Sagicor Group Jamaica Limited (SJ) will strengthen its executive roster later this year with the addition of Joanna Banks and Tracy-Ann Spence amid its continued organisational restructuring exercise.

Both women will officially join Sagicor Group on July 17 with Banks being appointed to the new role of executive vice-president (EVP) for strategy and business development while Spence will become an EVP and chief investment officer (CIO). Banks is currently the president of the Pan Jamaica Group Limited while Spence is the chief operating officer of NCB Capital Markets Limited (NCBCM). They are both holders of the chartered financial analyst (CFA) designation.

“The appointment of these two eminently qualified and highly respected financial professionals perfectly fits within our strategic priorities, and further strengthens our competitive advantage as we focus on innovation and digitalisation, growth opportunities including geographical expansion, and broadening the range of financial services that we offer to our clients,” said President and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sagicor Group Christopher Zacca in the news release.

Banks’ appointment will see her return to the group where her career started. Banks began working as a senior officer for research at Pan Caribbean Financial Services Limited (now Sagicor Investments Jamaica Limited) in October 2006 before doing stints at John Deere and ExxonMobil before taking up the role of vice president for business development and strategy at PanJam Investment Limited in September 2016. She was promoted in December 2018 to a senior vice president role before being appointed CEO in July 2021.

Banks is currently a director of Sagicor Life Jamaica Limited and Sagicor Investments Jamaica, with her role now expanded to chairman of the latter. Banks was also appointed along with Sagicor Financial Company CEO Andre Mousseau to the board of Sagicor Group Jamaica on December 31. A Pan Jamaica Group disclosure noted that Banks would be stepping down as president at this time.

Spence has spent her career at NCBCM, which began in October 2003, as a fixed income trader before culminating in her current role in February 2020. The veteran NCBCM team member serves on the board of Capital Infrastructure Group Limited, the NCB Foundation, tTech Limited and Mailpac Group Limited. In her new role at Sagicor Group, the heads of Sagicor Investments and the treasury and asset management divisions will report to her.

Zacca mentioned that several team members have been promoted to AVP and VP roles at the start of this year and that there have been no newly announced senior leadership changes since October excluding Banks and Spence. Sean Newman resigned as CIO on September 30, promoted Mark Chisholm, Willard Brown and Karl Williams to new roles on October 1, created a new executive role for Howard Gordon and removed the role of vice-president of marketing held by Alysia Moulton White from the group on December 31. Dr Sharma Taylor was also appointed the company secretary for Sagicor Group and its subsidiaries on February 1.

“Positive, but cautious given the volatility in markets, inflation, interest rates, etc. We have always had a very strong leadership team which has now been made even stronger by the addition of Banks and Spence. I expect even greater things going forward from the entire Sagicor Group Jamaica Team,” Zacca said, regarding his outlook for 2023.

Finance shake-up

The departure of Spence from NCBCM has sent significant shock waves throughout the finance and investment community at a time when the finance space is seeing several corporate movements. NCBCM has seen the departure of Herbert Hall, who left in October 2021 to form Ambassador Capital Partners and Lion Investments N Group Inc, and Sancia Thompson to Barita Investments in January 2022. Simona Watkis also left as CEO of NCBCM (Barbados) to become the CEO of Proven Wealth (Cayman) in mid-2022. Sekou Crawford, who took over Hall’s role as head of investment banking, was listed under a Musson Group e-mail in a February disclosure by Productive Business Solutions Limited.

While NCBCM has seen these departures, it recently added Tamara Waul-Douglas from VM Wealth Management as an AVP for wealth management in region one and Natalie Thomas as an AVP for private wealth.

VM Wealth recently saw the departure of Darrien McGregor to Barita Investments and Davie Martin, but added Brian Frazer and Chrevaughn Legister from Scotia Investments and Proven Wealth in the last six months. Frazer was a Scotia veteran where he spent more than 20 years of his career.

JMMB Group also recently lost its CIO Damion Brown to the Cornerstone Group before promoting Avinash Bissessar to the role on March 1. It also promoted Peter Thompson to the role of group chief client investment officer on April 1.

Scotia Group Jamaica has seen several high-level movements with its former chief financial officer being seconded to a role in Barbados, and the departure of Dr Adrian Stokes as head of wealth and insurance in February 2022. Stokes founded Quantas Financial Group and took several executives of Scotia Investments in 2022 and new ones in 2023 from BNSJ. They also saw the departure of Dave Dixon last year to Barita. However, Sabrina Cooper joined Scotia Investments as its CEO after leaving Sagicor Bank as the vice-president for cards and payments.

Even CEO of Caribbean Assurance Brokers Limited Tania Waldron-Gooden is leaving the insurance broker at the end of this month to take up the role of CEO at Island Grill. Waldron-Gooden has spent 20 years in finance.

The departure of Banks from the Pan Jamaica Group comes as a surprise following the completion of the deal with the Jamaica Producers Group Limited to form a $110-billion conglomerate. Banks was set to ascend to the role of CEO of the group between 2024 and 2025, the role which is currently held by Jeffrey Hall, who also serves as executive deputy chairman and is set to become the executive chairman in the same timeline.

Some 561,565,133 shares of Pan Jamaica Group were registered as stock units during the week of April 14 which represents the JP Group’s new 34.5 per cent stake in the combined business. This means that the ordinary shares outstanding as of Friday is 1,627,725,023 units.

“We thank Joanna for her steadfast commitment and her leadership in the areas of corporate strategy, business development and investor relations. During her tenure, Joanna added considerable value to our strategic direction and investment evaluation. We wish her every success in this new role. We are confident that she will be an excellent addition to Sagicor’s senior leadership team and look forward to continuing to work with her in that capacity,” said chairman of Pan Jamaica Group Stephen Facey in a disclosure.