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Gloria Palomino - big business, big heart
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Monday, June 26, 2006
The engineers at Jamalco were stumped when their huge new generator refused to start. Then they called Gloria Palomino. The slim lady in jeans and loafers climbed up the ladder, examined the pumps and the lines and located the problem. By the next morning she had the generator humming away.
Jean Lowrie-Chin
Gloria Palomino is like that. This successful entrepreneur not only fixes diesel engines, earning a worldwide reputation for the 51-year Diesel Equipment and Service Company she launched single-handedly, she also uses her positive, keen approach to restore hope and mend lives.
In her hometown of Newport, Manchester, little Gloria, no more than seven years old, was sent with black shoe polish and silver polish to the police station every Saturday morning. Her job?
To polish the shoes, buckles and buttons for the policemen who were stationed there. This started a lifelong kinship with the Jamaica Constabulary Force, that has seen Gloria doing fundraising and sponsoring the renovation of police stations and scholarships for the children of JCF members.
Her parents' shop piazza was used by the Salvation Army for lively meetings, and eight-year-old Gloria would help to set up. When the minister was late, she would lead the eager crowd in some hand-clapping "old-time religion". Her father subsequently donated an acre of land for the building of their church. Her neighbour, Lettice King, the daughter of an English pastor, befriended her and coached her to teach Sunday school.
Gloria's cosy youth, nurtured by a loving multiracial milieu, had a rude awakening when she eagerly took a letter of recommendation to apply for a job at Barclays Bank in downtown Kingston. "Sorry, we don't hire Chinese or blacks," were the curt words that shook her that morning in 1955.
The Alpha Academy and Alpha Commercial graduate finally got a job in a downtown office, but it lasted only five days.
Gloria picked up her bag and walked out without pay after an abusive tirade from her boss. She strode over to the business place of her brother Les Panton and told him that she would never put herself in such a position again. She was starting her own business.
Les had a trucking business, and was constantly working on the engines, so Gloria worked with him while she planned her path. She would buy a calibration machine for these popular diesel engines that were the mainstay of the transportation, mining and manufacturing industries.
"But I had no money, so I went to the little Barclays Bank on Spanish Town Road and asked the English manager to lend me £50," she said. "The manager thought I was joking and asked me how he could do such a thing when I had no account at his bank, no collateral and no business history." He turned her down, but she went every day for three months straight until the weary man said, "I have never seen anyone so determined. I am going to lend you the money."
With it she imported her first calibration machine from England, and her business became one of the most successful training grounds for scores of Jamaican men, many of whom now have their own businesses. Gloria believes in personnel development and mentoring. Indeed, she has recorded in her will that her business must continue to provide skills training for young Jamaicans.
She recalls a particular young man who had a stutter, asking her to give him a job. "I could see he was a good fellow, so I called the staff together and warned that there should be no ragging or mimicking. I was really amazed at how they took him under their wing. He became an excellent technician and now has his own company."
She has invested heavily in training, sending employees abroad to keep up with the industry, and is well known in the community as a no-nonsense person. She recalls an occasion about 10 years ago, when the MP for the area where she operates, Portia Simpson Miller, requested that she attend an urgent meeting in the constituency. By then Gloria was a JP, well known to the citizens in the area. Mrs Simpson Miller was fed up with the indiscipline of some of the residents and asked the businesswoman to address the crowd.
"I remember telling them what a dedicated person their MP was, and that they should respect what she says because one day she would become prime minister," nods Gloria. "In February when Portia was elected leader of the PNP, she insisted that I go with her to PNP headquarters. I believe we should all be supportive of our MPs. It's not about party, it's about helping out wherever you live and work."
Like most Jamaicans, Gloria is not preoccupied with race, and tells a great story about a visit to her sister in China. (Her father was born there, while her mother hailed from Thailand). "We were taken to a village in Guangdong to see a settlement of Jamaican Chinese. They were really Jamaican Afro-Chinese, like Michael Lee Chin, though they knew not one word of English!"
When they heard that Gloria came from Jamaica, she could see the enthusiasm in them for a country where they had their roots, though they knew neither the language nor the customs. They were Chinese in dress and manner, fully integrated in their community!
Gloria explained that the Chinese who had children in Jamaica would send back their children, mixed or otherwise, to learn the ways of the mother country. Some never returned home.
Lest you believe that this lady's life is made up solely of heavy-duty equipment, you should know that she and her late husband, who joined the business shortly after she started it, had three children and she now enjoys travelling to Hawaii and the US to visit their various families.
Gloria is also passionate about the welfare of her fellow women and Jamaica's precious environment. She is a founding member of Woman Inc and chairman of the Greening of Jamaica environment group. Besides that, she is vice-chairman of the Tourism Product Development Company, a coffee farmer and the owner of the exquisite Gap Café in Newcastle.
She credits her spirituality for the energy to unceasingly serve family, business and community for more than half-a-century. That she does it with such simple elegance is inspiring. No wonder her alma mater recently honoured her as a Woman of Excellence.
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Gloria Palomino - big business, big heart