Businessman Zachary Harding is the master of the pivot. 

Not many people outside of the corporate space know that Harding is a talented DJ who also has a deep-rooted passion for the creative arts and sports. He has been able to parlay his skills and experiences into a highly successful career in finance, and recently racked up yet another business accolade when he was named Jamaica’s 2021 Brokerage CEO of the Year by the Global Banking & Finance Awards Committee. 

This week, Harding will be one of two Jamaican speakers who will speak at TEDx which will be held at Aston University in the UK. The other speaker will be media specialist Dr Terri Karelle Reid.

Harding’s speech will be centred around the theme:  From DJ to CEO, a look at authenticity and transferable skills.

 “I actually became a DJ more out of necessity. My friends and I would put on these parties but the DJs were not cutting it. I wanted to make sure our events were distinctly memorable so I got behind the turntables and then I fell in love with it. For most of the 90s I played with Syndicate sound. It was truly a life changing experience,” he told Observer Online.

Harding has an interesting avant-garde theory that ‘spinning’ keeps him sharp on cultural trends and affords him the ability to make excellent stock market insights. 

 “Dancehall indirectly plays into my thinking, because it gives context. Dancehall is like a live, never-ending focus group on how Jamaica thinks and behaves. It absolutely helps me to keep a pulse on what the market needs and is receptive to. From what we wear, to what we eat, to the latest trends in making money, dancehall is more accurate than the 7-o-clock news. So I add that understanding to the hard figures and data analysis. It won’t guide decisions on its own, but it may factor in depending on the project,” he said. 

Harding has worked for a lot of businesses and organisations over the years, from Diageo to Wisynco to advising within the Ministry of Tourism, but he only began to make impactful decisions that could change people’s lives when he made the pivot from marketing to finance. 

“I will always be grateful for my experiences in marketing and the lessons learned, but at the end of the day I owned nothing. I wanted to do something I could take ownership of and pass on to my children and to future generations of Jamaican business-people, so I pivoted to private equity. I haven’t looked back and I’m proud of the journey thus far,” Harding mused. 

During his upcoming TedX talk, he will share some of his ‘trade secrets’ on how he is able to transfer his creative skills into success in the world of finance. 

“People tend to make decisions in a panic, and so the result is hit or miss. The CARE model is a structured way of thinking through tough decisions.  So we’ve come up with a structure based on how I’ve learned to make decisions as a DJ. It’s called the C-A-R-E FUL decision making where C-is coming to the crossroads and acknowledging you are the point of making a decision, A is about making that decision authentically, R is about weighing the Risk against the Reward, and E is about preparing emotionally. Decisions made with CARE lead to a fulfilling life, hence CARE-FUL decision making,” he said. 

He credits a big part of his success to his team of cheerleaders and confidantes such as Jeremy Harding, his brother, who is a successful music producer. He also lauded the support of his wife, businesswoman Tamara Harding and his daughters, Tori and Zara.

“They are quite literally the lights of my life,” he said.