Some six months after his predecessor demitted office, Oliver Mair has assumed his role as Jamaica’s Consul General to the Southern USA.
Mair settled into his office at the Jamaican Consulate in downtown Miami two weeks ago. Some individuals who have already met the new 47-year-old CG or seen him around town have commented on his youthful looks. He has been even referred to as the “Baby Face CG.”
However, as Jamaicans are fond of saying, when things or people are better than they first appear: “Don’t let ghost fool you.”
On a mission to serve
Mair has come to Miami on a mission to serve and represent his country well, while engaging positively with the Jamaican community.
In fact, he describes himself as a “dynamic and visionary leader.” Mair bases this self-assessment on over 20-years’ experience in Jamaica’s travel/tourism, entertainment, agro-processing and real estate industries.
The MBA graduate of Nova South Eastern University has extensive experience in sales and marketing, strategic planning, project management, public relations and government corporate relations.
Confident
Although he is not a career diplomat like his three predecessors, Richard Allicock, Sandra Grant Griffith and more recently, Franz Hall, Mair is confident that his love and belief in Jamaica “as one of the most powerful countries in the world” and his mission to serve both Jamaica and the Jamaican community, will serve him well.
Circuitous career in Jamaican private sector
Mair is a product of the Jamaican private sector, where he held several positions in a somewhat circuitous route. Leaving Campion College and Wolmer’s High schools, he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in management studies and English Literature at the UWI-Mona.
Graduating in 1992, he embarked on his career as an operations officer at Jamaica Broilers. A year later, he joined the staff of Air Jamaica, where he remained for the next eleven years, rising through the ranks from flight attendant/purser/in-flight supervisor to routes operations supervisor and ultimately, regional marketing manager – Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Leaving Air Jamaica in 2004, Mair returned to Jamaica Broilers, where he served first, as sales manager, and later as marketing and sales manager. He resigned this position in 2012 and took the bold decision to become an entrepreneur a year later – in 2013.
He founded his own company, Jamaica Finest Produce, that supplied Jamaican agricultural produce to Jamaican hotels. He also served as consultant for several projects, including to the Portland Jerk Festival, Jamaica Broilers Group – Fun In The Sun and applied his sales skills in real estate as a realtor for Coldwell Bankers Limited.
Creative side
An all-rounder, Mair also applied his creative side to the theater. At Laugh It Off Productions, he served as producer and writer, and produced a 9-time Actor Boy nomination play, “Laff It Off,” which had a successful 9-month run.
He also enjoyed performing with the UWI Singers and the Jamaican Musical Theatre Company.
Objective: to engage the Jamaican community
Mair says in his new role as Jamaican Consul General, he would prefer not being to be bogged down in the Miami offices.
“The Consulate has a very efficient team that I am confident they will steer the office right, while I step out and engage the community,” he told CNW. “Engaging the community is my goal.”
Priorities
CG Mair cites his priorities during his tenure as working with the Jamaican community to focus on issues related to education, business investment in Jamaica, youth and health.
He is of the firm opinion that there are strong investment opportunities in Jamaica and he wants “to influence Jamaicans and other interested parties in the US to take advantage of these opportunities.”
“Jamaica is prime for investment,” Mair added. “Plenty of positive things are taking place there.”
The CG is also particularly interested in having the Jamaican-American community organize itself in contributing to healthcare development in Jamaica.
He is looking forward to working diligently with the Jamaican-American community to improving healthcare, especially in the rural Jamaican communities.
Help in establishing health clinics in Jamaica
“One of the things I want to do early in my mission is to work with the community in a program to adopt and develop one or more health clinics in Jamaica,” he said.
Family man
Mair is married to his wife Tanya and they have one daughter. Evidence that the new Consul General is a committed family man was revealed when he disclosed in a recent interview that he flew in early from an assignment in Jamaica last Friday to return in time to be with his wife and daughter to celebrate the ladies’ joint birthdays.
“I would not miss their birthdays at all,” he said.
Taking time to learn much as he could of the Jamaican community in Florida and other states in the Southern US from his predecessors, CG Mair says he is fully cognizant of the challenges that await him in his position.
But as he summed it up: “I am here, I am ready, and excited to be involved in and with the community.”
