CSA People: Michael Jarrett

In praise of Michael Jarrett

I first met Michael Jarrett in October 1983… 37 years ago. It was a CSA AGM held in San Juan. A time when all of us were young and eager.

A youthful Luddy Stewart was President and was ably supported by a General Council of well-known Caribbean shipping executives. (I had the honor to write about that AGM several years after under the heading “Coming Full Circle” for Caribbean Maritime magazine no.16…October 2012.

Michael Jarrett sat at that General Council table and along with his colleague Tony Gambrill he ensured that the happenings in CSA were reaching all of the region’s print media. CSA was 12 years old at that time and it was still evolving to meet the changing needs of the industry while creating a platform upon which the voice of regional shipping could be heard. Michael Jarrett (Mike) was the thinker and driver of many of these events that gave CSA its recognition and from these early years onwards he quietly progressed the development of the CSA, taking ideas of the various Presidents he served and turning them into strong pillars upon which CSA grew.

I knew him first as a colleague then as a trusted friend whose calm and quiet persona belied a brain chiseled by his formal training in the print media business and a genuine love for the Caribbean maritime transport business.

General Council

In planning sessions on General Council he listened well with a slight tilt of his head in a manner that said he cared for what you had to say....eventually modifying the particular plan like a gem smith bringing a rough stone to life as a diamond.

He and Luddy Stewart were inseparable and I got to know later on that the relationship was built on trust first and then on love of this business.

Mike developed Caribbean Maritime magazine… it is his baby, born out of passion and bred out of love…

He kept abreast of all regional and international happenings that were of value to CSA and with the birth of the World Wide Web he pushed to ensure that CSA took its rightful place on that highway.

A lot of this was developed in my Presidency and Mike’s enthusiasm and support helped develop our email address.

He conceptualized the notion that the experiences of older members would be of tremendous benefit to CSA going forward and such experiences could be quietly harnessed as a marker for new members to understand the value of CSA. The Silver Club was born in 1995 and the inaugural event was held in Barbados during the Banquet Night of the AGM in October 1995.

Silver Club

Mike wrote the Charter for the Silver Club, designed and had the silver pins struck.

Later on, in the life of the Silver Club he developed the Silver Club Roast, a not-to-be missed dinner where SC members, their spouses and guests enjoyed great a dinner and drinks, camaraderie and the “roasting of a hapless member”.

During the investiture of Mike into the Silver Club, I made some remarks that Mike had the knack of knowing where we were going wrong long before we knew it and he was never afraid to tell us that we were wrong… a characteristic that made him invaluable.

This is borne out in the fact that at no time in his 30 years at General Council did the CSA ever make a “wrong step” in public.

He nurtured the idea of an exhibition held in the halls of AGMs allowing suppliers to the industry to showcase their products... I was very much a part of that developing idea and can testify to Mike’s herculean effort in creating what over many years was a successful feature to our AGMs generating much needed income for CSA.

Mike however continues to give his talents to the maritime community through his magazine, a medium he developed following his retirement from the CSA.

David Harding

11th President, CSA