Sharp’s Scotia journey
Sharp joined Scotiabank in 1997 as a management trainee and was promoted up the ranks over the years before taking over as country head. Her regional promotion happened in May 2016 and was heralded as history-making.
She was not the first woman appointed to head a country operation in Scotiabank’s regional ecosystem as she came behind appointees like Minna Israel, who once headed up the Bahamas operations, and Anya Schnoor, who currently manages Trinidad, both of whom are Jamaicans. Sharp was, however, the first female to manage the 128-year-old Jamaica banking group.
“I took over as CEO at a very challenging time, right after the second debt exchange, which had significant impact on our profitability as our interest income was cut dramatically overnight. So it was critical for us to execute a strategy of transforming our business to become more efficient and reduce our operating costs, while at the same time grow our core business volumes and revenues, Sharp said.
Today, we can see the fruits of our hard work and sacrifice. Our productivity has improved significantly over the last four years, and we were able to achieve this with little disruption in our business.
REAPING FRUITS OF LABOUR
With her team, Sharp said that she executed an aggressive transformation strategy including restructuring and outsourcing to get leaner and more efficient.
“Today, we can see the fruits of our hard work and sacrifice. Our productivity has improved significantly over the last four years, and we were able to achieve this with little disruption in our business,” she said.
“We also focused on growing our core business, and executed various initiatives to ensure that we had competitive offerings. Again, this bore fruit as we saw solid growth in all our core business lines, but, particularly, in the areas of lending, deposits and payment services,” Sharp added.
Prior to her appointment, she was the executive vicepresident and chief financial officer for the group, with responsibility for financial and regulatory reporting, financial risk management, strategic planning, legal, compliance, and oversight of the Systems Support Centre.
Sharp, who holds a bachelor of science degree with honours in accounting from The University of the West Indies and who is a chartered financial analyst charterholder, also acquired a wide range of experience in the group.
“There were many highlights spanning my career at Scotiabank. I assumed increasing responsibilities over the years in different areas of the organisation, which not only allowed me to learn tremendously, but also to work with some of the most energetic and passionate team members I have ever known,” Sharp said.
Under her tenure, the Private Banking Unit was established, and she successfully led Scotia Jamaica Life Insurance Company Limited from 2003 to 2008. During that time, she also