Coleen Brown-Jackson Virgen’s queen of success

SHE has a face and physique that could easily place her in her 30s, however, Coleen Brown-Jackson has been at the helm of Virgen Advertising for 15 years, and has been working in the media for ages.

The effervescent entrepreneur beams from across the desk in her New Kingston office while she recounts the story of how she founded Virgen.

Brown-Jackson has steered the company to success through the rough economic climes of Jamaica while landing contracts with established companies such as Palace Amusement, Jamaica National Building Society, the Fair Trading Commission, Myers, Fletcher and Gordon, Investor’s Choice Magazine, the National Housing Trust and Point Village Resort.

A Kingstonian by birth, Brown-Jackson attributes her achievements to several factors.

She told all woman that her mother’s entrepreneurial journey, her father’s fortitude and determination and the sterling example set by her older brothers ensured that she made a mark on the society.

She describes her mother, Sylvia Bailey, as a woman ahead of her time. Bailey owned and operated not one but two businesses, a feat unheard of from women in the time before the women’s liberation movement era. Her mother’s business acumen guaranteed the survival of her lumberyard and her restaurant in times of fierce competition with larger suppliers.

Brown-Jackson relates that she owes much of her drive to operate her own venture to her mother’s experience.

“I think the achievements of my mother’s life are quite commendable and perhaps that is the reason that I eventually came to own my own business.”

Her siblings, Dr Derrick Aarons, the Caribbean’s first bio-ethicist and Paul Aarons, a chartered accountant based in Atlanta, Georgia, were indeed hard acts to follow. But their successes in their childhood served to raise Bailey’s expectations of her children and her daughter had no option but to shine.

“I was always following my two older brothers and they excel at what they do so I had no choice,” she says.

Her mother used subtle methods to keep tabs on her children.

“She would give you leverage with responsibilities, if you slipped up all your benefits and all the little perks that you had would be taken away. So we knew we had to perform.”

She relates that her mother used ingenious ways of not letting her children out of her sight. “My house was the house that all the youngsters would converge.I think my mother was smart because she wanted to see what we were doing, so she would facilitate that.

“We were quite popular in the neighbourhood.she would always ensure that she had sandwiches and drinks so when our friends came over they would be well-accommodated and happy.”

Brown-Jackson smiles as she relishes the memories that in retrospect she believes was a strategy employed by her mother to make certain that her children were out of harm’s way.

“I would like to think that single-handedly she raised three responsible adults,” she says, praising her mother’s efforts while recognising that her father was still an important part of her life.

Clarence George Brown died a few years ago in the United States after migrating from Jamaica.

Brown-Jackson acknowledges that she inherited his tenacity.

“He was a very no-nonsense kind of person and I do believe I have this trait, if I’m tackling a job I have to ensure that it is done properly. I don’t like being told that I can’t do anything, once there’s a challenge I try to ensure that I overcome that and find a solution.”

Brown-Jackson attended Franklyn Town Primary with her brothers before she was passed the Common Entrance Examination. Here she recalls that headmistress Blossom Hanchard encouraged excellence from students instilling in them the notion that, “only the best is good enough.”

She then headed to Wolmer’s High School for girls where she was schooled in ‘being the best’ by the “inimitable” Audrey Pinto. Brown-Jackson shares that her high school experience helped to mould her into the woman she is.

“A lot of the tenets that I still use to guide my life today, I got at Wolmer’s,” she says.

“At about 13 I thought of the legal profession actually, but then in my naïvety I thought lawyers had to defend criminals so then I thought, well perhaps not.”

It was in lower sixth form that she noticed her knack for words and love of writing and decided that journalism could be the profession for her. Renowned journalist Barbara Gloudon was invited to lecture at the career session and Brown-Jackson was sold.

“Barbara Gloudon came to Wolmer’s and she spoke about journalism and I started listening very keenly because I had an interest in photography, I knew I could write and I thought perhaps that’s something I should explore.”

Brown-Jackson later matriculated into the University of the West Indies to study Mass Communications where her fascination with moving images led her to specialising in film-making.

After the UWI, Brown-Jackson was employed at the Film-making Unit at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS). She stayed there for three years functioning as a scriptwriter/director before deciding to try working in the private sector.

She moved on to Grimax Advertising, a now-defunct Jamaican public relations and advertising agency.

Though hired primarily to assist the company in public relations tasks, Brown-Jackson also assumed a creative role at Grimax. She highlights the influence that Gerry Grindley, Craig Pan Sang and Winston Lumsden had on her career while they took her under their wings.

“Grimax was one of the few agencies at the time to also have a full-fledged video production studio. Most advertising agencies would farm out that side of the business but my boss at the time, Gerry Grindley. thought he wanted to have all the services under one roof. So with my background I was hired.

“I stayed at Grimax for a numbr of years and honed my skills, eventually I ended up as the public relations manager at Grimax. even though today I’m known as a public relations practitioner, I really am a trained film-maker. Most of the public relations skill that I have today I learnt on the job under Gerry Grindley,” she recalls.

She also notes the impact of the late Winston Lumsden. “He was actually my superisor.there at Grimax I learnt the essence of copywriting, being more succinct and more creative.”

Brown-Jackson relates that the skills gleaned at Grimax were of great benefit to her later in life, “after serving at Grimax for a number of years when I decided it was time to move on I felt confident enough to launch my own company.”

Brown Jackson told all woman that when she founded Virgen Advertising in 1993 some of the clients from Grimax expressed their confidence in her abilities by following her.

This she recognises was an impetus for her to succeed. Virgen also has a fairly large client base given it’s small size. Clients seemed to stick to the company without much soliciting. But Brown-Jackson tells all woman that it is the reputation that the company has developed that has spurred the expansion of Virgen’s client base.

Virgen offers a wide range of services. Brown-Jackson boasts that the agency is capable of event planning, and all aspects of public relations. She attributes the viability of her company to the diversity of its offerings and the continued success of its clients.

“I think the multi-faceted nature of the business is one of the reasons we have been able to have staying power. We have clients too who are established and have remained viable, which is a good thing and we have managed to grow.”

She also recognised the input of John Jackson, her husband of over two years and a noted financial analyst, publisher and director at Virgen. She relates that his managerial and financial expertise has been vital to the development of the agency.

But things have not always been profitable for Virgen. Brown-Jackson recalls the meltdown of the financial sector in the 1990s as a period of worry for Virgen.

“We have suffered like other businesses and we have had to downscale. We had a number of financial clients so when the country’s economic system crashed. during that whole crunch, we had to also downscale our operations.”

But the company managed to stay afloat and is today known for its ability to manage its clients affairs, thrusting its clients into the limelight while perfecting their image from the background.

– allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com