You’ve seen him on the television advertising series which aims to build awareness about violence against women and children. Jason Julien, along with a number of other business leaders volunteered to participate in a project of successful fashion designer and entrepreneur Anya Ayoung-Chee, to publicly address this crisis that faces our society.
The TCSR decided to dig a bit deeper to understand the man behind the message and discovered that he has been giving a voice to issues for most of his adult life.
Winner of a full UWI Scholarship and a graduate of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, young Julien spearheaded a protest against violence against women in the mid-90s following a spate of violent attacks on female students. The protest which saw a total lock-down of the campus including the chaining of the gates, resulted in tightened security measures and the introduction of a shuttle service on the campus. His mother was also an adult student on campus at the time which further fueled his resolve – even if it meant putting his scholarship and education at risk.
Jason Julien was valedictorian when he graduated in 1997. It was the start of a distinctive career in the financial services, beginning with his first work assignment at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Following becoming a CFA Charter holder, he moved to Citibank and then to Guardian Holdings where he had responsibility for business development, mergers and acquisitions and later investment management in their Asset Management division. From there he took up a position with First Citizens Trinidad & Tobago as Head of First Citizens Investment Services. Today, he is the Deputy CEO, Business Generation at First Citizens.
We asked him whether he felt that his lending his voice to the cause would make a difference. He was under no illusion that the matters of crime and violence are complex issues and that solutions present a real challenge – not only for the government but also for lawmakers and those assigned to protect and serve.
Julien says, “Some may choose to remain remote on the issue. I choose not to. I know we can’t boil the ocean but we can tackle it bit by bit, this is our home.” First Citizens invests in programmes focused on redirecting youth to a positive expression of self. His voice is among the many voices that First Citizens is channelling towards affirmation and positive action. The annual Spoken Word competition and the Schools Calypso Monarch competition provide platforms for social commentary and an outlet to express opinions.
“Unlike others who hide behind Facebook and hide in the shadows of Instagram and Twitter, some of us chose to come out into the spotlight to give the cause a face – and a voice.”
Julien brings his perspectives on the equality of women and their unique value to the board room. “There’s no glass ceiling here”, he says of First Citizens. “Our Group CEO is a woman” – he is speaking of Karen Darbasie who assumed the leadership mantle in 2015. He adds, “Prior to Sterling Frost, our last Deputy CEO of Operations and Administration was Sharon Christopher.” Currently a third of the management team is female and Julien believes that will change further in favour of more women in leadership positions. He explains that more than 60% of the Bank’s employees are female and that the trend is common in the Banking and Financial industry in Trinidad and Tobago.
He laments however, that while women are rightly assuming greater roles in the workplace and in society, men are lagging behind. He believes that this is a growing trend which needs intervention. He reflects that the underperformance is not just in academia but also in sports and most significantly in the home. “Just look at the SEA, CXC and CAPE results” he says, “Girls are at the top. Look at women’s cricket or football or the recent triathlon, the girls are doing better than the boys.” He wonders aloud about what will happen in the next generation.
We asked him to speculate on the source of the problem. He ponders the school system and what it might take to fix it. He explains that even at the entry-level into high school, post- SEA, the requirements for the top schools vary by gender. If entry at the top male schools requires an 80-plus mark range and for girls it’s 90-plus, then it should be no surprise that the girls are the ones matriculating first for university entry. Clearly there’s a problem that begins at the feeder end of the education value chain.
“But it goes back to the family”, says Julien. Absent fathers are leaving young men to be raised by women – many of whom are very young, hardly adults themselves. While the evidence is not empirical, based on observation, the notion of family is changing and says Julien, “We are paying a price”. He is speaking about the correlation between the prevailing economic conditions and rise in crime. “We must invest in our young men”, he states “As the economy gets tighter, those in the margins will become more discouraged and can’t see a way of escape. There are practical realities of food and shelter that come with economic constraints, and we all have a part to play to ensure that there are safety nets for the more vulnerable.”
Julien knows that he cannot do everything. “My sphere of influence is finite. I have the ability to speak, to get attention, to move resources towards a cause and that’s what I will continue to do. Unlike others who hide behind Facebook and hide in the shadows of Instagram and Twitter, some of us chose to come out into the spotlight to give the cause a face – and a voice.”
“We must invest in our young men”
“This is home” says Jason Julien. “I want the best world for my daughter – not just to give her an education, but to give her life in a free and safe society. To prepare her, I need to make my home better, I need to make my workplace better, I need to make my society better, I need to do my part to make Trinidad and Tobago better. So I begin with shaping her mind and her responses to the issues by becoming involved myself in shaping what’s out there in our homeland.”
For more on First Citizens and its social investment work, see our CSR profile in this and our 2016 issues.