Innovation key to surviving global change - Mahfood
Published:Monday | August 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Dave Lindo, Gleaner Writer
Businessman William Mahfood yesterday stressed to graduates of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) that innovative thinking is key for adapting to and operating successfully in the changing global economic environment.
Mahfood, managing director of Wisynco Group Ltd and guest speaker for the second commencement ceremony of the NCU's graduation exercise in Mandeville, Manchester, said the world was facing real transformation, evidenced in recent times by the global financial crises.
"We now live in a time where commodity prices change faster than we can follow, as computers are managing the trading that drives these changes," he said. "This is having a profound impact on the way we live and many other effects that we have not appreciated."
He added: "I ask all of you today, what are the most important traits to help us as individuals in this change environment? As far as I see it, we all need to be able to cope with change and one of the surest character traits we will need in order to manage is creativity."
Mahfood and Dr Ethley London were honoured by the NCU at the institution's two commencement ceremonies yesterday.
London, former executive director of the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ), received the President's Medallion in the first ceremony, while Mahfood received an honorary doctor of public service degree in the second.
London is the founding executive director of the UCJ, the quality assurance body for tertiary education in Jamaica, established in 1987. She served in that position from 1987 until 2011.
A pleasure
In her response, London said she felt honoured to receive the President's Medallion.
"(NCU) is an institution I have worked (with) for maybe 24 years and I have seen them grow from college to university," she said. "It has been a pleasure because the institution has been very responsive to quality education and also to what I term the kind of direction and improvements from the UCJ because it is in that capacity that I worked with them and it was always a pleasure."
Mahfood is a graduate of Boston's Northeastern Engineering University. He joined the Wisynco Group run by his family in 1988, moving up the ranks to become the company's managing director in 1994.
The ceremonies, led by interim NCU President Dr Daniel Fider, saw 981 students graduating.
The highest achiever among them was Aubyn Green (business administration) who had a 3.99 grade-point average out of 4.0.