Sterling marks 25 years with $1.2m community award

Sterling Asset Management Ltd has marked its 25th anniversary by launching a new community impact award and making a J$1.2-million donation to the Joy Town Community Development Foundation (JTCDF), as the investment firm highlighted its financial growth and social investments over the past quarter-century.
The inaugural Sterling Impact Award was presented to the JTCDF during the company’s 25th Anniversary Press Launch at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston on Tuesday, where executives also reflected on Sterling’s performance since its founding in 2001.
Charles Ross, president and chief executive officer, said the company, which now manages more than US$500 million in assets, has navigated clients through some of the region’s most challenging economic periods, including the 2008 global financial crisis, Jamaica’s National Debt Exchange, and successive currency devaluations.
Ross noted that the firm’s flagship Sterling Global Fund has generated an average annual return of 10.6 per cent, with an investment made at the fund’s inception growing tenfold.
“Twenty-five years ago, three of us had a belief, a fairly simple one, that Jamaican investors deserved better. They deserved access to global markets, honest advice, and a financial partner who would be with them through every part of their lives,” Ross said.
“The ultimate milestone is seeing our clients’ investments grow with us, seeing the creation of intergenerational wealth and seeing the next generation continue to manage the investments with the same prudence and restraint as their parents,” he added.
The anniversary event also highlighted the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.
Ross said Sterling has donated more than $7 million to Crime Stop Jamaica since 2021 to support crime-fighting initiatives and invested $5 million over the past five years to expand tertiary education opportunities for young Jamaicans.
Michelle Valentine, assistant vice president of marketing and communications, said the company’s approach to corporate giving is rooted in a long-term commitment to national development.
“You cannot separate economic prosperity from social progress, and you cannot claim to be invested in Jamaica without being invested in Jamaicans,” Valentine said.
She added: “We have never believed that responsibility ends once a cheque is written. Real impact requires consistency. It requires commitment. It requires showing up again and again, long after the cameras have left and the headlines have faded.”
Valentine announced that the inaugural Sterling Impact Award would be accompanied by a J$1.2-million donation to the JTCDF’s Taking Charge of Your Future (TCYF) programme.
The initiative supports at-risk children between the ages of seven and 12 in Trench Town, Denham Town and neighbouring communities through remedial education and behavioural intervention. Since its launch in 2014, the programme has helped reintegrate 229 children into the formal school system.
Accepting the award, JTCDF President and Project Manager Major Richard Cooke welcomed the partnership, saying the organisation’s mission is to transform vulnerable communities through education and social support.
“Our greatest reward is when we see lives impacted. Part of why Joy Town exists is to help transform our inner cities into peace-loving, God-fearing, productive, and happy communities. When we’re impacting 30 children in a high school, the entire school is impacted, and the entire community,” Cooke said.
“We’re thankful for firms like Sterling that really get involved and are serious about giving the kind of support that is needed.”
Sterling said its commitment to supporting communities alongside its clients will remain central to its mission as it embarks on its next chapter.