Roslyn Car­ring­ton

When Ja­maican na­tion­al Kar­ri­an Hep­burn first vis­it­ed Trinidad for Car­ni­val four years ago, she met a par­ty peo­ple. "It was so much fun, it was un­be­liev­able." Her sec­ond time around, as­signed by Sco­tia­bank to the po­si­tion of Gen­er­al Man­ag­er, Sco­tia In­vest­ments, she's see­ing a dif­fer­ent side of us. "I find the work eth­ic very sim­i­lar. When it comes to busi­ness, peo­ple are fo­cused, very dri­ven. When things need to get done, they get done." As a Caribbean woman, she doesn't feel like a fish out of wa­ter in her new mi­lieu, es­pe­cial­ly since there are so many sim­i­lar­i­ties be­tween the two coun­tries. "I see the same kind of so­cial, lim­ing, vi­brant per­son­al­i­ty. Catch them on a Fri­day, you see every­body get­ting in­to the groove. I love that."

And de­spite the on­go­ing ri­val­ry be­tween the two na­tions (which most of­ten re­veals it­self on the ath­let­ic field and the per­form­ing stage), she doesn't sense that many Tri­nis think this Ja­maican woman is farse to be giv­ing them in­struc­tions. "When I came here, I was very wary of that, but it's ac­tu­al­ly the op­po­site. When I call a client or a col­league, the ac­cent is an ice-break­er. They segue in­to a con­ver­sa­tion about their vis­its to Ja­maica, or how much they like Us­ain Bolt or Bob Mar­ley. It helps me more than de­ters me." Even bet­ter, from a con­fi­den­tial­i­ty per­spec­tive, clients who are tired of the Tri­ni cul­ture in which every­one knows-or would like to know-every­one else's busi­ness, are more open to an out­sider, who ap­pears to be less of a threat. "They quick­ly di­vulge in­for­ma­tion, be­cause I don't know their friends, I don't know their net­work."

So, if be­ing a for­eign­er hasn't been a stum­bling block, what about be­ing young, fe­male, and stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful? That, in­deed, is a horse of a dif­fer­ent colour. "When peo­ple see me for the first time, they say, 'I didn't re­alise you were so young.' But I've got­ten used to that." Back in Ja­maica, she had been made Head of Pri­vate Bank­ing at 25, which put her in charge of pro­fes­sion­als old enough to be her par­ents. "You have to earn their re­spect. You have to show them you de­serve to be there." It helps to have the pa­pers to back it up. Hep­burn has a BSc in Man­age­ment and Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion from UWI Mona, an MBA from Mona School of Busi­ness, and is pur­su­ing a Doc­tor­ate in Or­gan­i­sa­tion­al Lead­er­ship. Here in Trinidad, her staff is younger, so age is less of an is­sue. Her clients al­so un­der­stand she has their in­ter­ests at heart. "When I speak to clients, I ex­ude con­fi­dence. You have a goal: you want to make mon­ey. I can help you reach that goal."

Hav­ing grown up in Kingston, she calls her­self a 're­al city girl'. Both her par­ents are en­tre­pre­neurs, and their goal for her was to go past high school and get a pro­fes­sion. The idea of ed­u­ca­tion as the key to suc­cess has em­bed­ded it­self in her psy­che, and is the first ad­vice she gives to women look­ing to im­prove their lives, es­pe­cial­ly as we face the dis­ad­van­tage of not hav­ing an "old girls' net­work"... at least, not yet. This, she thinks, is prob­a­bly be­cause we have our hands too full jug­gling work and fam­i­ly to men­tor our own as men do. But over­all, we're not do­ing that bad. "I'm proud to see we've made such strides. You have a fe­male Prime Min­is­ter. Ja­maica does, too. There is a par­a­digm shift in both coun­tries. Trinidad and Ja­maica are ac­tu­al­ly ahead of many first world coun­tries in terms of women be­ing in se­nior po­si­tions."

She is quick with her ad­vice to women who want to rise to the next lev­el. "You have to want it. You have to take charge of your own des­tiny. Find a men­tor, be­cause it will save you mak­ing sil­ly, un­nec­es­sary mis­takes. If some­one has done it well, it will save you from fig­ur­ing it out on your own. Net­work­ing opens doors," she adds. "Not just meet­ing strate­gic peo­ple, but net­work­ing blend­ed with so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, as with char­i­ta­ble or­gan­i­sa­tions, es­pe­cial­ly if you be­lieve in the law of giv­ing and re­ceiv­ing. You're plant­i­ng seeds for some­thing good to hap­pen. In­vest... and in­vest in your chil­dren." She re­lies on in­spir­ing sto­ries to bol­ster her faith. "When Barack Oba­ma shared his dream, many peo­ple would have laughed... un­til he took of­fice. Peo­ple do have con­trol over their des­tiny. Make a re­al plan. If you have a dream, you owe it to your­self to pur­sue it. And we Caribbean peo­ple have a spir­i­tu­al side to us... re­mem­ber to nur­ture that spir­i­tu­al side."