Sheron Dixon-Brown, general manager of Reggae Money Express (formerly Capital and Credit Remittance Limited) - Contributed
Some day Sheron Dixon-Brown may understand why she has an affinity for working with numbers. For now, we'll just be happy that she does.
Since March 2, she has been general manager of Capital and Credit Remittance Limited, rebranded as Reggae Money Express.
"Ever since primary school, it was evident that I had a knack for numbers," she revealed. A native of Sandside, St Mary (she's fiercely proud to be a 'country girl'), Dixon-Brown took this love of things financial and spent the first 13 years of her career working at another leading financial institution, Scotiabank, where she started out as a teller in 1986. Her career progressed steadily and she became teller supervisor by 1999.
"Much of my professional growth took place there. I got to interact with a wide range of customers. You learn how to deal with different moods and personalities. You learn to become a good listener and they appreciate when you empathise with them," she said. But if Scotia were a good foundation, then Capital and Credit "is the icing on the cake". She actually had an interest in a particular position with the group's bank, but she was so versatile that the bigwigs offered her the post of assistant manager - remittance operations. She progressed to being manager - operation and distribution network, and senior manager - remittance services before the top post.
"I felt I had much more to give and I wanted to see work in another financial environment," she says of the switch.
New challenges
Accepting new challenges is something she's always done and it's ironic that her new post should come at a time when remittances (thanks to the global recession) are down. But she thinks she has the team to get it done.
"Their dedication and commitment to the organisation is unmatched; never in question," she said proudly. Her immediate charges number 11 in total, but that group grows to 20 when the employees of Express Remittance Services in Cayman, a company in which Capital and Credit has a 40% stake, are included. Part of her job will be to help the entity grow, something that will require some travel.
"You have to be involved in operations. People want to put a face to the name; they don't just like talking to you on the phone," she said. Some of her duties include responsibility for overall management of the remittance operations in Jamaica and The Cayman Islands associate; developing and monitoring the company's annual budget; and monitoring the activities of all stakeholders within the remittance industry, local and abroad. A big part of the team's work right now also involves the rebranding. So it's a lot of advertising campaigns, marketing programmes and exploring business development opportunities in the United States.
Hours of work
Her work ethic is undeniable. "Physically, I usually leave around 5 p.m. (having got there with other team members before 8 a.m.), but you're always on call; looking for opportunities to talk about your business. You're not confined to a 9 to 5."
The results of those hours seem to be quite clear. Her achievements include developing a wide area network of agents by over 250 per cent, moving from a low of 22 sub-agents to a high of 86. She was also head of the department that won Capital and Credit Financial Group's Customer Service Award - Department for 2003 and 2004. The remittance section is a key cog of the whole machinery as foreign exchange that it brings in is utilised by other companies within the group.
Not lost on Flair during all this is the general manager's double-barrelled name, and a picture of her with two girls in her office. Sorry guys, she is married with two daughters, one of whom just did the GSAT "so you know I was doing it too". Ah, the joys of being a working mother.
Strike that balance
"I believe you must strike that balance between being a mother, a wife and a professional," she says. "It has to be a partnership. You have to make sure the core family values are instilled at an early age. You have to make sure they (the children) know they are loved and that they are precious."
Core values are two words she uses again when speaking of the Capital and Credit group.
"Professionalism, integrity and honesty; that's how I was brought up and you can't work here and not know these are the values that are important. It's one of the main things that I like," she revealed. With those words in mind, Flair asked what the next five years might hold; perhaps moving on to another financial powerhouse?
"I want to make a distinctive mark. I don't want to be forgotten. If I do that before five years, then fine," she smiles.