Keith Duncan- Reflection Q&A on Joan Duncan
Q: 1) If you had to describe your mother in three words what would these words be?
A: Humble, down to earth, caring and generous
Q: 2) What do you know about your mother’s childhood and what life was like for her growing up?
A: She grew up in an extended family situation with her single mother, having lost her twin brother Johnny died when he was a child, from heart issues. She integrated with the community children and was not constrained by social classes.
Q: 3) What do you think inspired her to start JMMB at the time in her life?
A: A passion to make a difference, to build an entity with a unique culture and to become economically independent.
Q: 4) Is there anything about your mother (hobbies, interests, character traits etc.) that is not widely known?
A: She loved playing video games.
Q: 5) Do you have any funny/amusing stories of your mother that exemplify her personality that you would like to share?
A: My mother teaching me to sail a Sunfish boat – that was a total disaster.
Q: 6) How would you describe your mother’s outlook on life or “life philosophy”?
A: Love in abundance.
Q: 7) What do you think your mother would say/think/feel if she could see all that JMMB has achieved over the years? What do you think she would be most proud of?
A: The difference that JMMB has made for its clients and team members in their financial and outlook on life. The growth into a regional and integrated financial services group would have given her a great sense of accomplishment.
Q: 8) What powered her to succeed?
A: Her entrepreneurial spirit and her drive to create a business based on the Vision of Love.
Donna Duncan-Scott - Reflection Q&A on Joan Duncan
Q: 1) If you had to describe your mother in three words what would these words be?
A: Authentic, loving and true to her values and principles
Q: 2) What do you know about your mother’s childhood and what life was like for her growing up?
A: She was born out of wedlock- this was an issue at the time. She did not know her father, as he died shortly after she was born. Her mother was a dressmaker and her family was poor, so she came from a humble background.
Q: 3) What do you think inspired her to start JMMB at the time in her life?
A: She always said that we should have a dream and follow that dream. She worked her way up from teller to the head of investment at Workers Bank. As head of investments she realized that there was a win/win opportunity to better achieve her portfolio return and meet her liquidity needs by trading the bank’s debt securities. Later, when she grew an investment company within a bank, she realized that the money market could provide win/win opportunities for the retail client as well, by earning from what formerly only the banks could, from owning GOJ and other debt securities. As head of the investment company, she insisted on maintaining her principle of having the best interest of all and insisted on not having to use the same suppliers if they did not serve the best interest of all. She left the bank because she was “promoted” from being the head of an investment company to assistant to the Assistant General Managers because she was not prepared to play by the rules of the ‘old boys network’, even though she had grown the assets of investment firm from J$11m in assets to over J$2B in a couple years.
She went to work in a small firm where Dr. Noel Lyon contacted her and suggested that the time was right for her to pursue her ideas of developing the money market. Within three weeks of Dr. Lyon’s invitation to lunch, mummy had a business plan presented to Dr. Lyon and his Board of the JVF. They loved the idea and within another 3 weeks the company was started.
Q: 4) Is there anything about your mother (hobbies, interests, character traits etc.) that is not widely known?
A: She loved to play dominoes with the fishermen on Hellshire Beach. She also loved to fish and bought a little fishing boat. She also loved to play Pac man (an early video game) for hours on end. She was also an expert Bridge player.
She loved animals and had all types of animals at her home in Hellshire – including a Great Dane, sensi foul and geese. The Great Dane passed of a heart disorder right after she died.
She bought all her Christmas presents at the same store in her community of Portmore - so we got some pretty ‘interesting’ gifts.
Q: 5) Do you have any funny/amusing stories of your mother that exemplify her personality that you would like to share?
A: As I said, we all got Christmas gifts from that one store-this was really painful for us as children *laughs* When she moved to Portmore she had to buy things in Portmore. I remember I got a camera for Christmas; it looked quite professional but the brand name was “Jopan.” I’m still recovering from that.
She would give us advice about cocktail parties (she hated networking/ profiling- it wasn’t her thing). Her advice was- you should walk to get a drink, and make sure you get the people that need to know you are there, to see that you were there….then leave.
She would also always drink Red Stripe beer straight from the bottle.
Q: 6) How would you describe your mother’s outlook on life or “life philosophy”?
A: She saw herself and everyone else as spiritual beings having a human experience. Her mission was to achieve harmony with the Holy Spirit and extract the good for all out of every interaction she had.
Q: 7) What do you think your mother would say/think/feel if she could see all that JMMB has achieved over the years? What do you think she would be most proud of?
A: Say: “Give God Thanks” for her dream realized and expanding.
Think: “Love works! Love prevails!”
Feel: Proud Because:
1. Team members are able to be true to themselves and to honour their feelings.
2. Team members are developing holistically – learning how to build genuine high trust relationships.
3. The lives of the family members of Team members at JMMB are being enhanced because of the team members exposure to the JMMB philosophy, along with the cultural training and practices.
4. Team members are realizing their dreams – some here at JMMB and many have left JMMB to pursue their dreams in the wider society.
