‘I believe in giving back to my country’
From selling Kisko pops to the halls of academia, to developer ... meet Dr Allan Cunningham
AS A young child he made a living selling Kisko pops in Coronation Market while navigating the streets of Rose Town and Whitfield Town in south St Andrew, years before migrating to the United States (US) where he would carve out a career in academia, shaping the minds of students.
Meet Dr Allan Cunningham, university lecturer, community leader, former Global Jamaica Diaspora Council member and now real estate developer.
Cunningham was born in Rose Town, one of nine children to a mother who was a higgler in Coronation Market. He attended Whitfield Town Primary School and later Camperdown High School.
“I used to walk from Whitfield Town to Coronation Market to sell Kisko pops at age eight to earn money to help my mother,” he said.
Pointing out that he and his family members lived on Bentley Lane in Whitfield Town, Cunningham noted that it straddled PNP and JLP strongholds and he and his brothers were under constant pressures to join a side.
“This was in the ‘70s and ‘80s when political violence was rampant in the neighbourhood, but we were saved from any such participation by our mother who was a very strong woman and forbid us to become involved,” he said.
Cunningham noted that this was not to say that they were not impacted by the political violence of the time.
“We saw first hand the violence in the 1976 and 1980 elections,” he told The Gleaner.
After graduating from Camperdown, Cunningham went to work at Seprod where he stayed for three years before transitioning to the insurance industry.
“I went to work with Jamaica Mutual Life and was there for three years before migrating to the United States in 1992.
“Jamaica Mutual Life opened an office in Miami, Florida, and I was offered a job in the overseas office which I took up,” he said.
But he did not stay with Mutual Life for very long, going on to work with American Express.
TWO BACHELOR’S DEGREES
While working with American Express, he went back to school where he studied international business and psychology. Cunningham was to earn two bachelor’s degrees in education and substance abuse.
He went on to do his master’s degree in Business and his PhD in international relations and trade.
He is an associate professor/lecturer and practitioner in the field of international business, lecturing extensively at the undergraduate and graduate levels at several south Florida universities.
From 2008 to 2012, Cunningham served with Green Wealth International as its senior international business consultant and global strategic analyst.
At the community level, Cunningham founded the People Profile Awards where ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their communities are honoured each year.
Among some of the honourees are Veronica Campbell-Brown, Glen Mills, Oliver Samuels and Melba Moore.
He is also the founder of Jamaican Men of Florida and was the moving force behind the formation of Jamaican Women of Florida.
Cunningham was among one of the first to serve on the Global Jamaican Diaspora Council.
However, his philanthropic efforts are not confined to south Florida, where he resides, but extend to Jamaica as well.
He has adopted the Whitfield Town Primary School, where he has built a music room and renovated classrooms while at the same time providing scholarships to students at the institution.
He has also contributed to Camperdown, donating computers and providing monetary assistance to the high school.
Cunningham just recently completed the construction of a number of apartments in Trelawny that have been sold out. He is also undertaking another apartment development in St Andrew.
According to Cunningham, it is important that he give back to the country that nurtured him and gave him the foundation to succeed.
“I believe in giving back to my country. I also believe that investing in Jamaica is important because it helps to move the country’s economy forward for the betterment of Jamaicans,” He said.
Cunningham said his focus is on the inner-city communities from which he comes so as to provide opportunities to those who would otherwise not have such opportunities.
He has been recognised by the city of Lauderhill as a Jamaican trailblazer with the Allan Cunningham Day being observed by the city yearly.