Since 2010: Honouring Excellence
- Breakthrough Communications
- May 22
- 4 min read
AmCham Jamaica's Awards Programme Marks a Double Milestone
When the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AmCham Jamaica) opens the doors of the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on May 27, 2026, for its Business & Civic Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility Awards and 40th Anniversary Gala, the evening will carry the weight of not one milestone but two.
AmCham Jamaica turns forty this year, four decades since its founding in 1986, when a group of American businesses operating in Jamaica, including founding member Sherwin Williams Jamaica Limited, came together to formalise a shared commitment to strengthening trade and investment between Jamaica and the United States. But 2026 also marks sixteen years since the organisation launched its Business & Civic Leadership Awards Programme — a programme that was designed from the outset to be unlike anything that existed in Jamaica's corporate landscape at the time.
A Different Kind of Recognition
When AmCham Jamaica established its awards in 2010, the decision was a deliberate one. Jamaica had no shortage of business awards. What it lacked, in the view of AmCham Jamaica's leadership at the time, was a programme that moved the measure of success away from the financial bottom line and toward something harder to quantify but equally consequential; the impact that individuals and organisations have on Jamaica's social and economic progress.
The awards were conceived to celebrate corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, and civic leadership. They were designed to highlight those driving progress through ethical stewardship and community-building activities, and to tell positive stories of Jamaica by recognising committed and honourable citizens whose vision and achievement inspire others. In the words of those who created it, this would be an awards programme "like no other."
After sixteen years, that founding philosophy remains the governing principle of every nomination, every adjudication, and every presentation.
A Roll of Honour
Over the sixteen years, AmCham Jamaica Business & Civic Leadership Awards have produced a remarkable record of recognition, a roll of honour that reads as a who's who of Jamaican civic and corporate leadership.
Among the individual honourees, past recipients of the President's Award include Ian Forbes, Diana Stewart, and Kevin Hendrickson, each recognised for contributions that extend well beyond their professional achievements into the life of the nation. The Lifetime Achievement Award has been presented to Douglas Orane, whose record of leadership in Jamaican business and civic life made him a fitting recipient of the organisation's highest individual honour.
Additional recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award over the years have included Richard Byles and Professor Gordon Shirley, both recognised for their enduring contributions to Jamaica’s national development.
Other individual honourees across the programme's history include Jean Lowrie-Chin, Professor Ernest Madu, Father Richard Ho Lung — recognised for his humanitarian work with the poor and Irvine Clare, founder of Team Jamaica Bickle, who received the Global Spotlight Award in 2017.
On the organisational side, the awards have recognised some of Jamaica's most active corporate citizens. Sagicor Group Jamaica and the Sagicor Foundation have been honoured across multiple years and categories, reflecting a sustained commitment to both corporate social responsibility and civic leadership. The Digicel Jamaica Foundation has been recognised for its commitment to the special needs community. The National Commercial Bank has been honoured for its widespread impact in education, youth leadership, and community development. FLOW Jamaica has received recognition for community-building activities. These are not organisations that gave once and moved on — they are institutions that have made the long-term investment in Jamaica that the awards were created to celebrate.
2026: A Landmark Edition
The 2026 Gala will be a landmark edition of the awards by any measure. The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to philanthropist and entrepreneur Karl Hendrickson. The President's Award will be presented to Audrey Tugwell Henry, President and Chief Executive Officer of Scotia Group Jamaica Limited, in recognition of her 34 years of distinguished service to Jamaica's financial sector and her sustained commitment to women's empowerment, inclusion, and talent development.
The evening will also feature the presentation of the Eagle of the Americas Award to the Bureau for Disaster and Humanitarian Response of the United States Department of State, honouring its relief and recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Melissa a powerful affirmation of the Jamaica–US partnership that AmCham Jamaica has championed for four decades.
Nominations Closed Following Extended Submission Period
Nominations for the 2026 Business & Civic Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility Awards officially closed on Sunday, May 10, 2026, following an extension granted by AmCham Jamaica in response to requests from individuals seeking additional time to complete and submit nominations.
The nomination period, which opened on March 30, invited submissions in the following categories: the AmCham Jamaica Award of Excellence for Civic Leadership, open to large and small organisations, non-profits, and foundations; and the AmCham Jamaica Award of Excellence for Corporate Social Responsibility, open to large and small organisations. The awards also include the AmCham Good Samaritan Award for both organisations and individuals in recognition of Hurricane Melissa relief efforts.
AmCham Jamaica President Ann-Dawn Young Sang said the convergence of the two milestones makes 2026 a particularly significant year for the organisation and for Jamaica.
"Forty years of AmCham Jamaica and sixteen years of these awards are not separate stories — they are the same story, told from two different angles. Both are about believing that business has a responsibility that goes beyond profit, and that Jamaica is strongest when its private sector, its civic leaders, and its communities are working together toward a common purpose. These awards were created to honour that belief in action, and fifteen years on, the calibre of the men, women, and organisations who have been recognised tells us that belief is very much alive in Jamaica. Join us on May 27 as we celebrate forty years of progress and the people who made it possible."
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