Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee to address J’can town hall meeting this evening
INFLUENTIAL US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee will be a special guest on this evening’s town hall style virtual meeting hosted by Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States Audrey Marks and David Sangster, chief operating officer for Nutanix software company and honorary consul at the Consulate of Jamaica in San Jose, California.
The monthly meeting, titled Let’s Connect, will update the Diaspora on Jamaica’s COVID-19 management and recovery programme. It will also feature outstanding Diaspora tech entrepreneurs and intrepreneurs who are helping to create education and business opportunities for Jamaicans at home to recover stronger.
Yesterday, Ambassador Marks told the Jamaica Observer that she invited Congresswoman Jackson Lee after reading the newspaper’s editorial on Tuesday which had commented on Washington’s promise of a donation of COVID-19 vaccines to Caricom.
“Congresswoman Jackson Lee will speak to that issue in more definitive terms,” Ambassador Marks said.
“She’s very active and very supportive of Jamaica,” Marks said of Jackson Lee who is a ranking member of the judiciary and homeland security committees and has been serving in the US Congress since 1995.
The virtual town hall, scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm EDT, will also feature Kevin Reid, former co-founder CEO and chief technology officer of Virtustream. He is currently the co-founder at Blue Lagoon Capital and an active contributor to his family charity which is focused on funding education and sports initiatives in Jamaica, among other ventures.
Also appearing will be Dr Lloyd Carney, former CEO of Brocade until its acquisition by Broadcom for $5.5 billion. He is currently chief acquisition officer at Carney Technology Acquisition Corp II and an active contributor to the Silicon Valley Start-up Common, an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors arranged to help start-up birth and development. He also established Carney Global Ventures, LLC, an early-round investor focused on proven individuals with creative technology ideas, among other ventures.
The event is being held in collaboration with The Jamooglers, a group of more than 115 employees of the world-leading search engine Google who are of Jamaican origin and working in Google offices across the world. The group’s main purpose is to promote the development of technical skills among Jamaicans at home and abroad while creating a sense of belonging, especially for new employees of Jamaican descent.
“This forum is to expose Jamaican entrepreneurs at home and in the Diaspora to opportunities as Jamaica seeks to use technology to drive its COVID-19 recovery and its goal to become a more digital society,” a news release from the embassy quoted Marks.
Anyone wishing to attend the meeting is being asked to RSVP at https://www.jamaicaconnect.org/ for Zoom details.