Wednesday, March 10, 2010Captains of Industry

Susanna Hennighan-PotterClarence Faulkner and Broderick Penn

From humble roots, Clarence Faulkner Jr. and Brodrick Penn have risen to senior positions at two of the BVI’s leading financial institutions: the BVI Social Security Board and the Financial Services Commission respectively. Smart, passionate and uncompromising, both men are poised to be among the best of their generation—the next captains of industry. Business BVI sat down to talk to these two young BVIslanders about their careers, their education, their family and their futures.

Childhood
Clarence Faulkner Jr. grew up in the Valley, Virgin Gorda, the only son of five children born to Cordella and Clarence Faulkner Sr. It was a childhood steeped in love and the transmission of values that remain with Mr. Faulkner today. “I often tell young people this: Whenever you have to make a tough decision, think on the potential results and then think of what your parents would say. It’s the best guidance I know,” Faulkner said.

Faulkner recalls lessons taught by his parents: Manners and respect will take you through the world. The first impression people have of you might be the last, therefore present yourself well. If you don’t know something, declare ignorance and ask a question. If you do something with a crowd lead, don’t follow. Faulkner says he also developed his strong religious and moral values during his childhood.

Penn was raised in East End and Long Look, Tortola primarily by his mother, Aritha Maloney. He knew his father, Basil Penn Jr., but “it was a tumultuous relationship”. From his father, Penn garnered an appreciation for hands-on, technical skills. “He taught us the value of using our hands,” he said. But his father’s lifestyle also instilled in Penn a desire to be a different kind of husband and father.

Penn’s mother emigrated to the BVI from St. Vincent and although Brodrick is a BVIslander, he thinks of himself as a product of both St. Vincent and BVI, having also been highly influenced by his family’s Vincentian culture. He credits his mother with instilling strong morals and a strong work ethic in her children. She valued church, education and hard work and she passed these values on to her children. “My mother always was that driving force in my life that kept me on track,” he said.

Education & Early Career
Both Penn and Faulkner attended public school in the BVI; for Faulkner it was the Bregado Flax Educational Centre on Virgin Gorda and for Penn the then BVI High School on Tortola. When it was time for college, they both looked not only outside of the Virgin Islands, but outside of their comfort zones, and both say they are glad that they did.

After graduating from secondary school and flirting briefly with a dream to fly fighter jets, Faulkner enrolled at St. Mary’s University in Canada where he studied both accounting and finance and graduated with a double degree in 1996. He credits his experience at college in Canada as teaching him not only professional skills, but also life skills – most importantly, the ability to survive on his own.

Penn attended Eastern Illinois University, a top quality state university where he studied finance—inspired in part by a post-secondary school job at Barclays Bank. In addition to getting a sound technical education, college opened other doors for Penn.

“I wanted to experience another culture, and I got my wish,” he says. Eastern Illinois University had 12,000 undergraduates and was located in “the cornfields of Illinois”. Penn reckons that, besides one other BVIslander, he was the only Caribbean student there and the experience forced him to interact and become comfortable with all kinds of people, exposure which Penn recommends highly to others from the BVI. “I always encourage people to broaden their horizons and to experience different people, especially in terms of racial diversity,” he said.

After university, Penn went straight to work at the then-Department of Financial Services. The year before, in 1996, the BVI passed its Mutual Funds Act, and Penn was interested in the field. “I was attracted to mutual funds because the field was growing and it was exciting. It’s a very dynamic field,” he said.

On graduating from college, Faulkner returned to the BVI where he spent three years working on the investment funds team at Harney Westwood & Riegels (sometimes interacting with Penn, who was by then at the Department of Financial Services). In 1999 he joined the Social Security Board where he has been ever since. In 2002 he earned an MBA from Wright State University through the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College.

Career
Penn has been regulating mutual funds at the FSC since 1997 when he joined the Department of Financial Services as Assistant Registrar of Mutual Funds. “I came on board, helped to recruit the first Registrar of Mutual Funds, and together we developed the area,” Penn says. Over the 12 years that followed, the number of investment funds registered in the BVI has grown, and Penn advanced in the mutual funds area. In 2001 he was appointed Registrar of Mutual Funds and a year later was named Deputy Director of Investment Business. Now the Director, Penn oversees all aspects of the FSC’s Investment Business.

Penn has enriched his career through additional education and training. In 2005 he received a Masters of Law degree in tax planning from St. Thomas University in Miami’s Walter H. and Dorothy B. Diamond Graduate International Tax and Finance Programme, which he studied for via distance education. “It was the hardest I have ever worked in my life,” Penn said, “and it gave me a significant appreciation for how and why BVI vehicles are used for tax planning.”

