SAGICOR’S Monica Robotham has been awarded the Jamaica Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (JAIFA) Man of the Year Award for 2020 at the recently held annual awards ceremony.

The JAIFA Man of the Year Award is presented to a member who is active for at least 10 years, is in good standing, and who is involved in industry and community activities.

A former president of the JAIFA, Robotham joined the life insurance industry in June 1987, starting at the New Kingston branch of Life of Jamaica (now Sagicor). She quickly found her passion and began equipping herself to become an outstanding sales representative. Having completed the company’s mandatory training courses, she then enrolled in industry courses, completing the Life Underwriters’ Association Training Course (LUATC).

She attained the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation in 1997, the Chartered Financial Consultant designation (certified by the American College) in 2004, and was certified a financial planner in 1997, completing studies in effective business communications, agency manager training and securities training.

Robotham became a life and qualifying member of the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) in 2006. She qualified numerous times for the following awards: Caribbean Quality Awards, Caribbean Sales Achievement Awards, Caribbean Activity Awards, Top Agent for the New Kingston Branch of Life of Jamaica, Sagicor Century Club, Sagicor Convention, and Director Production Club. She was elevated to unit manager in 2009 and coaches sales representatives to qualify for MDRT.

She has served as Membership Communication Committee (MCC) representative of the Senator’s Branch and was elected to be a director on JAIFA’s board. She then served as director of fund-raising for public relations and community projects, then as first and second vice-president before being elected president for the 2017/2018 administrative year. During her presidency JAIFA hosted a successful CARAIFA Annual Sales Congress at Hylton Rose Hall, Montego Bay.

Robotham serves on the CARAIFA executive as marketing, communication and public relations director and is currently in her fourth year.

“I am passionate about Caribbean people and I enjoy the rich interaction through congresses across the region,” said Robotham who is a graduate of the Jamaica Theological Seminary where she specialised in advanced church ministries and church leadership.

She is the Sunday School superintendent at the Reverend Dr Aaron Dumas-led First Baptist Church on Sandringham Avenue, Kingston. Her roles include teaching Sunday School classes for adult females, working in the Women’s League and Senior Citizens’ Outreach ministries, and in her neighbourhood citizens’ association.

“As a motivational speaker, I enjoy sharing with women from different churches and communities and mentoring young people. As head of the welfare committee of my branch office for several years, I regard my best moments as [coming] from working with the Adopt-a-School Programme,” she says.

Robotham is the mother of two sons and a grandmother of three. She believes that ‘Love lies not in what is done and known but in what is done and not known.’

“I love to travel and live in the light, always with a heart of gratitude. Psalm 34 is my guide, and I live by the mantra: “You are remembered not by what you gathered, but by what you scattered.”