Gloria Henry blazing a trail in life, BPO and logistics
Published:Sunday | July 23, 2023 | 12:05 AMAaliyah Cunningham - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Ever since she was a child, Gloria Henry always knew she would follow the beat of her own drum and trust that wherever it may take her she would make the most of it. Now the vice-president of business process outsourcing (BPO) and logistics at the Port Authority of Jamaica, she is making waves in the industry to the benefit of Jamaicans, all while carrying the title of mom, pillar of her community, and devoted daughter.
Henry’s strong educational background and experience would take the Montego Bay native from working in banking and finance to aiding in the development of the Montego Bay Freezone. As an employee of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority, now National Environment and Planning Agency, she was integral in the development of the Montego Bay Marine Park.
“I was a part of the team that actually established the first site-specific marine park in Jamaica. That was my first experience working with the Government. I left there and went to the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), where I worked for 10 and a half years. When I was there, all we could hear about was the Port Authority,” Henry told The Sunday Gleaner.
She eventually saw a job opening and took a leap of faith, applying for a post at the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) in 2004.
“When I started there, we were just exiting the garment manufacturing era. Jamaica was looking at opportunities and lots of changes taking place in the global space. It was an exciting time but it was challenging as well because I entered the Freezone not knowing what I was getting into. It was an opportunity to chart a new course. I like a new challenge,” she revealed.
Through her diligence and unwavering belief in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and information and communication technology (ICT) sector, she has committed many long days and nights to ensuring the establishment of several international company operations across the island. Among them are Teleperformance, Conduent, Concentrix, and more. For her, the BPO and ICT operations here must go beyond just the contact centres, and through her leadership, and support of her team and the PAJ, over the years, there has been an expansion of the skills being drafted for work in the Freezones and Portmore Informatics Park.
“A lot of people only see the contact centres, but we have a number of clients in the zone who are providing additional services such as those in software development. So we have coders operating in the zone, we have contract manufacturing providing electronic assembling as well as technical support service, and of course, we have our partners providing shared services and other information technology support and data analytics,” Henry underscored.
As she continues to search for ways to broaden the sector, she keeps it all together with pristine organisation, ingenuity, and a strong reliance on and belief in her team.
“I am a very competitive person, and I enjoy success, and I am a nationalist, of course. I believe that if there are opportunities that Jamaica can capitalise on, more so the Port Authority, I will jump on it. I don’t operate in a box, and I am constantly looking at the boundaries and scanning beyond the boundaries to see where the opportunities lay,” she explained.
Henry does this all while being a supportive mom to her daughter and ensuring that she checks in with her family via their WhatsApp group to which she sends motivational messages and Bible verses every morning.
Always ready for a challenge, Henry keeps her feet on the ground and eyes on the prize. Having touched so many spaces, she cannot say what is next for her just yet, but for right now, she is focused on the continued growth of the BPO and logistics sectors on the island.
“I don’t know where I am going next, but I know where I am at now, which is logistics, and logistics is the next frontier in development. It covers all the things that we have looked at in the past in outsourcing, and it creates opportunities for every single thing in terms of higher-value jobs, in terms of revenue for the country, in terms of creating high-end employment. All of that is now possible as we work through the Port Authority to develop the logistics in Jamaica.