Items10The creator’s order
  1. 1Butch StewartButch StewartBorn 6 Jul 1941Jamaica, tourism. Stewart started out selling air conditioners in Kingston through his company Appliance Traders, then bought a run-down hotel in Montego Bay in 1981 and opened the first Sandals. His all-inclusive resorts for couples, where one price covered food, drink and activities, suited…0
  2. 2Abraham Elias IssaAbraham Elias IssaBorn 10 Oct 1905Jamaica, hotels. Issa, from a Lebanese-Jamaican merchant family, opened the Tower Isle hotel near Ocho Rios in 1949, widely described as Jamaica's first resort open all year rather than only in the winter season. Its success helped open the island's north coast to tourism, and he became the first…0
  3. 3Frank RainieriFrank RainieriDominican Republic, tourism and infrastructure. Rainieri began developing Punta Cana in 1969 with American investors, when the eastern tip of the island had no roads, power or airport. To bring visitors in, the group built its own international airport, opened in 1984 and one of the first privately…0i
  4. 4Facundo BacardiFacundo BacardiBorn 13 Oct 1813Cuba, rum. Bacardí, a Catalan wine merchant in Santiago de Cuba, bought a small distillery in 1862 and set out to make rum smoother and lighter, using a cultivated yeast, charcoal filtering and ageing in oak. That changed rum from a rough spirit into one suited to mixing. The company left Cuba…0i
  5. 5Julio LoboJulio LoboCuba, sugar trading. Lobo was the most powerful sugar trader of the mid-twentieth century, owning mills in Cuba and trading on world markets from Havana, at a time when the island was one of the largest sugar exporters. His business shows how dependent a Caribbean economy could become on one…0
  6. 6Luis A. FerréLuis A. FerréBorn 17 Feb 1904Puerto Rico, cement and industry. Ferré, an engineer from a Ponce industrial family, ran the family's iron works and built Puerto Rico Cement, supplying the concrete for the island's rapid building programme in the mid-twentieth century. He later served as governor from 1969 to 1973 and founded the…0i
  7. 7Chris BlackwellChris BlackwellBorn 22 Jun 1937Jamaica, music and hotels. Blackwell founded Island Records in Jamaica in 1959, recording local ska and selling records to Jamaican communities in Britain from the boot of his car after moving to London. He signed Bob Marley and the Wailers and marketed them as a rock act, taking reggae worldwide.…0i
  8. 8Michael Lee-ChinMichael Lee-ChinBorn 3 Jan 1951Jamaica and Canada, finance. Lee-Chin, born in Port Antonio, moved to Canada, bought the small mutual fund manager AIC in 1987 and grew it on a concentrated buy-and-hold strategy. In 2002 he bought control of Jamaica's National Commercial Bank, bringing a large share of the island's banking back…0
  9. 9RihannaRihannaBorn 20 Feb 1988Barbados, beauty. Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty with LVMH in 2017 with 40 shades of foundation, at a time when many brands offered few options for darker skin. Selling to customers the industry had underserved, rather than relying on her fame alone, made it one of the fastest-growing cosmetics…0i
  10. 10Mary SeacoleMary SeacoleBorn 23 Nov 1805Jamaica, hospitality and trading. Before her fame as a Crimean War nurse, Seacole ran a boarding house in Kingston and stores and a hotel in Panama serving travellers on the route to the Californian goldfields. In 1855 she financed and built the British Hotel near Balaclava, selling food and…0i