In 2007, Penn went on a 6-month secondment with mutual fund managers GAM in Dublin, which he credits as a valuable experience that allowed him to return to the FSC with new energy and focus. “BVIslanders need to take or be afforded the opportunity to live and work abroad,” Penn said. “It develops you not only professionally but also culturally and socially and it exposes you to the wider world.”

In addition to his career, Penn has been involved in various community and civic organisations. He was part of the Young Professionals, a group of young civil servants established as part of the now-defunct Public Sector Development Programme in the early 2000s. Penn also founded, with his late brother Kendoy, the Nottingham Investment Club, and he served as chairman of a government committee looking into the cost of living during the height of the spike in fuel and food prices in 2006 and 2007.

Faulkner, meanwhile, derives his professional passion from one source: knowing how his actions affect the contributors and their families who depend on the Social Security Board for benefits. Faulkner’s job is to manage the Board’s portfolio of investments, a responsibility that would intimidate some, but not Faulkner, who relies on sound strategy and careful due diligence to guide his decisions. Even in the recent financial crisis, when markets around the world plummeted, Faulkner remained calm. “The market is a large playground and you’re not going to play with every piece of equipment,” Faulkner says, explaining that the Board avoids high-risk investments.

When he needs inspiration, Faulkner walks out to a small landing overlooking the lobby in the Joshua J. Smith Building, where he can watch the Social Security recipients open their benefit envelopes. “Validation comes when I see the beneficiaries receive their entitlements and smile. It gives me a sense of ‘Mission accomplished’”, he says.

Faulkner has a no-nonsense approach and a direct bearing—advantages when he is negotiating with investment advisors on behalf of the Board. “I command the very best for the people and tell our service providers quite simply that if our established standards are not adhered to, they [the investment service provider] will be replaced. It’s either you can do the work, or we’re not going to be doing business.”

Faulkner’s success on behalf of the BVI Social Security Board has not gone unnoticed in the region. In addition to his daily responsibilities, he serves as Vice Chair of the International Social Security Association Technical commission on Investments. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, this body is charged with developing policies and guidelines to assist social security systems worldwide in the proper investment and management of their funds. Faulkner was also selected by the Heads of the CARICOM Regional Social Security Systems to chair a committee to, identify the most feasible methods of pooling of resources for investment outside of the Caribbean Region.

Family & Free Time
For many years Faulkner’s dedication to his job drove him to lead what some might consider an unsociable life: up before dawn to watch the financial news and taking files home to work on in the evenings. Things changed for Faulkner last September, however, when his fiancé Sahodra Pertabsingh gave birth to his first child, Ethan “He has brought balance to my life,” he said, noting with a laugh that instead of constantly watching CNBC at home he’s more likely to be tuning into Brainy Babies.

Penn, meanwhile, admits that previous pastimes such as cycling and other sports have taken a backseat in recent years to his family: wife of 8 years Stephanie Russ-Penn and 3 girls, Alexia, Ashleigh and Arison, who range in age from 1 to 6 years. Penn appreciates the richness family has brought to his life: “Family life is a good life because your focus changes,” he says.

Both Faulkner and Penn say that outside of work and family, there is not a lot of time left over. But both do carve out time for activities which are important to them. For Faulkner, that is Saturdays spent free diving with his father off Virgin Gorda and Anegada. He’s been bitten by sharks twice, but Faulkner says that 60 feet below the sea is the one place he can clear his mind and relax.

For Penn, staying in touch with a close circle of friends is the activity that has kept him grounded over the years. When other activities like going to the gym and playing sports were lost to other time commitments, Penn was careful to hang on to a few hours each week for his friends. “My favourite thing is to just shoot the breeze with my close friends,” he says.

Future
The future for Penn and Faulkner should be nothing but bright, and both men clearly have much to give to the BVI. Penn says that he is at a cross-road. “I think that I’m better than being defined as a career regulator,” Penn says. “I am at a crossroads where I am trying to figure out what else I want to do with my life.” Possible options for his future include entering the private sector; venturing into a new field, such as real estate development; or even going into the public service. At one point Penn says he might have considered politics, but he says that he has left behind that ambition. “I used to like politics but it is adulterating the innocence of people; it is dividing the country. I still like to talk politics but I don’t want to become the man that a politician becomes.”

Faulkner, on the other hand, says he remains focussed on his present mission: making certain that proper structures, policies and accountability are in place to ensure that BVI residents enjoy financial health in their later years.

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