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Kingsley Thomas to head UK Gleaner
Thomas to leave gov't by mid-year
Observer Business Reporter
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Kingsley Thomas, the ubiquitous public official who has conceputalised and driven most of the government's more recent showpiece projects, is to leave his government jobs to become head of the Gleaner Company's operations in Britain, usually reliable sources said yesterday.
Thomas, whose substantive post is managing director of the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), is away on business in France and could not be contacted for comment. He is particularly associated with the Highway 2000 project, the toll road between Kingston and Montego Bay that is being developed by the French construction company Bouygues.
Oliver Clarke, the chairman and CEO of the Gleaner Company, which publishes newspapers in Jamaica, Britain and Canada, yesterday declined to confirm or deny the imminent appointment.
"I have no comment," he said.
However, Business Observer sources who are close to the government say that Thomas has already informed Prime Minister P J Patterson of his intention to step down from his various positions "within the next few months".
"The move could happen as early as mid-year unless Mr Patterson can get him to change his mind," said an administration source. "Kingsley has started to put in place the arrangements for the various projects in which he is involved to move ahead, even in his absence as their driving force."
Highway 2000 apart, among the projects being driven by Thomas is Harmony Cove, the multiple hotel resort development in Trelawny, a new stadium in the same parish, and the major inner-city housing project being undertaken by National Housing Trust (NHT), of which he is chairman. Thomas is also behind New Town, a new residential and commercial centre in the parish of Clarendon.
The revelation of the likely move to head up the Gleaner's UK business coincided with Monday's announcement that the Radio Jamaica (RJR) Group will spend up to £698,000 (J$80.27 million) to gain 20 per cent in the Gleaner's British subsidiary, Gleaner Company (UK) Ltd.
In fact, the Gleaner will announce tomorrow that Yvonne Wilks, the former marketing manager of RJR Group, will join its UK operations as one of two deputy managing directors, to be in charge of sales and marketing. She will join George Ruddock, who until last year was the Gleaner's senior man in the UK, as one of two deputies reporting to Thomas.
According to Monday's announcement, RJR, which, like the Gleaner, is listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, paid the Gleaner £223,000 for the 20 per cent holding in Gleaner Company UK.
However, RJR will assume £475,000, or 20 per cent of a £2.37-million loan raised by the Gleaner for its acquisition and reorganisation of the Voice Group, which publishes the UK's largest black newspaper, The Voice and its stablemate, Young Voices.
The Gleaner also publishes the Weekly Gleaner (UK), which it started in the 1950s.
Yesterday, RJR's chairman and CEO Lester Spaulding said that the acquisition of a stake in the Gleaner UK opened the door for his company to expand its media business outside Jamaica with a partner that was already familiar with the British market.
"The potential is there to look at radio and television (in the UK)," said Spaulding, who has long had a vision of expanding his group's offering to Caribbean populations in the United States and Britain. "This is an opportunity for us to consolidate the business."
Some of the cash being spent on the Gleaner deal would have come from a $250-million rights issue which RJR floated last year to help finance its expansion, including a state-of-the-art television studio in Kingston.
In Jamaica Spaulding's company operates four radio channels and a free-to-air television station, TVJ. Spaulding, however, has long held unrealised ambitions of creating strategic alliance with a newspaper company in the domestic market.
Such an alliance with Gleaner in Jamaica had, until now, appeared impractical, given the Gleaner's control of the radio station, Power 106. The other newspaper/electronic media tie-up in Jamaica is Neville Blythe's CVM Group, which includes CVM TV, the radio station HOT 102 FM, the down-market tabloid X-News and the young people's weekly, Teen Herald.
However, in a statement Monday the Gleaner's Clarke said the alliance with RJR would put the companies in a position to better "develop media opportunities in this important (UK) market".
If Thomas does joins the group, he will take over from Colin Reid, who was appointed managing director of Gleaner UK last July after the Gleaner acquisition of the Voice.
Reid resigned in December for health and other reasons.
"It is felt that Thomas has the stature and marketing flair, and importantly the vision to drive the development of a media organisation in the UK that the Gleaner and RJR seem to have in mind," said the Business Observer source.
Thomas was circulation manager of the Gleaner Company in the mid-1980s.
