Jump-starting his career from the bottom of the ladder, Clinton Hunter has worked his way to the top which today positions him as assistant vice-president of retail banking at Sagicor Bank.

Armed with over 30 years of experience, Hunter, a proud St Thomas native, credits his tenacious and ambitious drive for piloting him through years of growth and transition in the banking industry, having started at one of the lowest level in that business.

“I was a statement renderer at Jamaica Citizens’ Bank, and although it was the lowest position, I was still in the bank, and that was all I needed,” Hunter shared from his office at Sagicor Bank’s head office on Dominica Drive, New Kingston.

“My philosophy was that once I got in, one of two things could happen: I could get back out, or I could go up,” he said.

Having been inspired to pursue a career in banking since his father – a coffee farmer – would send him to the bank in Morant Bay to encash cheques, Hunter from that time had started preparing for the field from high school, where he excelled in the business subjects.

Nine months into his first job, his supervisor recognised potential and recommended him to the post of accounting clerk, this was, however, short-lived as he was again promoted to a new role.

“I was promoted to senior clerk, a role in which I started to do things like doing reports for the Bank of Jamaica,” the Morant Bay High graduate recalled, noting that he also later transitioned to becoming a supervisor in the bank’s centralised operations department.

Hunter noted that while he rose in ranks at the bank, he also made time for the required training and certification to gain competitive advantage in his field. He acquired a first-class bachelor’s degree in business administration, banking and financial services, from the College of Arts, Science and Technology (now University of Technology, Jamaica) and later a master’s degree in the same area from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

Following the financial crisis in the 90s, Hunter further moved up the ladder this time appointed manager of electronic banking after the Citizens’ Bank was merged to form the Union Bank of Jamaica. In this new role he became involved with new banking technologies such as point of sale machines.

From that role he later transitioned to branch banking, climbing from branch manager to senior branch manager, then regional manager, as the company grew and transitioned into what is now the Sagicor Bank Jamaica.

Assuming his current position in 2018, Hunter has spent some 32 years with Sagicor and has been an unshakeable pillar of wisdom through the many transitions.

“I’ve seen this organisation make substantial profits and losses and evolve with technology from pure paper to now when people never have to set foot inside a branch to do business with us. That, for me, is very rewarding,” he said, indicating his greatest asset as the ability to be a part of the team’s growth over the years.

A father of four daughters, Kacey, Kelcy, Krecy and Kalacy and wife of 22 years Karen, Hunter hopes to keep on making his family proud. Now just barely peeking over the age of 50, Hunter is not only excited to see what more he can contribute to Sagicor and the banking sector, but he has his ambitions set on other areas of the nation’s development, such as agriculture where he also operates a secondary job as a registered coconut farmer.

“I want to pick up where my father left off,” the seasoned banker said, adding that he recognises “that as humans, we can’t manage time; what we can do is manage ourselves in time. Time keeps ticking away, so if there is something that you want to do, just do it. The time will pass by anyway.”