In 2022, two Caribbean natives made the prestigious list of global billionaires (US
currency). Jamaican investor Michael Lee-Chin and Bajan Songstress Rihanna. The
two, along with other luminaries including Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Tyler Perry, and
Lebron James, make up a limited pool of billionaires of African descent.
Michael Lee-Chin
Michael Lee-Chin is known throughout the island of Jamaica as a businessman without peers. He’s the chairman of the regional banking conglomerate National Commercial Bank (NCB) and head of Portland Holdings Inc., a pirate investment company in Ontario, Canada, where he’s currently based. He’s estimated to be worth around 1.4 billion US dollars.
Mr. Lee-Chin was born to Jamaican-Chinese parents in 1951. His mother worked as a bookkeeper and his father ran a local grocery. He was appointed chairman of Jamaica’s Economic Growth Council in 2016 and awarded the Order of Ontario in 2017 for outstanding achievement in his field and contribution to his Canadian community. Mr. Lee-Chin has made a sizable donation to the Royal Ontario Museum, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto McMaster University, and the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation.
Rihanna
Newly minted national hero of Barbados Rihanna (born Robyn Rihanna Fenty) has been producing hit music for almost two decades now. The multiple-time Grammy winner, occasional actress, businesswoman, and now mother, has excelled at every opportunity.
With over 250 million records sold, she is the second highest-selling female artist of all time ahead of contemporaries such as Taylor Swift and Beyonce, and only behind Madonna, which makes her one of the most successful musical acts of all time.
However, the secret to her wealth is the rapid success of her Fenty Beauty brand. The makeup brand focuses on inclusivity, catering to every skin tone and hue, and pioneered a radical marketing strategy of targeting influencers of all sizes, not just the accounts commanding millions of followers, to show off their high-quality product. In the first month alone, the makeup brand brought in an incredible $72 million beating established players in the field such as Loreal and Kosas.
Before Rihanna’s emphatic return to the stage at the recent Super Bowl HalfTime Show, it would not be a stretch to consider her more of a business mogul than an entertainer, despite conquering both fields.
. Jamaican investor Michael Lee-Chin){kind=link}