Craig Reynald hailed for immeasurable contribution to journalism
... Left mark on the corporate world through media
FORMER ONE Caribbean Media (OCM) chief executive officer, Craig Reynald, has been hailed for his fierce commitment to press freedom.
Reynald passed away on Tuesday at the age of 71.
Former Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) chief executive officer (CEO), Ken Gordon, fondly remembered Reynald, whom he knew for more than two decades when Reynald first joined the company as a financial director in the early 1990s.
He recalled interviewing Reynald for the job and said he was impressed by his answer to one particular question.
“What really made the difference was his response to the question, ‘why was he applying for this position and what were his plans for the future?’ He very calmly told me he was hoping to get my job,” Gordon said with a chuckle.
Reynald went on to do just that, being appointed CCN CEO following Gordon’s retirement in 1997, a position he held until his appointment as OCM CEO in 2006.
“He knew what he wanted and he worked very hard to get it,” said Gordon.
Gordon said Reynald made an immeasurable contribution to journalism and to OCM, the parent company of CCN TV6 and Trinidad Express newspapers.
“He came firmly committed to a free and independent media and he made an extreme contribution to taking the Express, CCN and OCM family forward and on the path in which it is well fixed now,” he said.
“We had many differences over the years, that was inevitable. But he was a strong, able and reliable executive, he worked around the rough edges and he turned them into opportunities.”
Gordon said Reynald was also an admirable family man who was proud of the achievements of his daughters, and enjoyed life to the fullest.
He expressed condolences to Reynald’s family and loved ones, and said Reynald will be remembered.
“Thank you, Craig, for an innings very well played, and we shall all miss you,” said Gordon.
Joe Esau, former One Caribbean Media (OCM) director, said Craig Reynald was a man who understood the revolution of media.
Reynald passed away on Tuesday at the age of 71.
“I met Craig in 1984 while heading the committee that reviewed ISCOTT’s operations and advised government in securing a partner for that troubled steel producer. Craig was the chief financial officer, and I soon recognised his business abilities and personal attributes,” said Esau.
“In 1987, I took a huge gamble as chief executive officer (CEO) of McAL and appointed Craig as CEO of Penta Paints Caribbean Ltd, where the entire executive was dismissed. Craig hired a new team that took the company out of crisis, through T&T’s depression, to rapid growth and profitability. During that period until I left McAL in 1990, we developed a close friendship that lasted to his passing.”
He added, “Craig was CEO of CCN/OCM when I joined the board in 2001, and it was in the media business that he really left his mark on the corporate world. Craig understood the coming revolution in the print media, and envisioned a merger of the main Caribbean entities that would stand alongside the global players.”
Esau said Reynald took the baton from Ken Gordon and led Caribbean Communications Network’s (CCN) merger with the Nation Corporation of Barbados that became One Caribbean Media, and started OCM’s re-entry into radio, and the moves to new media.
He said as OCM’s CEO and publisher of the Express, Reynald was incorruptible and fiercely independent – politically and otherwise.
“As a mutual colleague and friend wrote, Craig was calm, a stoic; a decent man of principle. He lived a very private life for which his family and faith were paramount. May his soul rest in eternal peace,” said Esau.