PROMINENT businessman Paul Barnaby “PB” Scott has been honoured with the Order of Distinction (commander rank), or CD, for his contribution to business development in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

This was made public in the national honours list for 2017, which was published in the press on Sunday. The order is conferred on citizens of Jamaica who have rendered outstanding service to the country. The honours will be bestowed on National Heroes’ Day in October.

Scott is the current president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) — the voice of local industry — and is chairman and CEO of the Musson Group of Companies, one of the most powerful groups in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Scott was recently featured in New York City-based digital news publication, Huffington Post, among the island’s best-known icons, including track star Usain Bolt, entertainer Sean Paul, and businessmen Gordon “Butch” Stewart and Michael Lee-Chin.

An accounting graduate from the University of Newcastle, Scott grew up working alongside his late grandfather and Musson’s founder, Desmond Blades, where his interests in business and philanthropy were ignited. Today, Scott focuses on the strategic direction, performance, and overall operations of Musson and its subsidiaries, including The Facey Group, Seprod Limited, General Accident Insurance, and T Geddes Grant Distributors, with thousands of employees. Scott is respected as an excellent executor and a promoter of great leadership and solid business management

Formed in 1962, Musson (Jamaica) acted originally as a commission agency dealing mainly in food, but eventually it developed into a distribution company.

In the 1970s, it was marked by further expansion of its food distribution business and a very successful marketing relationship representing Max Factor. Insurance agency Orrett & Musson was set up with Musson (Jamaica) as a major partner.

The services were further enhanced in 1981, as Musson made the historic step of setting up one of the first general insurance companies in Jamaica, General Accident Jamaica Insurance Company, of which Orrett & Musson became a subsidiary doing premium financing for its mother company.

In the 1990s, whilst growing both the services and manufacturing businesses, Musson was able to expand its distribution by purchasing T Geddes Grant Distributors from the Neal & Massy Group.

In 2000, it diversified into IT distribution and telecommunications logistics and fulfillment. It also acquired Facey Commodity. Further diversification led to Facey starting distribution of cellular cards for Digicel and, based on this relationship, it took over the distribution of the mobile handsets themselves by purchasing Brightstar Jamaica and rebranding it as Facey Telecom.

Musson was also able to purchase Xerox (Jamaica) Ltd from Xerox, and based on the success of this arrangement with Xerox, went on to acquire the operations in Dominican Republic, and Aruba and Curacao.

Today, this is branded as PBS, otherwise known as Productive Business Solutions, and operates across the region. It is the largest privately owned Xerox distributor globally. It also distributes on behalf of Cisco and other technology brands.