Executive (2011)

Pocket

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Past Executives: 2010, 2o11, 2012

Jenni Campbell, President

Byron Buckley

Managing Editor of The Gleaner Company Jenni Campbell is a journalist with more than twenty years experience.

Her professional journey has taken her through several newsrooms and media management positions locally and internationally.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Social Sciences and a Master of Science degree in Sociology, she lectured at the University School of Continuing Studies in Montego Bay for a number of years.

Her sojourn into the field of journalism began in 1987 as a theatre critic at the now defunct Jamaica Record. From there she was to become entertainment coordinator at The Herald, before moving to the Gleaner Company in 1994 as a Sunday Gleaner reporter.

In 1997, she joined the Gleaner’s management team as branch manager of the Western Bureau. In 2001, she was promoted to Managing Editor of The Gleaner Group.

Ms. Campbell has also headed The Gleaner’s editorial and advertising operations n the United Kingdom.

Over the years, she has developed a distinct interest in the welfare of the youth, especially our boys and her background in sociology has helped cement her focus on media and its role in this area.

 

Daraine Luton, 2nd Vice President

Daraine Luton

Daraine Luton was born in Cedar Valley, St. Thomas on February, 14, 1982.  He spent his formative years living in Llandewey, also in St. Thomas, where he attended the  Bethesda all age school and later the Morant Bay High School.

From an early age, Daraine has demonstrated an interest in civic involvement. He has served as a member of the executive of the Llandewey Police Youth Club and the Llandewey Community Council.

Daraine was also a vice president of the Student Council at Morant Bay High school and was a member of various club and institutions there.

Currently he holds a Bachelors of Arts (BA) degree in Media and Communications from the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication, University of the West Indies, Mona and has been a practicing Print Journalist for eight years.

He began his journalism career in 2002 as a sports reporter at The Gleaner and then switched to news reporting in 2006.

Daraine has won many awards for his works.  Among the awards are  the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) award for news coverage and the Press Association of Jamaica award for investigative journalism (2007).

Daraine is currently the Gleaner’s Senior Parliamentary Reporter and the youngest officer of the PAJ. He is the second vice president of the organisation having served as Director in charge of member relations in the 2008-2009 term.
Daraine lives by the mantra, “If I can’t help others with my life then I don’t want it”.

 

Marilyn Facey, Secretary

Byron Buckley

At 26 years old, Marilyn is serving her second year as Secretary of the Press Association of Jamaica. She previously served as Assistant Secretary.

A Reporter- Producer at RJR94 FM, Marilyn has a passion for news and current affairs programming and feature production with an emphasis on local and regional issues.

She has worked in several areas of communications; including internal communications, customer relations and broadcasting.

Marilyn studied Media and Communications at the University of West Indies and Paralegal Studies at the Paralegal Institute of Jamaica. She is a Queen’s School alumni.

An avid reader, she has played piano for several years, debated at the high school and collegiate level and enjoys attending the theatre and cinema.
In High School she held many leadership roles and was awarded ‘Most Outstanding Achiever’ upon graduation.

Professionally, for over 4 years Marilyn had been a part of the Nationwide News Network’s award winning ‘This Morning’ team; whose submissions took first place in the Fair Play Awards for 2007 and 2008 and won Platinum in the UNFPA Caribbean Population Awards 2009, while her personal documentary submission took the Gold award at the UNFPA Caribbean Population Awards in the same year. The team has also been awarded Gold in 2006 and 2008.

Her professional objective is to have a positive impact on the Caribbean media landscape, as part of a dynamic team providing accurate, timely and creative news and current affairs programming.

 

Milton Walker, Assistant Treasurer

Milton has been a Journalist for the past 18-years.  After earning his Bachelor’s degree at the University of the West Indies Communications School – Carimac -he first worked with the now defunct state-owned Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation as a Producer before moving into the News division.  His stay at that company while a challenging and dynamic experience, did not last long given the strict controls the Government placed on the independence of the Corporation’s journalistic efforts.

However, he did shine while at the JBC. He covered such diverse issues as the Pope’s visit and the Caricom Heads of Government conference in the Bahamas in 1993.  He started the weekly financial programme the Financial Week on Fridays which is now in its eighteenth year.

In 1993 he moved to the new CVM Television as News Editor at 24.  There he was responsible for the development of the station’s local news and current affairs programmes.  Under his leadership CVM News was a pioneer in news coverage winning over 40 major awards 1994.  With Milton Walker at the helm, CVM News has been responsible for the ground breaking coverage of crime, the activities of the police, inner city, rural issues, politics, finance and the environment.

Milton is interested in three main areas Politics, Finance and Crime. Pursuing these issues has taken Milton on a fascinating journey over the last eighteen years and has provided a rich reservoir of understanding of the Jamaican people and the society they inhabit.  He has covered almost all of the social ills as well as the achievements of the nation including the infamous gun battles in the inner city communities of Mountain View, Tivoli in 1996 and again in 2001.

