Camille Wright Adrians: A life that adds up

“I don’t entertain drama; I deal with numbers.”It’s the line Camille Wright Adrians reaches for more than once, and it tells you most of what you need to know about how she operates. Three weeks ago, she became an empty nester, dropping her youngest, Cameron, at the University of Technology (UTech) in St Andrew and driving back to Montego Bay to a house down to one. The timing tracks with everything else in her life right now: a season of change, handled without fuss.

For Wright Adrians, the approach is simple: follow the process, keep the numbers straight, and let the results speak.

That philosophy has shaped a career spanning more than two decades, from PricewaterhouseCoopers to Xerox and Conduent, and now to LCH Developments, where she stepped into the lead accountant role in April. Her current portfolio includes the finances of The Pinnacle, LCH’s US$450-million, four-tower luxury residential development in Montego Bay.

Construction is new territory for a career accountant, but Wright Adrians approaches it with the same attention to detail that has defined her professional life. Her role goes far beyond processing figures. “It involves total financial oversight — every financial statement, every projection, I’m at the table for those discussions with management,” she explains of a mandate that touches nearly every part of the operation.

The making of a numbers person

Wright Adrians didn’t arrive at accounting by accident, but she didn’t plan it either.

Before LCH, she spent more than a decade climbing the ranks at Xerox, later Conduent, in her north coast hometown: business unit manager, division controller, then accounting manager, over 14 years. As division controller, she recorded income and expenditure across the company’s profit centres. As accounting manager, she ran the books for clients Conduent served directly.

“In most cases, we were doing the accounting for Xerox, billing out differently,” she says.

Before that came eight years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Montego Bay, auditing hospitality’s biggest names: Half Moon, Round Hill, several Sandals properties, and the SuperClubs portfolio while it was still operating. She’d interned at Coopers and Lybrand, which later merged into PwC, and calls that summer, fresh out of the then College of Arts, Science and Technology, “my first full-time working experience”.

The pull toward accounting goes back further, to a career day at Mount Alvernia High.

“Someone who worked in accounting came to the school to speak. I was in grade eight at the time, and, from the moment I heard this man talking, I was drawn in,” she says. “It all sounded so natural and definitive. When it was time to go to CAST, now UTech, I knew what I was going to do, because I like things that follow a process.”

That preference for process over noise still defines her.

“I don’t entertain drama; I deal with numbers. It’s all very black and white for me. If you are giving me US$200,000, did it come from your bank account? Did we receive that money? Is there a charge that is outstanding, and how do I deal with that? I provide that information to the customer, and they understand. I update the records, and everything should be saying the same thing.”

Raised on process, not excuses

Wright Adrians grew up in Tangle River, a farming community 14 miles from Montego Bay, raised by her late paternal grandparents after her parents left for work in the United States.

“My grandmother, Ethlyn Wright, was a homemaker and well-spoken. My grandfather was a farmer, very quiet, but he took care of the home. I was the only child in the house at the time, as all 10 of their children were adults and most had left home by the time I arrived.”

She was fawned over, by her own account, but never coddled about the future.

“Even though they came from humble beginnings, they sent most of their children to college. It was not something you discussed. It was just understood that you went on to higher education, started your family, and moved on.”

She’s applied the same standard to her own sons. Casmere, 30, works in sales at Seprod after a marketing degree; her younger son turns 21 in November and is studying project management at UTech.

“I’ve always said I am not growing boys; I’m growing men. So I want them to be able to function on their own, although they will always be my boys.”

Motherhood, she says, taught her patience and a kind of love she didn’t know she had in her.

Beyond the ledger

The empty house hasn’t slowed her down.

Her new role has given her the opportunity to apply her accounting experience in an unfamiliar environment while learning the intricacies of a major construction operation.

“It’s still accounting, but it feels very different when you’re seeing something this massive built out. I’m learning about the whole concept of how everything works in constructing four towers. There is also the hotel side of the operations with the Accor Ennismore Group, which is very exciting, and I’m delighted to be in the midst of it all.”

Outside office hours, she’s treasurer at Holy Trinity Westgate, her Anglican house of worship, and sits on three school boards: vice-chair at Maldon High and Tower Hill Primary, and finance chair at Montego Bay Community College.

“I’ve always been passionate about education, and not necessarily for the quick learners, but for the others who might not grasp things as fast. How does that work for them? I was asked to make a contribution through service, and I have done so.”

It’s the same operating principle running through every part of her life — at work, at the schools, and at home: show up, do the work, keep the numbers honest, and let the results speak.

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com