Since its in­cep­tion 35 years ago, the Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness (ALJGSB) has dis­tin­guished it­self as a pre­mier busi­ness school in T&T and across the re­gion. Its alum­ni hold near­ly 30 per cent of C-Suite po­si­tions na­tion­wide, un­der­scor­ing their im­pact on lead­er­ship.

In Feb­ru­ary, a new board was elect­ed, mark­ing the sec­ond elect­ed alum­ni as­so­ci­a­tion board.

Emerg­ing from the chal­lenges of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, one of its key pri­or­i­ties has been to strength­en alum­ni con­nec­tions.

Un­der the as­tute lead­er­ship of pres­i­dent Cavelle Joseph-St Omer, and with the ded­i­ca­tion of di­rec­tors and com­mit­tee mem­bers, the as­so­ci­a­tion host­ed a busi­ness mix­er on Sep­tem­ber 27, at the Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness.

As host for the evening, pub­lic re­la­tions di­rec­tor Mar­itza Da Sil­va re­flect­ed on her jour­ney from stu­dent to alum­na, high­light­ing how the 35-year lega­cy has shaped lead­ers in T&T, across the Caribbean and be­yond. Un­der the theme “Reignit­ing our Bonds,” the evening reaf­firmed the pow­er of re­con­nec­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion while forg­ing new part­ner­ships and strength­en­ing the Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness Alum­ni com­mu­ni­ty of 3,000-plus mem­bers.

In her open­ing re­marks, pres­i­dent Joseph-St Omer ex­pressed pride in the achieve­ments of the alum­ni and re­mind­ed at­ten­dees that their bond ex­tends far be­yond grad­u­a­tion.

She fur­ther added, “Since leav­ing cam­pus, you have all gone on to achieve in­cred­i­ble things. In this room tonight, we have en­tre­pre­neurs, artists, writ­ers, ex­ec­u­tives, ed­u­ca­tors, com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and so much more. Your suc­cess is a tes­ta­ment to the qual­i­ty of an Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness ed­u­ca­tion and the cal­i­bre of our alum­ni.”

She em­pha­sised that main­tain­ing con­nec­tions is crit­i­cal, es­pe­cial­ly in an era de­fined by rapid change.

Sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments were echoed by ALJGSB CEO Mar­i­ano Browne, who not­ed that the school was found­ed to chart a new course for man­age­ment in T&T.

Stress­ing the im­por­tance of con­tin­u­ous learn­ing, he stat­ed the school is again on the cusp of change.

Browne added, “The re­al­i­ty is that the glob­al world in which we are in now is much more in­ter­twined, is chang­ing, and it has changed in a way that will test us. Small coun­tries, by de­f­i­n­i­tion, have to be more nim­ble and very much aware of all the changes tak­ing place be­cause they af­fect us one way or the oth­er; it comes home.

“We sim­ply can­not wait for those changes; we have to an­tic­i­pate them and in a sense, train for them. That re­quires us to have a much more fo­cused ap­proach, a much more re­flec­tive ap­proach in terms of where we are, what we’re do­ing and how we’re go­ing to do it in the fu­ture.”

He fur­ther stressed the crit­i­cal role of com­mu­ni­ca­tion in nav­i­gat­ing these shifts.

The event’s high­light was keynote speak­er Ryan Chaitram, Se­nior Vice Pres­i­dent of Strat­e­gy and Dig­i­tal at Massy Group. A grad­u­ate of the Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness with a Mas­ter’s in Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment and In­no­va­tion, Chaitram shared in­sights on lead­er­ship and trans­for­ma­tion.

Chaitram said, “Lead­er­ship is about tak­ing peo­ple from where we are, to where we need to be and earn­ing the right from them to fol­low. That starts with be­ing truth­ful about the present, bold about the des­ti­na­tion and au­then­tic enough to bring peo­ple along. Dif­fer­ent starts with de­sire, the will­ing­ness to say, ‘I want’ and to ask, ‘What would it take?’ That’s how we turn chal­lenges in­to op­por­tu­ni­ties and shape a fu­ture worth lead­ing.” Re­gard­ing the fu­ture of work, he shared the view that the re­al chal­lenge for lead­ers isn’t pre­dict­ing the fu­ture but defin­ing it and then guid­ing peo­ple to it, while deal­ing with dis­rup­tions.

In her vote of thanks, sec­re­tary Janelle Lowe shared the alum­ni as­so­ci­a­tion’s up­com­ing events, in­clud­ing a men­tor­ship launch, en­tre­pre­neur­ship week and Christ­mas Pop-Up Mar­ket. All in­for­ma­tion can be found on the alum­ni as­so­ci­a­tion’s so­cial me­dia pages.

The event was a re­sound­ing suc­cess with many con­nec­tions reignit­ed and new ones forged. It served as a re­minder that gen­uine con­nec­tion and com­mu­ni­ty is need­ed both for in­di­vid­ual progress and the de­vel­op­ment of our na­tion.

Lead­er­ship of

the as­so­ci­a­tion

Cavelle Joseph-St Omer serves as pres­i­dent of both the Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness Alum­ni As­so­ci­a­tion and the Hu­man Re­source Man­age­ment As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (HRMATT).

Ade­sia Orie serves as as­sis­tant sec­re­tary of the Arthur Lok Jack Glob­al School of Busi­ness Alum­ni As­so­ci­a­tion and as­sis­tant sec­re­tary/as­sis­tant trea­sur­er at HRMATT.

All­sha Long, mem­ber­ship di­rec­tor at HRMATT, al­so grad­u­at­ed from ALJGSB with an In­ter­na­tion­al Mas­ter’s in Busi­ness Ad­min­is­tra­tion, with a spe­cial­i­sa­tion in HR Man­age­ment.