For his efforts Milton has been honoured with two Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) Awards for News Coverage in Mountain View in 2000 and West Kingston in 1998.  The Caribbean Broadcasting Union also awarded Milton with the award for Investigative journalism for his work on the failed Nibbi Tractor programme as well as for a documentary on Caribbean integration, both in 1996.  Milton also received the PAJ Award for Sports Journalism for his documentary on Soccer Violence in 1997.  CVM Television named him employee of the year in 1995.

He has covered stories in most Caribbean territories, Caricom Heads of Government Summits, the Caribbean Development Bank AGM and the Volcano eruption in Montserrat.  Milton is also attended numerous conferences and seminars across the region and North America and Europe.

Milton has also covered a wide range of subject matters including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, State visits including Cuban President Fidel Castro, the death and state Funeral for the late former Prime Ministers Michael Manley in 1997, Hugh Shearer in 2004, all major Jamaican elections between 1993 and 2004 and the National Gas Riots in 1999. The highlight of his career this year has been his anchoring of the station’s coverage of the People’s National Party presidential elections in February where he was on air from 8:30am till 7:30 with only a two hour break.

Milton left CVM in March 2007 and moved to London where worked for the Voice newspaper. He returned to Jamaica in March 2008 to take up an appointment with the RJR Group as News Director for the Jamaica’s largest Communications Group.  Later Sports was added to his portfolio.  He was the first Caribbean journalist to arrive in Haiti after the 7.0 earthquake devastated that country’s capital.  Milton provided the first regional perspective on RJR 94fm and Television Jamaica.

At CVM Television Milton was also responsible for managing the convergence necessitated by the creation of the communications group including Hot 102 and CVM Television to achieve the desired efficiencies and synergies.

He is also Press Freedom advocate and was one of the main Speakers at a conference on Freedom of the press in the Greater Antilles staged by the Centre for Press Freedom in San Juan Puerto Rico in August 2002.  He has also been one of the liaison personnel in Jamaica for Reporters Sans Frontières, the Paris based press freedom group.

Milton was selected a One World Broadcasting Trust Fellow in 2003 and also participated in the European Union Trade Commission forum on Trade as a development tool for the Third World in 2002.   He was one of the speakers at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference on drugs at Westminster, London in February 2008.

 

Janet Silvera, Director

Byron Buckley

Janet Therese Silvera has made an indelible contribution to Jamaica‟s tourist industry for the last 24 years.

Her first job was with the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) in 1985, where she proved she was invaluable to the organization after only six months on the job when she created history by being named „Hostess of the Year‟.

Within two years her charisma and ability to tackle problems resulted in her promotion to airport supervisor with responsibility for some 25 staff. She grew within the job and qualified herself in various advanced courses in tourism related subjects in Europe and the USA.

She studied French at Foyer Guy Houist in Rennes, France, and was the official marketing officer in the JTB‟s overseas relations department who dealt with French travel agents and tour operators.

Janet Silvera held the position of marketing officer at the Jamaica Tourist Board before complaining of “exhausting her stay” and finally making the decision to change her pace. In 1993 she resigned after 10 years with that institution and joined the Gleaner Company Limited.

Within months The Gleaner saw her potential as a writer after she penned her first published article „It‟s ok to have two men‟. This article brought her a lot of attention and the rest is history.

Janet Silvera honed her skills in Journalism and has become an integral part of The Gleaner team. She was appointed co-ordinator of the exciting and innovative bi-monthly tourism trade publication Hospitality Jamaica, seven years ago, in addition to being appointed senior Gleaner writer of the newspaper.

In the last five years she has centred her attention on Climate Change and its effect on the environment.

As if this were not enough, Janet Silvera is one of the only certified event managers in Jamaica, having completed her certification at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

She is president of the Western Jamaica Media Association (WJMA), a director of the Press Association of Jamaica, has served on the board of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Kiwanis Club of Providence.

In January 2011, Janet Silvera and best friend of 25 years, Dollis Campbell, joined forces with Kingston‟s Millicent Lynch and Claudette Kenlock to form Distinctly Dynamic Event Services. Their foray saw them hosting the inaugural, Kingston Pon Di River, literary, arts and music festival at Boone Hall Oasis.

Miss Silvera was named the Press Association of Jamaica „News Journalist of the Year‟ 2009, for the thought-provoking piece „Dad Raped Us‟ and the 2006 American Express/Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) awardee for Excellence in Tourism Reporting.

The many acknowledgements of her outstanding service both locally and internationally, are a testament to the achievements of this giant in the tourism industry.

Janet Silvera has indeed proven that she is more than equal to the task and will continue to bring to the industry, a unique creativity coupled with an apparently unlimited ability to achieve her goals.

Missing are: Erica Virtue ( 1st Vice President),  Irvin Forbes (Ass. Secretary), Ceila Morgan ( Treasurer),  Rohan Powell (Director) and Arthur Hall (Director).