Friday, December 05, 2008Brick by Brick

Tara FraterThe J.R. O'Neal Legacy and the Ties that Bind

When Joseph Reynold O’Neal saw a stone crusher machine advertised for sale by Robert Broadbent and Sons, he saw a niche that he could fit. The machine, advertised as ‘sold for cash’, would have seemed an impossible enterprise for anyone living at a time when there were no banks in the British Virgin Islands. Undaunted, he approached the company and negotiated a flexible financing arrangement. Not only did he not pay cash for the stone crusher machine, but took twelve months to pay for it.

This was also during the 1950s, a time when segregation was still very much a reality in nearby countries such as the United States of America, and access to quality education was uneven if at all accessible throughout most of the Caribbean. This was the same man who, having decided to restore a ruin in Road Town and whose original offer to purchase was rebuffed, wrote a letter to the owners every three years until they relented and sold the property after twelve years. J.R., as he was affectionately known, went on to acquire multiple properties and to establish the first stone-crushing plant in the British Virgin Islands, successfully manufacturing concrete blocks throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s. He successively built several cargo boats in partnerships with alternatively Captain Evermond Rabsatt, and Captain Robinson O’Neal, starting with a twenty ton wooden cargo boat in 1950 aptly called The New Idea, culminating with the purchase of a 250 ton diesel powered steel cargo vessel in 1968 named M/V Charmaine II after one of his daughters. These are but a few of the multiple and varied business ventures which illustrate an entrepreneurial legacy remarkable for its breadth as well as depth. For, the late J.R. was, in the words of his son Colin O’Neal, “a typical entrepreneur: consumed by business, a hard charger and single minded.” J.R.’s entrepreneurial legacy is one of which the British Virgin Islands can be proud, and endures in his children.

In his book, ‘Life Notes: Reflections of a British Virgin Islander’, the late J.R. remarked that one “could look at a youngster and trace the family tree, saying ‘give me the mould timber and I can build the boat’.” In J.R.’s own life, and that of his children, this aphorism has dual import. It is both a statement that a family’s heritage is revealed in its descendants, and a suggestion that one can predict the future of descendants based on their family’s past. In either translation, the relevance for the O’Neal legacy is clear: a generational connect inextricably linking the past with the present. Of J.R.’s five children, it is his son Colin who seems poised to take the mantle of his father’s entrepreneurial legacy.

It is 10 am on a Saturday morning, and the humming air conditioner above the glossy wood table in the large conference room at JOMA (Properties) Ltd. reminds one that although there are no bodies moving quickly around, this is still an office. And Saturday is still a working day. Colin, whose work day typically starts at 7:30 am, clearly shares his father’s compulsive work ethic. “My father was the person I most admired” notes Colin, whose childhood nickname was “Me too” a playful allusion to the blind adoration of a child who always wanted to do what his father did.

Like any father and son relationship, the admiration of the son, often leads the son to follow the father’s star or seek his own legacy. Where the father is a titan, as J.R. was, there may often be a tension in the nature of two bulls not being able to exist in the same pen. It was the younger’s sense of this tension that would lead him to a field initially unlike that of the elder – to a career in law. On returning to the British Virgin Islands after completing a degree in political science and history, Colin decided to study law. He believed that it was the best way he could serve and take up his role as a young BVI Islander committed to his country. Two years into professional practice as an associate lawyer, he partnered with Paul Webster, then a young Jamaican associate lawyer practicing here and in 1989 established the law firm O’Neal Webster. Colin’s sister Barbara O’Neal, joined the partnership a year later, strengthening their ranks. What started as a partnership agreement initially scribbled on a paper napkin over drinks at the Moorings would evolve into a successful practice ably holding its own against large multi-jurisdictional offshore law firms in the Territory.

After a successful legal career spanning approximately twenty years, Colin ventured into business. The transition was gradual and deliberate. In the latter half of his legal career, Colin would increasingly become involved in the family businesses, particularly as his parents aged. “There were some fairly comprehensive measures that needed to be taken, to put management structures into place”, remarks Colin. He started consciously splitting his time between his legal practice and his parents’ business, JOMA (Holdings) Ltd, the origins of which date back to 1937. He would eventually lead the restructuring of JOMA (Holdings) Ltd to create the wholly owned subsidiary, JOMA (Properties) Ltd. Colin’s de facto leadership of the family business would in 2005 be formalized, when he was appointed CEO. In translating his profession into a related business and then transitioning completely into the world of business, Colin echoes his father. J.R. started his career as a pharmacist, using his professional training to launch successful pharmacies operating in the British Virgin Islands and in Antigua; and then shifted completely into a full time career in business.

It is 2008 and JOMA (Properties) Limited is a successful family owned real estate development and management company. In 1967, J.R. had constructed the first multi-storey commercial office building, the blue O’Neal Building on Main Street, currently occupied by the oldest and largest law firm in the Territory. In 2008, the focus on commercial real estate fit for blue chip tenants continues. The cream Barracks Building visible from Watefront Drive, is a thoroughly contemporary building and the address of a leading multi-jurisdictional law firm operating here. Today, JOMA (Properties) Limited boasts a self-described “diversified portfolio of office buildings, retail and wholesale spaces, light industrial and marine properties” located throughout the Territory.

The concepts for the company’s new buildings are rather modern and for that reason conspicuous in Road Town. Asked whether he felt his buildings were at odds with the architectural landscape of Road Town, Colin responds that it is not uncommon to see modern buildings juxtaposed against historic districts, and that incongruity is not inevitable. He argues that ‘old’ should not be equated with ‘historic’, and favours preservation where there is something worth preserving.

The conspicuousness of the new buildings is symptomatic of the rapid pace of change in the British Virgin Islands. The Territory has transformed itself from a group of sleepy islands once hastily characterized as little more than a bird sanctuary by colonial powers, into a self-sufficient and lucrative offshore financial centre, recognized worldwide. Such transformation must necessarily be fraught with difficulty, and the Territory has experienced a massive influx of migrants, part fuel for the engine of change. A topical political dilemma centres on appropriately dealing with the issue of immigration. It brings to the fore the cultural challenge of accommodation without elimination. Is the Territory a melting pot, a mosaic, or an uneasy truce of wary neighbours? Ever the visionary, J.R. commented in his book, “migrants bring their energy and exposure to other ways of doing things that we can learn from if we are willing. Of course, this must be a two-way process since we also have as much in our past and about ourselves that they can learn.” On this, the son requires more than toleration. He demands integration. In his mind, “persons who intend to make the British Virgin Islands their home, should make themselves available for public service.” The son, like the father is equally adherent to the biblical adage “to whom much is given, much is expected.”

The lessons that can be gleaned from the O’Neal legacy for a budding entrepreneur or established businessperson are varied and ring of truth. They preach the virtues of diversification, perseverance, strategic partnerships, vision, alacrity, and a refusal to be damned by disappointment. To this we can add, the absolute necessity of community involvement, should a person in business aspire to enduring significance. In this, the son is like an object on a path moved by subtle generational forces, of which he himself may only vaguely be aware. The father set the expectations of the son unobtrusively, without express articulation. The son responds and adopts those expectations as his own. Indeed, perhaps we may be able to look at the youngster, trace the family tree, and say “give me the mould timber and I can build the boat.”

Oyster Publications Inc, PO box 3369, Road Town Tortola, British Virgin Islands, VG1110