By NAN Contributor
News Americas, Kingston, Jamaica, Tues. April 12, 2016: CEO of top Caribbean company, GraceKennedy Group, became the first Jamaican last week to win the Young Caribbean Professional Network’s (YCPN) award as the International Entrepreneur of the Year.
Don Wehby who, accepted the award at the Hotel Palomar in Philadelphia, PA for his leadership in making GraceKennedy a major player in the global marketplace; for the company’s commitment to investing in downtown Kingston by building a world class headquarters there and for GraceKennedy’s commitment to the ISSA/GraceKennedy High School Championships; its major sponsorship of the Penn Relays and its 22-year commitment to Team Jamaica Bickle.
This was “demonstrative of your leadership in the community and to our young people” YCPN said in a statement, in honoring Wehby with the third award in the group’s history.
In accepting the award, Wehby thanked the organization for the recognition, zeroing in on an area of focus for the GraceKennedy Group. He noted the work of the Grace and Staff Community Development Foundation, which currently assists in sending some 500 children to school, adding that the company intends to double that number to 1,000 students by 2020.
“I am confident that education is the solution to our nation’s challenges and this is a main area of focus for the Grace and Staff Foundation and the YCPN has also accomplished much in this regard,” Wehby said. ”In Jamaica, the private and public Sectors talk a lot about the IMF, structural adjustments, fiscal management and growth through investment. But we need to speak more about education to transform our country to a knowledge-based economy. We need to invest more in education for a knowledge-based economy to ensure that we have sustainable growth and job creation. If we do this, Jamaicans can have a better standard of living in line with vision 2030.”
He commended the YCPN, which raises funds for students to attend the annual Penn Relays and also provides scholarships to students in need, on its work to enrich the lives of young people across the region and wished the organization well on its fundraising efforts for the upcoming Penn Relays, as well as a current initiative to create global market place through the creation of a job bank.
The sold out Awards event saw an impressive list of dignitaries and business people from Philadelphia, the Caribbean and other parts of the world, in attendance.
