Lee-Chin with Sylvia McClure and Dr. David Panton of JAMCHAM

Jamaica’s economic growth czar, the Honourable Michael Lee-Chin, OJ, visited the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta in November 2016 to deliver a lecture for the course, “Entrepreneurial Private Equity: Perspectives from Practitioners.”

His visit was facilitated by the university and the Jamaican Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta (JAMCHAM).  Dr. David Panton, the chamber’s chairman and founder of Panton Equity Holdings, is also on the faculty of Emory University where he teaches a course on private equity.

At the end of the presentation, JAMCHAM’s president, Sylvia McClure, presented Lee-Chin with a gift basket of products from Aroma Ridge, a Jamaican gourmet coffee company in Atlanta.

Also in attendance was editor of the KC Times and immediate past president of JAMCHAM, Dr. Glen Laman whose book, Jamaican Entrepreneurship, devotes a chapter to Lee-Chin and his accomplishments as an entrepreneur.

Lee-Chin with author, Dr. Glen Laman

Lee-chin is regarded as Jamaica’s first billionaire.  He is a business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder and Chairman of Portland Holdings Inc., a privately held investment company which owns a collection of diversified operating companies in sectors that include media, tourism, health care telecommunications and financial services. Among other positions, he was the Executive Chairman of AIC Limited (a Canadian mutual fund), and, as of December 2014, the Chairman of the National Commercial Bank of Jamaica.

As Jamaica’s growth czar, he has set an ambitious target of five percent economic growth in five years for Jamaica’s economy.