5. Clients feel like family, in the main, they feel loved, cared for and valued no matter how much money they have.
6. Clients are achieving their goals.
7. JMMB culture based on Love is alive and well in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago - we have maintained our spiritual characteristics as we grown.
Q: 8) What powered her to succeed?
A: She learnt how to love God, herself and everyone she met.
Patricia Sutherland - Reflection Q&A on Joan Duncan
Q: 1) If you had to describe your mother in three words what would these words be?
A: Real, down to earth, fun
Q: 2) What do you know about your mother’s childhood and what life was like for her growing up?
A: She was the rebel in the family- always the non-conformist. She was born a feminist. It came naturally to her and therefore she saw no boundaries.
Q: 3) What do you think inspired her to start JMMB at the time in her life?
A: She always had an entrepreneurial spirit. We had many meetings as a family working on what business we could start together. I still have the notes from those meetings. Although we were thinking of starting a business, it did not occur to her for us to do it in the business she was working in at that time. However, the rejection of the idea by her employers coupled with her realization of how unfairly she was being treated in the corporate world just because she was a woman, pushed her to even imagine it was possible to start JMMB. This coupled with Doc’s (Dr. Noel Lyon’s) encouragement and his own mission to create businesses in Jamaica was the coming together of the stars!
Q: 4) Is there anything about your mother (hobbies, interests, character traits etc.) that is not widely known?
A: When we lived in Williamsfield, we had a vegetable farm on a piece of land that our neighbor let us use. During crop time, in the evenings after dinner we would sit and package the stuff for delivery to the supermarkets.
She also had a green thumb and always had a beautiful garden. She had a glass covered courtyard and decided she was going to grow a tree in the courtyard. She had to keep tying the limbs down saying she was training it not to grow up. She was never daunted by what everyone else thought was impossible. She was also a member of the black power movement in Canada and Jamaica.
Q: 5) Do you have any funny/amusing stories of your mother that exemplify her personality that you would like to share?
A: Mummy decided she wanted a house on the beach in Hellshire. It would be the first house in the area- she had bought the land, so there was no light. She had to run the house on a generator. So we had to use lamps for light and the generator to cool the fridge and watch televison for a few hours. She also wanted a Honda Integra having come from a Lada at her last job when all of her male counterparts were driving Toyota Crowns and Cressidas. Since the house was being run on a generator, she had to get diesel oil to the house for the generator. So being efficient, her solution was to carry the oil drum to work on the back seat of her Integra and fill it up on the way home. The result- every time you drove with mummy you smelt like diesel oil as it constantly spilled on the seat of the car. She will get the impossible done! She did not have a need to live by the rules.
So focused she was that she did not waste time when she had a project. She was doing a presentation for work and her glasses broke. One lens fell out and the opposite arm broke off. This did not stop her from either completing or making the board presentation. I can just imagine the faces of the persons in that meeting when she put on the ‘glasses’ to start her presentation.
I am sure Keith or Donna can attest to the time when she went on radio during the local financial crisis when cement company had issued some paper through Caldon and was refusing to honour it. She was unfettered in her commentary putting it plainly, “Dem a tief!!!” Not mincing any words.
Q: 6) How would you describe your mother’s outlook on life or “life philosophy”?
A: Mummy was about love and honesty. Love in respecting and seeing the best in people. She was a great believer in the power of the mind and uncompromised honesty. She was real!!!
Q: 7) What do you think your mother would say/think/feel if she could see all that JMMB has achieved over the years? What do you think she would be most proud of?
A: What mummy would be most proud of at JMMB is that we have managed to grow with love and integrity at the core of our existence. That the young people who have started working with us have been able to soar and to recognize their own dreams; that we have been able to assemble a board of such high integrity and unquestionable commitment. That we are able to be REAL!!
David Duncan - Reflection Q&A on Joan Duncan
Q: 1) If you had to describe your mother in three words what would these words be?
A: Workaholic, humble, rebellious
Q: 2) What do you know about your mother’s childhood and what life was like for her growing up?
A: Joany Pony was very much a tomboy and a troublemaker. Very “high-spirited.” I think she was a bit of a rebel without a cause while her sister Elizabeth was the opposite - “a goody two shoes.” She was constantly butting heads with her mother because of her disposition; or maybe it was the converse.
Later on that rebelliousness both led to, and was compounded by her strong social conscience and consciousness. This led her to become a part of the social and political activism while in college in Montreal, Canada, and later during her partnership with D.K. (Duncan) which also started while she lived in Montreal. Some say that when they first got together she was more of a rebel than he was.
Q: 3) What do you think inspired her to start JMMB at the time in her life?
A: Joan was tired of being undervalued by the various institutions she had worked for and frustrated with the glass ceiling for women in the corporate world. JMMB could have “easily” been a subsidiary of Workers Bank or NCB, but Joany Pony wanted to build an institution that created value for particular people in a particular way with a particular spirit.
When she was starting the company she was known to say that “poor people should be able to make money with their money too.” Mummy wanted to make money but that was not enough. She wanted to do so while and through helping people of modest means make money.
