“By deliberately promoting innovation and moving into new ways of doing business within the last decade, the Shipping Association of Jamaica (SAJ) was fortuitously prepared to face this ‘new normal’”, stated Charles Johnston, referring to the organisation’s effective response to COVID-19. Johnston was delivering his President’s Report at the 82nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Shipping Association of Jamaica held on Friday, November 27, at the SAJ’s headquarters in Newport West, Kingston.
The outgoing president of the SAJ did not seek a third consecutive term in office, and in handing over leadership to William Brown, group managing director of Lannaman & Morris (Shipping) Group of Companies, he said that “the changes we have made in recent years aptly position the association to meet the opportunities and the challenges that we will face in the coming years”.
Johnston, who previously served as president of the SAJ in 1993, noted that members distinguished themselves as “exemplars in manoeuvring the unprecedented socioeconomic reality brought on by the pandemic”. He commended members of the shipping community for their swift action to implement strategies to maintain cargo operations while keeping staff and customers safe.