FORTH BLAKE RETURNS HOME TO VMBS

Judith Forth Blake is back in Jamaica, to take on the role of group chief customer and brand officer with Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS).

Forth Blake worked with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for some 10 years first in Jamaica, but for the last four and a half years she was posted abroad in Trinidad and then in Canada.

Forth Blake decided that the time to return home to Jamaica had come, when she was offered a permanent contract to stay with the bank in Canada.

“My husband was always here and my home and my dog. So I was doing a bit of commuting. When I took up the offer in 2012 I didn’t anticipate that I would be away permanently.”

But when she was offered the permanent contract, she realised she had to make “a life-defining position”. She said that while the career side was great, the social side — particuarly in the winter months — was lacking.

Prior to banking, Forth Blake worked at Courts for eight years as director of marketing.

Forth Blake holds an Executive MBA in Marketing from the Mona School of Business at the University of the West Indies.

CHANTRELLE MAKES A CHANGE

Samantha Chantrelle is now managing director of Change Makers Ltd — a new consulting firm based in Jamaica. The firm specialises in the design management and evaluation of technical assistance projects to improve the social and economic fabric of society in strategic partner countries throughout the region.

Chantrelle previously worked as CEO of the Digicel Foundation from 2011 to her resignation in December 2016, where she had oversight and management of an annual budget exceeding US$3 million. There she focused on education through improvement in literacy and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths); the development of the special needs sector; and community development/social entrepreneurship.

Prior to that she was a project manager for the NCB Foundation from 2007 to 2010.

Other experience includes working with several international development agencies, including USAID, CIDA, DFID, and the Embassy of Japan.

Chantrelle holds an MSc in Sociology of Development from the University of the West Indies, Mona, and a BA in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in the United States. She also holds a diploma in Corporate Social Responsibility from the Harvard Business School in the United States.

— Richard Browne