Kingsley Thomas to head UK Gleaner
Thomas to leave gov't by mid-year
Observer Business Reporter
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Kingsley Thomas, the ubiquitous public official who has conceputalised and driven most of the government's more recent showpiece projects, is to leave his government jobs to become head of the Gleaner Company's operations in Britain, usually reliable sources said yesterday.
Thomas, whose substantive post is managing director of the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), is away on business in France and could not be contacted for comment. He is particularly associated with the Highway 2000 project, the toll road between Kingston and Montego Bay that is being developed by the French construction company Bouygues.
Oliver Clarke, the chairman and CEO of the Gleaner Company, which publishes newspapers in Jamaica, Britain and Canada, yesterday declined to confirm or deny the imminent appointment.
"I have no comment," he said.
However, Business Observer sources who are close to the government say that Thomas has already informed Prime Minister P J Patterson of his intention to step down from his various positions "within the next few months".
"The move could happen as early as mid-year unless Mr Patterson can get him to change his mind," said an administration source. "Kingsley has started to put in place the arrangements for the various projects in which he is involved to move ahead, even in his absence as their driving force."
Highway 2000 apart, among the projects being driven by Thomas is Harmony Cove, the multiple hotel resort development in Trelawny, a new stadium in the same parish, and the major inner-city housing project being undertaken by National Housing Trust (NHT), of which he is chairman. Thomas is also behind New Town, a new residential and commercial centre in the parish of Clarendon.
The revelation of the likely move to head up the Gleaner's UK business coincided with Monday's announcement that the Radio Jamaica (RJR) Group will spend up to £698,000 (J$80.27 million) to gain 20 per cent in the Gleaner's British subsidiary, Gleaner Company (UK) Ltd.
In fact, the Gleaner will announce tomorrow that Yvonne Wilks, the former marketing manager of RJR Group, will join its UK operations as one of two deputy managing directors, to be in charge of sales and marketing. She will join George Ruddock, who until last year was the Gleaner's senior man in the UK, as one of two deputies reporting to Thomas.
According to Monday's announcement, RJR, which, like the Gleaner, is listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, paid the Gleaner £223,000 for the 20 per cent holding in Gleaner Company UK.
However, RJR will assume £475,000, or 20 per cent of a £2.37-million loan raised by the Gleaner for its acquisition and reorganisation of the Voice Group, which publishes the UK's largest black newspaper, The Voice and its stablemate, Young Voices.
The Gleaner also publishes the Weekly Gleaner (UK), which it started in the 1950s.
Yesterday, RJR's chairman and CEO Lester Spaulding said that the acquisition of a stake in the Gleaner UK opened the door for his company to expand its media business outside Jamaica with a partner that was already familiar with the British market.
"The potential is there to look at radio and television (in the UK)," said Spaulding, who has long had a vision of expanding his group's offering to Caribbean populations in the United States and Britain. "This is an opportunity for us to consolidate the business."
Some of the cash being spent on the Gleaner deal would have come from a $250-million rights issue which RJR floated last year to help finance its expansion, including a state-of-the-art television studio in Kingston.
In Jamaica Spaulding's company operates four radio channels and a free-to-air television station, TVJ. Spaulding, however, has long held unrealised ambitions of creating strategic alliance with a newspaper company in the domestic market.
Such an alliance with Gleaner in Jamaica had, until now, appeared impractical, given the Gleaner's control of the radio station, Power 106. The other newspaper/electronic media tie-up in Jamaica is Neville Blythe's CVM Group, which includes CVM TV, the radio station HOT 102 FM, the down-market tabloid X-News and the young people's weekly, Teen Herald.
However, in a statement Monday the Gleaner's Clarke said the alliance with RJR would put the companies in a position to better "develop media opportunities in this important (UK) market".
If Thomas does joins the group, he will take over from Colin Reid, who was appointed managing director of Gleaner UK last July after the Gleaner acquisition of the Voice.
Reid resigned in December for health and other reasons.
"It is felt that Thomas has the stature and marketing flair, and importantly the vision to drive the development of a media organisation in the UK that the Gleaner and RJR seem to have in mind," said the Business Observer source.
Thomas was circulation manager of the Gleaner Company in the mid-1980s.
Kingsley Thomas to head UK Gleaner