‘Education is way forward’

Dr Geneive Brown Metzger, who has done so much in recent years to attract United States investment into the Caribbean region – notably through her creation in 2015 of the American Caribbean Maritime Foundation (ACMF) – is a very good example of the ‘favourable tide’ parable. In her case, the high achievement that resulted from her positive childhood experiences in Jamaica has been in the sphere of diplomacy and international relations. As she told Caribbean Maritime: “I have, as they say, a strong Rolodex, so I am a connector. I either know the key person or am a degree away from him or her.”

When it comes to promoting good relations between the US and the Caribbean, there’s nothing like having an expert knowledge of both places. Geneive has the key advantage of having been born in Kingston and lived there until she was 15 years old before the family moved to a new life in the Brooklyn district of New York. She has lived and made her career in the US, but her links with the Caribbean are a core part of her professional career.

“I understand the Caribbean,” she told CM. “And since I have gone to school in the US and lived many years here, I have a good understanding of both cultures and am an effective resource for investors looking at the Caribbean. I believe strongly in the power of US-Caribbean partnership and the economic, social and cultural opportunities [it can bring]”.

Civil rights

The same instinct that has made her want to ease and improve the economic circumstances of Caribbean nationals has also led her to get involved at the sharp end of the civil rights movement, especially at the outset of her career.

Geneive, who has a BA in Political Science from City University of New York as well as a Masters from Columbia University, says. “My political science degree has served me well, as my second job out of school was at the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] Legal Defense Fund, right at the time of the 25th anniversary of the pivotal Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. This is the decision that reversed ‘separate but equal’ and began to dismantle segregation in the US.”

Activist

Before that she worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, where she and, years earlier, Ruth Bader Ginsburg – now an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court – “cut our activist teeth on the same sharpening block”.

A milestone in Geneive’s career was reached in 2008 when she was appointed Jamaican Consul General in New York – a four-year posting that gave her ample opportunity to play to her strengths and enhance her skills.

“My tenure as Consul General was pivotal in my goal to improve US-Caribbean ties as it placed me squarely in the hub of geopolitical activity, investment and trade between the two regions,” she says. “It did open up my circle of relationships in the Caribbean, both diplomatically and commercially. That experience has made me realize the pivotal role of [the] maritime [industry] in the Caribbean. I also have realized how critically important it is for the Caribbean to control its own narrative and to expand it beyond the stereotypical ‘sun-sea-sand’ narrative. The region possesses impressive business, economic and viable foreign investment opportunities in energy, financial services, business process outsourcing and, of course, tourism.”

In recent years, Geneive has helped to bring millions of dollars of investment into the Caribbean, including specific programs in Jamaica such as mining and waste management. As always, her instinct to open pathways to higher education has come to the fore – most strongly in her creation of the ACMF, which aims to raise funds to provide scholarships for students at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) in Kingston.

Inspired

She says her commitment to the maritime industry was inspired by a book called ‘Dynasties of the Sea’ in which Lori Ann LaRocco “spoke of the shipping business’s long history of helping to spawn the middle class in many economies across the globe”. Alongside this, says Geneive, was “the CARICOM’s prioritization of the industry as critical for economic growth across many of their economies, particularly in light of the expansion of the Panama Canal. I saw educating future Caribbean workers and seafarers as a viable way to help the region lift people out of poverty.”

In promoting the Caribbean brand, Geneive sees the ACMF as a key achievement. “What we have created is the only fund-raising entity in the US, Caribbean or elsewhere dedicated exclusively to Caribbean maritime education,” she says. “The ACMF is a unique brand and we have achieved a lot in a short two years in support of a sector that is so pivotal to the region’s economic future. We have donated over $150,000 toward three scholarships for students from The Bahamas and Jamaica and a lecture theatre named in part in our honor. I am very much looking forward to building on this success and taking the organization to higher levels of success.”

A packed career

Among the positive qualities Geneive inherited from her parents is a tremendously strong work ethic. A list of her activities and achievements in the course of her working life so far would put many an international high-flyer to shame.

