About GEN in Jamaica

GEN began working in Jamaica in 2010 when it partnered with Junior Achievement Jamaica to launch its inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) campaign. It galvanized the nascent entrepreneurial community by spotlighting the island's successful entrepreneurs and highlighting the benefits entrepreneurship brings to Jamaican society. The first GEW campaigns reached thousands of people, received widespread media coverage, and built a grassroots coalition of ecosystem leaders across the country. This planted the seeds for more than a decade of entrepreneurial development that would connect Jamaican founders to global markets, mentors, and capital.

As the campaign matured into an annual national fixture, expanding into a nationwide program with dozens of partner events, government participation increased. During the 2013 campaign, Lisa Hanna, then Minister of Youth and Culture, and Anthony Hylton, then Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, sponsored GEW activities. Jamaica's policy community also entered GEN's global networks; Winston Wilkins of Startup Jamaica joined GEN’s Startup Nations community of policymakers, and Mark Hugh Sam of the Caribbean Business Enablers Network participated in the GEN Starters Club.

GEW activities evolved into large public forums, business clinics, and pitch events, tying the campaign to Jamaica's push to formalize its small and medium-sized enterprises. That link was made explicit in 2013 when the government launched its MSME and Entrepreneurship Policy during the GEW opening ceremony, enlisting the Jamaica Business Development Corporation among the agencies to carry it out.

To carry on ecosystem-building work on a year-round basis and coordinate the annual campaign, GEN Jamaica was established in 2022. GEN Jamaica is led by managing director Cheryll Stewart, with a board of directors chaired by Jason Clarke. Its mission is to build a unified entrepreneurial ecosystem that connects founders, investors, policymakers, and support organizations. In its first years, it built a portfolio of initiatives: a quarterly ecosystem meetup, a searchable map of the country's support organizations, and a government-funded accelerator capacity-building program delivered with GEN Global. It also partnered with the Consular Corps of Jamaica to expand its programs across the island. To broaden its reach and share information about how Jamaica mobilized its ecosystem, GEN added three global leaders from Jamaica in 2025: David Mullings, chair and CEO of Blue Mahoe Capital; Robert Scott, Dean of the Consular Corps of Jamaica; and Dr. Dianna Davis-Smith of Excelsior Community College.

GEN’s 2023 GEW campaign was coordinated in partnership with the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce and its 20 agencies. During a week filled with workshops, panels, and pitch events, the common thread running through the activities was reaching young entrepreneurs beyond the capital. The following year, GEN Jamaica championed student-focused competitions such as ICE 2024 at the University of the West Indies Western Campus in Montego Bay, where founders competed for a US $20,000 prize.

Since it began work in Jamaica, GEN has consistently worked to engage the government. The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce and its agencies have partnered with GEN on anchoring recent GEW campaigns. The minister, Aubyn Hill, has provided incredible support, appearing at events and giving speeches rallying Jamaicans to take part. This partnership builds on a decade of government involvement. GEN Jamaica has also carried the country's ecosystem leaders into GEN's global policy community, building strong delegations at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC)—GEN's annual gathering of founders, investors, startup supporters, and policymakers.

Through its global programs, GEN supports Jamaican founders in several ways. Kingston and Mandeville are home to Startup Huddle chapters, providing founders with regular, mentor-supported sessions to discuss the development of their ventures. Through the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC)—the global competition GEN launched in 2019 that provides training and mentoring in addition to $1 million in prizes—Jamaican startups have repeatedly reached the global stage. Its Top 100 finalists include JaBioplastics, founded by Jordon Freeman, in 2019; UNUH, founded by Elizabeth Terry, in 2021; and Senzi.Me, the Spanish Town company founded by Eugenie Addison, whose patented indoor air-quality monitor reached the EWC Global 100 in 2022. GEN also connects founders, such as Kenia Mattis of ListenMi Caribbean, to its Starters Club.

GEN maintains relationships across Jamaica's ecosystem, including the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce and its agencies, the Development Bank of Jamaica, Junior Achievement Jamaica, the University of the West Indies, Excelsior Community College, the Consular Corps of Jamaica, Blue Mahoe Capital, and the Caribbean Diaspora Angel Investor Network led by Oslene Carrington. It also works with business support organizations such as the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Honey Bun Foundation, as well as Kingston Creative, which helps founders in the capital's creative economy reach global markets. GEN's footprint reaches beyond Kingston to Montego Bay, host of the 2024 ICE competition, and to Mandeville in the island's interior.

Jamaica's rise has been recognized on the global stage. In 2023, GEN Jamaica won the prestigious GEN Country of the Year award at GEC Melbourne. It is the only GEN affiliate in the Western Hemisphere to have earned it. In addition, Senzi.Me was the only Caribbean startup to be selected as a member of the EWC Global 100 in 2022, earning a trip to the EWC Global Finals at the Biban Conference in Saudi Arabia. Reflecting on the country's progress, managing director Cheryll Stewart said, “All of Jamaica is very proud to celebrate Senzi.Me, and all our amazing entrepreneurs!”

As GEN Jamaica widens its reach, it is working to connect the island's founders with cross-border capital and markets, drawing on leaders with ties to diaspora investors and regional networks. Its aim is to turn a decade of work into lasting infrastructure—a coordinated ecosystem where Jamaican entrepreneurs can find mentorship, financing, and the policy support they need to scale, and where Jamaica takes a leading role in building entrepreneurship across the Caribbean. GEN's goal in the country remains what it has been since 2010: connecting local founders with the knowledge, networks, capital, and policy support to grow their businesses at home and beyond.