Mariame’s passions

SHE is a vibrant, free- spirited, family-oriented wife and mother who’s passionate about educational development and youth.

She also thinks of the world as her country, and believes in helping people achieve their full potential.

Mariame Robinson, 42, affectionately called Marms and Marmsie, is the president and CEO of First Global Bank; however, getting to that level was not by any means easy and took a lot of discipline, dedication and mentoring from her childhood years.

“I had a very wonderful childhood. I had leadership positions and I was house captain, even though I couldn’t run. People gravitated towards me and I was given a lot of space to explore and know people. I did competitive swimming. My parents generally created structure and discipline with activities we had to do,” she told All Woman.

With this discipline instilled, Robinson, while attending Immaculate Conception High, was taught to balance her life which also comprised community service — something she’s also very passionate about.

“I enjoy teaching and at a very early age I played school with my siblings. My brother often says he learnt his timetables way before his time and that’s because I taught him in my own school,” she said.

As a result, after graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in electrical engineering, doing a stint in management consulting with JP Morgan, becoming the 1998 Rhodes Scholar for Jamaica, working in the same industry with McKinsey & Company, going to Harvard Business School, then landing a job at Bain & Company where she became the first black manager there, she decided on a non-profit that would engage her philanthropic side.

“While away people were always saying, ‘Mariame, when are you coming back to Jamaica’? and seeing that I really didn’t know, I just told them ‘I don’t know’ and in that period I started to think how I could give back to Jamaica, so I designed my NGO, got funding for it, and came home every summer for the programme — TEACH [Targeting Educational Achievement in Caribbean High Schools] Caribbean and I would go to London to recruit past Rhodes Scholars who would teach maths and English over the summer to CSEC students who prior to the intervention would not have done well,” she said.

She added: “The kids in Manchester are very self-aware and I explain to them that this is not a hand-out business; it’s a partnership. You study your book, do well and I find the money. If you drop the ball, this doesn’t continue. They also know that no patois is allowed in the programme and while they can teach the teachers words, they strive to speak in standard English because no one is testing them on patois, plus they get enough practice outside. Our funding comes from The American Friends of Jamaica, ICWI, the diaspora, and Jamaica National who gave us money to start in St Mary.”

Robinson said her life was shaped by mentors, so giving back is what she has to do.

“I connect well with youth. I have a passion for youth as it is the time in their life when you can get the mentorship and lessons in.”

Currently May Day High and Mile Gully High in Manchester as well as Islington High and Brimmer Vale High in St Mary benefit from TEACH Caribbean and in 2017 will see their first crop of CSEC students.

During the time building the programme, Robinson heard of an opening at a private equity firm in the Caribbean — Portland Private Equity — and decided to check it out.

“I never knew much about private equity. All I knew was there were a lot of aggressive white males ­— only males — who were in it to make a ton of money. However, I met with them, thought it was cool, and got the job. They said ‘Congrats Mariame, you come in as a senior VP, but you have to move to Barbados,” she said

Though this came as a shocker to her, she took the opportunity as she was closer to home. But because she still had residence in New York, and was still paying taxes, she eventually moved back to New York and operated from there.

At this point Robinson also got involved in the Trench Town Polytechnic College and First Global Bank and also reconnected with her now husband Julian, then moved back to Jamaica when they decided to get married.

“It was now much easier being home as I could really do more,” she said.

Robinson, who is also a motivational speaker, believes in creating access to high-quality resources for others and treating people equally.

“As long as I’m allowed to achieve my full potential from an academic standpoint, that’s what I’m trying to allow — a level playing field. Doing it for a few students is better that to do it for none,” she said.

She is also big on women’s empowerment and believes that women should stop being victims and strive to achieve their full potential.

“Women have a lot of power that we squander and society is very harsh on women even though we’ve done well as a group in terms of where we’re placed.

“Integrity is very important and not for the sake of sounding good or theoretically, but it needs to be taught explicitly in schools when you’re very young. You can be successful and lack integrity. You can be successful and full of integrity. I can see where it’s not emphasised in society,” she said.

For young people she says, “Go out and try whatever comes to mind. Work hard. Do what you’re passionate about and what comes natural to you. Find mentors along the way. Look for people you can emulate and find ways you can have conversations with them too.”