Courtney Campbell will become CEO of GK Investments on February 1.

Courtney Campbell, who joined the GraceKennedy group eight months ago to head a new holding company for the group's financial services subsidiaries, has been promoted to be the boss of GK Investments - the vehicle that holds all non-food operations.

The move, effective February 1, gives Campbell oversight of the group's most profitable segments, but also an important toe-hold in the conglomerate's power structure and marks him as a potential successor to group chairman and CEO Douglas Orane.

But while he steps into a position formerly held by Senator Don Wehby, who at one time was seen as the clear heir apparent to Orane, Campbell will not have similar clout.

Unlike Wehby, he will not be made a deputy group CEO, which would now place Erwin Burton - the man in charge of GK Foods whose star really began to shine at the £23 million acquisition of WT Foods in 2007 - as the clear second in command within the group.

Two to three candidates

Orane in a Financial Gleaner interview Thursday refused to name the candidate likely to be his eventual successor, nor how many there were, saying it was against company policy, but adding that all senior executives reporting directly to him who had indicated interest were potentials for the job.

In all areas of the company where succession programmes were ongoing, there were ideally about two to three candidates, he said.

Still, speculation outside the company is that Wehby, who is now a Cabinet level minister leading fiscal reforms in the Finance Ministry, though he has resigned from GraceKennedy, will return eventually and is still the most likely to succeed Orane.

Orane said anything relating to Wehby's future was for the Senator to say.

Orane, 61, has been top man at GraceKennedy for years, first as managing director since 1986, then as chairman since 1998 after Raphael Diaz retired.

It was Orane who brought Wehby into GraceKennedy in 1995, recruiting him from Desnoes and Geddes, now trading as Red Stripe.

Wehby has family connections to the conglomerate through marriage to Hilary Ann Moss Solomon, whose family has strong historical ties to the listed company.

Efforts to reach Wehby at his office and by cellphone were unsuccessful up to press time.

Campbell, a banking executive, who was recruited from National Commercial Bank, joined GraceKen-nedy in May 2008 as head of a newly created First Global Holdings, in which position he was answerable to the CEO of GK Investments, reporting to Joseph Taffe who has been acting in the job since Wehby's 2007 departure.

Orane said Campbell was selected for the job at GK Investments after the post was advertised internally and externally. The company pulls from wherever the talent is, "to ensure we have a well-functioning meritocracy", he told the Financial Gleaner

As an international company operating in the global marketplace, said the group chief, GraceKennedy has to ensure that the skills it recruits are on the cutting edge and can command a network of contacts, on par with that of its competitors. He did not hide his pleasure, however, that GraceKennedy was itself a repository of such talent.

"All these skills are not only desirable but necessary to make it possible for Jamaican companies to function," said Orane.

Taffe has reverted to his position as deputy CEO of GK Investments.

Campbell will continue to head First Global Holdings, under which the banking and fund management business of the First Global group has been bundled.

As head of FGH, Campbell oversaw First Global Bank, First Global Financial Services, First Global Trinidad and Tobago, One1 Financial, and Signia, an investment bank in Barbados, in which the Jamaican conglomerate is a minority shareholder.

In his new position, his portfolio is expanded to all financial and insurance businesses as well as retail company Hardware and Lumber Limited, operator of the Rapid TrueValue chain of stores. Orane said there were no other pending changes in the investment division.

lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com

( L - R ) Wehby, Burton