IT was not an easy decision for Kelly Tomblin, taking the helm of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS). In fact, the United States native harboured strong reservations about relocating to Jamaica.
But it wasn’t a fear of the country and its high crime stats that spawned Tomblin’s concern.
TOMBLIN… I bring a different perspective to a problem (Photo: Naphtali Junior)
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“I am typically sent somewhere when there is something wrong with a company in the group,” Tomblin told All Woman in a recent interview. “I’m usually called when there is a growth problem.”
It was a difficult decision, too, because Tomblin, a mother of two, never lived for any prolonged time outside the US. “I have never lived internationally, no more than six months,” she said, but indicates that she is never one to resist a challenge.
The JPS appointed Tomblin, who has more than 20 years experience delivering energy in the US, just over a month ago to replace Damian Obiglio as CEO.
And so far, according to Tomblin, she is up to the task.
“If I didn’t believe it was possible I would hightail it out of here,” she declared. “I’ve been a woman in a male-dominated industry for a long time… I bring a different perspective to a problem.”
Tomblin has taken over an embattled JPS facing widespread flak for its high electricity charges and an underlying feeling that the monopoly is raking in profits without concern for its customers, including a predatory disconnection policy.
“Before I took the job I knew the issues on some level through articles I read in the press overseas,” she said. However, since coming to Jamaica, Tomblin said she has spent the last 30 days asking questions and listening.
“It’s not until I got here and started meeting with the stakeholders, regulators, customers and most significantly, our employees that I got the gravity of the issues we are facing,” she admitted. “During that time my overall focus was on listening… I did not know the intensity of emotion against the JPS.”
Tomblin’s initial apprehension about her JPS troubleshooting job was slowly being justified, leaving her to comment that she has never seen an electricity company facing such difficult and complex set of challenges.
But despite being taken somewhat by surprise, interacting with Jamaicans is not new to the Texan who revealed that she first visited the island some 15 years ago on vacation, and has returned on cruise ships a few times after. She recalls her first trip as a “pleasant experience”.
“It was just before the birth of my first child,” she shared.
Leaving the confines and protection of a Montego Bay all-inclusive hotel, Tomblin and her husband used public transportation to move around the island “getting to know the people”.
“We took a cab to James Bond Beach (St Mary) and spent almost the entire day,” she said. “[There was ] even teaching a young child how to swim.”
At that time Tomblin hadn’t the slightest inkling that she would have returned to Jamaica as a resident and would have lost her anonymity in the hot seat as boss of a troubled JPS.
“When we were here then we could move around and not be identified, now everywhere I go they say ‘that’s the JPS lady’,” Tomblin remarked. “People feel they know me and will talk to me. The impression of JPS is not positive but the good thing is that they talk to me,” she reflected.
At her appointment JPS described Tomblin as having “extensive industry knowledge, strong business strategy and operations experience, as well as customer service expertise”, which will be to the benefit of all its stakeholders.
And given her expressed, strong leaning to customer service and experience as a troubleshooter, Tomblin was clear about what she wants for the JPS.
“You can teach people engineering… but you can’t teach people how to build trust, how to be intimate with stakeholders, we are focusing a lot on that on that right now — being impeccable with your word.”
Tomblin said with passion that when she saw the JPS mission statement in the company’s head office she hoped they were not mere words.
“I have taken some steps not to place words on the wall and not mean it,” she quipped.
“You see so many people wanting the same thing, I see one factor where we can all get together,” she said of her new task.
To that end the JPS chief says she is establishing focus groups to find out “how we (JPS) got to this position”. She admits though that the loss of customer confidence in the JPS has posed a major problem but feels everybody genuinely wants JPS to be successful.
“When you’ve lost faith in something it’s hard to get it back,” she commented.
“You see a situation, so many people have the same target but approaching it in a piecemeal way,” she added.
How long Tomblin stays in Jamaica is totally up to shareholders in her company, she said, adding that her contract ends in two years.
Before her JPS appointment, Tomblin, who holds a Master of Business Administration from New York University, was regional vice-president of GDF SUEZ Energy Resources, with responsibility for leading the company’s market, competitive and regulatory strategy in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and Washington, DC.
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