GROUP CHAIRMAN'S BLOG
About Dr. Winston Adams

Winston Adams is a consummate business entrepreneur. He is Founder and Executive Chairman of the UCC Group of Companies and its subsidiaries including, the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC), Institute of Management Sciences (IMS), UCC Academy (UCCA), University of the Commonwealth Caribbean Foundation (UCCF) US. Inc.; UCC Real Estate Investment & Development (UCC REID); UCC International Franchising; UCC University Town & Global Campus*; SPECTRUM Capital Partners; and Global Knowledge Process Solutions (GKPS).
 
In 1987, he was the Caribbean recipient of the prestigious USAID Scholarship Award (Latin American & Caribbean, LAC) to study Chemical Engineer at Howard University in the United States. At Howard, he was an active member and officer of Toastmasters International, the Caribbean Student Organization, CSO and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, AICHE.
 
Dr. Adams has had a distinguished career as an entrepreneur particularly in the field of higher education.
Upon his return to Jamaica, he worked with the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, Petrojam, as a Chemical (Process) Engineer and lectured part-time with the University of Technology, UTECH.  In 1992, he continued to demonstrate further enterprising and organizational skills as he boldly pioneered the establishment of the Institute of Management Sciences, IMS, which in just 10 years, had emerged as one of the most successful private higher educational institutions in Jamaica, having also achieved national and international recognition.
 
Having recognized the importance of a highly trained and qualified work force in Jamaica’s development trust, Dr. Adams took the decision to address this need on a national scale as he sought to enhance tertiary educational opportunities for more Jamaicans in both rural and urban areas, by setting up satellite centres throughout the Island.
 
Through his leadership, his organization has successfully established major alliances with several reputable local and overseas institutions, such as the Florida International University, Penn State University, University of Florida, Howard University, and University of London, designed to strengthen and accelerate the process of human resource development and training in Jamaica.  
 
More recently, his university has begun the process to establish international franchises first throughout the Caribbean and subsequently in the wider 52 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.
 
Furthermore, under his leadership, his institution was also successful in signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with another private university, the International University of the Caribbean (IUC), for a merger of both universities and ultimately a possible acquisition of the IUC by the UCC.
 
Finally, the UCC was also equally successful in the recent signing of two other Memoranda of Understanding with (1) the China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) for the construction, via a BOOT model, of the first University Town in the Caribbean to be established in Mammee Bay St. Ann, and (2) the Government of Guyana (GOG), as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), for the establishment of the largest Law School in CARICOM, the JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas, (JHLSA).              
 
Dr. Adams has also received various awards and recognition for his work.
 
In 1998, he was nominated by the American Biographical Institute, ABI for the Distinguished Leadership Award and selected for inclusion in the International Directory of Distinguished Leadership for outstanding service to human resource development.
 
He created history in 2002 with his successful acquisition of the prestigious 27-year-old Institute of Management and Production, IMP, creating the largest privately held higher education conglomerate in Jamaica with a combined annual student population of approximately 5,000 and an annual operating budget of just over three quarter billion dollars (~J $750 M).
 
In 2004, he was nominated and honored as a Jamaica Observer Business Leader for his vision and creativity in establishing “Jamaica’s foremost private higher educational institution.” He is the first and only Business Leader to have been nominated in the Higher Education sector.
 
Dr. Adams has a Doctorate in Business Administration with emphasis on strategic leadership and disruptive innovation and a Masters in Business Administration from the Florida International University (FIU). 
 
Dr Adams is also a Justice of the Peace (JP) and is the Immediate Past President (Distinguished President) of the largest Kiwanis community service organization in Jamaica, the Kiwanis Club of North St. Andrew (KCNSA) and a member of the Education Committee of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, PSOJ.
 
He is also Vice President of the Jamaica Association of Private Tertiary Institutions (JAPTI).
 
He is married to Geraldine. The couple has two daughters.

 

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