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Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart: A Jamaican busy
2008-03-22 Written by: David P. Rowe 
Gordon “Butch” Stewart is now a Jamaican icon. His businesses have raised and enhanced the profile of Jamaica and Jamaicans overseas. In an era when brand Jamaica is sometimes associated with crime and lack of achievement, the Sandals chain shines with international awards. If young Jamaican boys need a positive role model, ‘Butch’ and his dream of international business prominence is now a documented Caribbean legend.
At a time when some of the big banks in Jamaica are accused of making excessive profits and sending them overseas, Butch is spending his profits on refurbishing government schools in Jamaica.
Of course, you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, and like any successful and powerful man, Butch will have his detractors. It must be said for him that when many big local businessmen have left Jamaica to relocate to Florida, Cayman or Bermuda, Butch has “hung in there” in Jamaica and confounded his critics.
He has demonstrated confidence in Jamaica over the years when many have ‘cut and run’. Despite his international prestige, Butch is as Jamaican as saltfish and bammy. When others graduate to caviar, Butch is comfortable playing dominoes with his adoring mostly non-unionised employees.
He has also demonstrated an ability to persuade successive governments to address his corporate agenda. In Jamaica, where there are so many competing private interests, this could not have been easy. The Readers Digest, a major international publication, which rarely interests itself about anything Jamaican, recently did a detailed, admiring and authoritative sketch on Butch, his family and Jamaica.
Butch is loyal to his friends and therefore makes many. His contribution last year of $1.5 million to St. Joseph’s Teacher’s College was significant because it has not been followed by any other contributions of that type from the private sector. Butch’s mere continued corporate presence in Jamaica, by itself, enhances Jamaica’s international credit rating.
All of our Ministers of Finance should meet with the Gordon “Butch” Stewart to discuss the Net International Reserves situation, as the reintroduction of the Exchange Control Act is not the answer. I am sure he will give them good advice for free.
Butch has built a publishing empire, which is a significant spoke in the wheel of our Westminster democracy. No government in Jamaica today can operate outside of the critical assessment of the Observer, another Butch Stewart contribution to Jamaica. Thank you, Butch, for investing in Jamaica and Jamaicans all over the world.
David P. Rowe is a professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law and the St. Thomas University School of Law.
2008-03-22 Written by: David P. Rowe Gordon “Butch” Stewart is now a Jamaican icon. His businesses have raised and enhanced the profile of Jamaica and Jamaicans overseas. In an era when brand Jamaica is sometimes associated with crime and lack of achievement, the Sandals chain shines with international awards. If young Jamaican boys need a positive role model, ‘Butch’ and his dream of international business prominence is now a documented Caribbean legend.
At a time when some of the big banks in Jamaica are accused of making excessive profits and sending them overseas, Butch is spending his profits on refurbishing government schools in Jamaica.
Of course, you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, and like any successful and powerful man, Butch will have his detractors. It must be said for him that when many big local businessmen have left Jamaica to relocate to Florida, Cayman or Bermuda, Butch has “hung in there” in Jamaica and confounded his critics.
He has demonstrated confidence in Jamaica over the years when many have ‘cut and run’. Despite his international prestige, Butch is as Jamaican as saltfish and bammy. When others graduate to caviar, Butch is comfortable playing dominoes with his adoring mostly non-unionised employees.
He has also demonstrated an ability to persuade successive governments to address his corporate agenda. In Jamaica, where there are so many competing private interests, this could not have been easy. The Readers Digest, a major international publication, which rarely interests itself about anything Jamaican, recently did a detailed, admiring and authoritative sketch on Butch, his family and Jamaica.
Butch is loyal to his friends and therefore makes many. His contribution last year of $1.5 million to St. Joseph’s Teacher’s College was significant because it has not been followed by any other contributions of that type from the private sector. Butch’s mere continued corporate presence in Jamaica, by itself, enhances Jamaica’s international credit rating.
All of our Ministers of Finance should meet with the Gordon “Butch” Stewart to discuss the Net International Reserves situation, as the reintroduction of the Exchange Control Act is not the answer. I am sure he will give them good advice for free.
Butch has built a publishing empire, which is a significant spoke in the wheel of our Westminster democracy. No government in Jamaica today can operate outside of the critical assessment of the Observer, another Butch Stewart contribution to Jamaica. Thank you, Butch, for investing in Jamaica and Jamaicans all over the world.
David P. Rowe is a professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law and the St. Thomas University School of Law.
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