• In 1998 she founded the New York-based marketing communications practice Geneive Brown Associates, focusing on education and economic development, with clients in the US, the Caribbean and Africa. The firm was subsequently acquired by international PR company Ruder Finn and she became president of the Emerging Markets Division.
• She served on a Washington-based think tank that led to the inaugural Global Diaspora Forum in 2011 spearheaded by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
• She has provided consulting services across a range of disciplines including government relations and economic development.
• For the past seven years she has been principal of Geneive Brown Metzger Consulting, which she founded.
• Since 2015 she has been president of Gladvic Productions, which aims to promote the Caribbean brand through documentary film and video. She has raised American awareness of Caribbean issues through the medium of radio and continues to host a weekly talk show on WVIP in New York.

All this, of course, in addition to her four-year tenure as Jamaican Consul General in New York from 2008 to 2012.

In terms of local community work in the US, she has served on the board of the Inter Faith Council for Action (IFCA), addressing low-income housing issues in New York; was a founding member of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and is on the advisory board of the St George’s Society of New York to support members of the Commonwealth who have fallen on hard times.

But from the point of view of the Caribbean maritime sector, her milestone achievement came in 2015 when she set up the ACMF, working closely with the CMU. The foundation has proved a successful fund-raiser for maritime scholarships, further boosted by its Anchor Awards program, with an annual ceremony in New York, which acknowledges corporate sponsors.

Early influences

Geneive would probably agree that, in her professional life, she has functioned on good terms with people from a huge variety of cultural, racial and economic backgrounds. And there is no question that a childhood full of vivid and varied influences was the ideal preparation for such a life.

Her father, who worked as a master tailor, came from humble beginnings and “wasn’t an educated man” although he “craved learning”. Her mother came from a successful agricultural family who grew sugar cane and coffee. “Dad valued her gentility and ensured her manners, not his, were taught to us,” says Geneive. “Education for both of them was paramount and they saw it as a way to ensure their children accessed higher society and greater opportunity.” When the family moved to the US, both parents were “even more fixated on ensuring their children attended the best schools”.

Aspects of British culture impacted on Geneive when she attended St Hugh’s High School for Girls in Kingston. “At the time, St Hugh’s had a mixed student population of local and British expat students,” she says. “Many of our teachers were English. I learned to play tennis at St Hugh’s. The coach made an incredible impression on me. She was from England, drove a red Mini-Minor and pulled up to school in her tennis whites, dropped of by her beatnik husband. At first I was attracted to tennis by the stylish gear and later learned to love the game.”

Geneive is eternally grateful to her parents for giving her and her five siblings an excellent start through education and a loving home. “They made so many personal sacrifices for us – never owing a motor car in America or taking regular vacations. We lost Mum at 50 years to a heart attack. Brings me to tears every time I think of how hard she worked. I know that must be part of why I am so driven to help Jamaican youth looking for a better life. They would have appreciated my work and my heart to make a difference.”

Personal life

Geneive is married to Dr Stephen Metzger, an economist who attended Yale and Rice University. Having worked for many years in the oil and financial sectors, Stephen now teaches developmental economics at Fordham University in New York. They met at a children’s birthday party where Geneive was expecting to meet a blind date – a judge, in fact. “He got cold feet and didn’t attend,” she says. “But my husband, a divorced father at the time, did. He was escorting his six-year-old daughter to the party.”

As well as clicking personally, they have been able to complement each other’s skills. “I draw much on his business management expertise, including in setting up the ACMF, and in my consulting work,” says Geneive. “We have co-authored articles. He has drawn on my knowledge and relationships in the diplomatic field and in the Caribbean for his developmental economics classes.”

When Geneive is looking to relax and unwind, two of her girlhood passions are well to the fore. She still loves music, having learned to play the violin at Ebanks Primary School in Kingston. And of course she got the tennis bug while at St Hugh’s High School. “We own a home at the Tryall Club in Jamaica,” says Geneive. “We’d like to get there more often than we do. My husband is a great tennis player, so is one of our daughters, and keeping up with them is not easy. We both enjoy classical music, but my husband is a rabid Bob Marley and Ijahman [Levi] fan. He doesn’t do badly on the dance floor either when the music of either of these two greats fills the air.”