Her social consciousness and sense of social justice dictated the clientele she wanted to go after or at the very least include, and the ethos of the institution she built to do so. A company with a loving, caring, people first culture with a firm stance of/on equitable treatment for all its family members.
Q: 4) Is there anything about your mother (hobbies, interests, character traits etc.) that is not widely known?
A: She wrote a lot of computer code herself for JMMB in the very beginning. Additionally, her favourite computer game was a very basic one called Digger that she used to play all the time to relax back in the early 90’s.
She was also a ‘sucker’ for an infomercial. A real talent at “As Seen On TV” shopping. Bought all kinds of nonsense.
Q: 5) Do you have any funny/amusing stories of your mother that exemplify her personality that you would like to share?
A: Joany Pony could be seriously stubborn at times just like her mother.
Mummy, her mother Nanoo, my cousin Michael, and I were heading home to Mandeville from May Pen one Sunday evening after visiting with family. During the drive home, Mummy and Nanoo, got into an argument that got so heated, they both refused to drive. Although I cannot recall what the argument was about, I know it resulted in me having to drive us home. I was about thirteen at the time, fourteen at the most. My driving experience prior to that point was reversing the car out of the carport to wash it and pulling it back in. Needless to say, the drive home up Melrose Hill was a harrowing experience. Those of us, who know the old road through Porus know what I am talking about.
Q: 6) How would you describe your mother’s outlook on life or “life philosophy”?
A: Where there is a will there is a way.
Love in abundance.
Q: 7) What do you think your mother would say/think/feel if she could see all that JMMB has achieved over the years? What do you think she would be most proud of?
A: She would probably be very proud of the fact that JMMB is making “a whole heap a money” for a whole heap of people. She would likely be even more proud of the way the company is viewed by the average Joe/Joan on the street.
It was extremely important to her that people understand that JMMB was on their side and had their best interest at heart and could be depended on the company ‘come high or come low’.
Q: 8) What powered her to succeed?
A: Joany Pony was quite frankly a workaholic. Her work ethic and her absolute brilliance together dictated that she would succeed at whatever task she tackled.
Archibald Campbell - Reflection Q&A on Joan Duncan
Q: 1) If you had to describe Joan Duncan in three words what would these words be?
A: Honest, Forthright, Unconventional
Q: 2) What do you think inspired her to start JMMB at the time in her life?
A: From her experience in the field she saw a gap that needed to be filled.
Q: 3) Is there anything about Joan Duncan (hobbies, interests, character traits etc.) that is not widely known?
A: From my memory, I believe she gave up her job at Workers Bank to pursue her Masters in Accounting. She is extremely unpretentious; she enjoyed the simple things of life like playing her dominoes and drinking a beer.
Q: 4) Do you have any funny/amusing stories of her that exemplify her personality that you would like to share?
A: She handled the treasury function at Workers Bank while I did the same at Mutual Security Bank. One afternoon she wanted $20m on the inter-bank market, but most institutions were now not lending to Workers at the time, I can still hear Joan’s voice over the phone saying “Archie, is me you lending to, you will get back your money in the morning.” I did get it back the following day.
Q: 5) How would you describe her outlook on life or “life philosophy”?
A: Her love for people and the honesty of people in general. Treat people fairly and the rewards will flow.
Q: 6) What do you think she would say/think/feel if she could see all that JMMB has achieved over the years? What do you think she would be most proud of?
A: She would be most proud of her children and the role they have played in making the company prosper. She would be happy to see how the company has grown but it would not have surprised her as it was her vision.
Q: 7) What powered her to succeed?
A: Self-belief, practicality, vision and abundance of faith
Brenton Sharpe - Reflection Q&A on Joan Duncan
Q: 1) If you had to describe Joan Duncan in three words what would these words be?
A: Honest, Forthright and Self-motivated.
Q: 2) What do you know about her childhood and what life was like for her growing up?
A: Based on my interactions with her, she was down-to-earth, brave and a no-nonsense girl.
Q: 3) What do you think inspired her to start JMMB at the time in her life?
A: Working at other financial Institutions inspired her to fulfil her lifelong dream.
Q: 4) Is there anything about Joan Duncan (hobbies, interests, character traits etc.) that is not widely known?
A: Everything about Mrs. Duncan was an open book.
Q: 5) Do you have any funny/amusing stories of her that exemplify her personality that you would like to share?
A: It was at the end of the work day and everyone was about to leave, when she would say "Mi… have a meeting in Ochie”, I would drive her there and on our way back she reclined her seat and say “Mr. Sharpe goodnight tek mi home safe.”
Q: 6) How would you describe her outlook on life or “life philosophy”?
A: Believe in self and in what you set out to do and if you fail, try again.
Q: 7) What do you think she would say/think/feel if she could see all that JMMB has achieved over the years? What do you think she would be most proud of?
A: She would say with beer in hand “thank you Jesus” and “a fi mi company this”
She would be most proud of her children, how well they have done and compliment the TEAM on how fast and big the company has grown.
Q: 8) What powered her to succeed?
A: She had a DREAM and the right team members who shared in her dream.