Derick Heaven are this year’s recipients of the Observer Business Leader Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The men were awarded for their exemplary contribution to industry and national development over the last four decades. Here are excerpts of their citations.

Christian’s story can inspire anyone challenged by poverty, adversity, and stiff opposition from a powerful establishment.

He has triumphed over all these, and far from trying to hide his humble beginnings and difficult struggles, he is proud of every aspect of his journey, and happy to offer encouragement to others.

Growing up among 13 siblings, things were hard. Christian remembers having to walk the two miles to school and back home to have lunch because there was no cash to spare for lunch money.

But his parents also preached the vital importance of education, and all their children went on to be successful professionals.

He was also brought up with strong moral and spiritual values — plus the true community spirit of “caring and sharing”.

Eventually, having been trained at Mico, Christian started out his career as a teacher in the 1960s before landing a job as a salesman with HD Hopwood, which took him into pharmacies and other retailers all over Jamaica, and sparked a passion for the pharmaceutical industry.

Within six years he was appointed manager of Hopwood’s Pharmaceutical Division, and by the time he left to establish Cari-Med a decade later, he had grown the Division’s share of company sales from 15 per cent to 85 per cent. His commitment to the industry was further honed when he and his wife operated two pharmacies, while he was working with Hopwood.

Christian launched Cari-med in 1986 with three employees. In 2005, he acquired the assets of Colgate Palmolive and established Kirk Distributors, which deals in consumer products. Today, the group employs 600 persons directly. Cari-Med started with a 3,500-square-foot building on Lady Musgrave Road. The group now boasts 300,000 square feet of office and warehouse space, and continues to expand. It is the leading distributor of pharmaceutical products in the Caribbean, with 54 principals, including 15 of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies.

Christian is also an outstanding philanthropist. Under his leadership, the Cari-Med Foundation continues to make a significant difference through projects in education, health and community building. Examples include the Cari-Med wing at the Hope Institute and the state-of-the-art $70-million plus complex built for Top Hill Basic School where Christian began his education.

Derick Heaven

Ambassador Heaven is one of Jamaica’s most outstanding and best loved champions. For nearly 40 years he has served as an effective Government minister, a masterful diplomat, and a dedicated administrator and advocate of Jamaica’s agricultural sector, particularly the sugar industry.

Heaven was born in Montego Bay just before Christmas 1940. After graduating from Cornwall College, he earned a diploma at the then Jamaica School of Agriculture, while representing the school in cricket, football, table tennis, and track and field. This included holding the record for shot putt in the Junior Jamaica Championships. His early career saw him serving with the Citrus Growers Association as an extension officer for St Catherine, St Mary and Portland, and later as a field officer for the Agricultural Marketing Corporation in St Ann.

He went on to work as a commercial officer with the British High Commission, and managed the Agency Department of Cecil de Cordova, a division of GraceKennedy.

Then politics beckoned, and he was elected to the St Catherine Parish Council, representing the Ensom City Division, and chairing the council’s Building and Town Planning Department. He became a member of parliament in 1976, representing South Central St Catherine. During his tenure, the new Spanish Town Police Station, Johnathan Grant High School, GC Foster College, Ensom City School, five community centres, De la Vega Housing Scheme and Taws Gardens, were among numerous projects started and completed.

He was appointed parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with responsibility for aspects of foreign trade, particularly trade with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and chaired the Joint Commissions with Mexico, Venezuela, Norway, Cuba and Hungary.

He led Jamaica’s first official delegation to the Soviet Union, paving the way for diplomatic representation and trade relations. The Joint Commissions also facilitated training opportunities in many of these countries.

In 1989, Heaven was appointed Consul General to New York, with jurisdiction in 35 states and the very demanding responsibility for the welfare of the large Jamaican community. In 1991, he became Jamaica’s first ambassador to Japan, with non-resident accreditation to China and the Republic of Korea.

In 1994, he was appointed high commissioner to the United Kingdom, representing us also in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Spain and Portugal.

In addition to winning the hearts of the Jamaican Diaspora for his devotion to their interests, Ambassador Heaven played a critical role in ensuring that Europe continues to recognise Jamaica as one of its suppliers of sugar, and in seeing that our country benefited from the Accompanying Measures Grant Funding. The latter is even now being used to enhance the Jamaican Budget Exercise. His efforts in these areas saw him delivering two separate addresses to the European Parliament.

On his return to Jamaica in 1999, Ambassador Heaven served for three years as chief executive officer of the Sugar Company of Jamaica, and since 2003 he has been the executive chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority, the industry’s regulatory body.