Once a strug­gling sin­gle moth­er with five mouths to feed, Joan Dun­can has now been be­stowed with Ja­maica’s fifth high­est na­tion­al award be­cause of her ser­vice for the de­vel­op­ment of the mon­ey mar­ket.

Dun­can, co-founder of JMMB, was on Mon­day posthu­mous­ly con­ferred with the Or­der of Ja­maica (OJ), dur­ing the an­nu­al Na­tion­al Ho­n­ours and Awards cer­e­mo­ny held at King’s House.

Don­na Dun­can-Scott, one of Dun­can’s daugh­ters col­lect­ed the award on the oc­ca­sion, from Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al Sir Patrick Allen, who presided over the cer­e­mo­ny.

In speak­ing to the sig­nif­i­cance of the award, Dun­can-Scott not­ed that it was time­ly as JMMB Group cel­e­brates its 30th an­niver­sary and builds on the lega­cy laid by her moth­er.

“I felt a joy in my heart, I felt a deep sense of grat­i­tude that this coun­try that mum­my had stood for was recog­nis­ing the trans­for­ma­tion­al lead­er­ship that she pro­vid­ed in the fi­nan­cial sec­tor by pi­o­neer­ing the mon­ey mar­ket in Ja­maica and al­so in cre­at­ing a dif­fer­ent kind of cor­po­rate cul­ture and love-based client care, where clients felt val­ued, heard and served with equal­i­ty and eq­ui­ty,” Dun­can-Scott said.

Dun­can was de­scribed as a vi­sion­ary, trail­blaz­er, in­spi­ra­tion, em­pow­er­ing and gen­uine.

“It is with im­mense pride that the JMMB group cel­e­brates our co-founder, Joan Dun­can, on be­ing ho­n­oured posthu­mous­ly, with the Or­der of Ja­maica, for dis­tin­guished ser­vices to the Bank­ing Sec­tor and the De­vel­op­ment of the Mon­ey Mar­ket,” JMMB stat­ed.

“Her dream was to start a com­pa­ny where any­one could par­tic­i­pate in the mon­ey mar­ket and achieve a bet­ter life for them­selves and their fam­i­ly. Her tenac­i­ty gave life to her vi­sion for not just a dif­fer­ent type of com­pa­ny but a dif­fer­ent kind of think­ing,” it stat­ed.

For JMMB, she en­vi­sioned a work cul­ture dif­fer­ent from tra­di­tion­al Ja­maican or­gan­i­sa­tions.

“One fo­cused on love, re­spect, open­ness, care, equal­i­ty and eq­ui­ty that would mo­ti­vate and in­spire team mem­bers to re­al­ize their best au­then­tic selves at home, work and wit our clients. Hers was a holis­tic ap­proach, feed­ing the mind and spir­it to bring forth her the pos­si­bil­i­ty think­ing that dri­ves our every ac­tion and de­ci­sion,” JMMB stat­ed.

“She has helped changed the face of the fi­nan­cial in­dus­try by fo­cus­ing on a love-based client part­ner­ship, where clients feel heard, sup­port­ed and em­pow­ered to achieve their goals. To­day her com­pa­ny, the first mon­ey mar­ket bro­ker­age house in Ja­maica, has grown in­to an in­te­grat­ed fi­nan­cial ser­vices group serv­ing over 412,000 clients in Ja­maica, T&T and the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic,” it stat­ed.

The JMMB Group said Dun­can lived an out­stand­ing ex­am­ple of a life lived ho­n­ourably and true.

The Jour­ney of Joan Dun­can

“My great­est de­sire is not to make a lot of mon­ey for my­self… But to have a clean heart and a pure spir­it,” Dun­can once stat­ed.

Dun­can is an in­spi­ra­tion, pure and true.

She ac­com­plished much in her life jour­ney, but her role as the fe­male pi­o­neer of the Ja­maican mon­ey mar­ket didn’t be­gin un­til she was al­ready in her fifties.

Dun­can had a sim­ple, am­bi­tious dream: start a com­pa­ny where any Ja­maican could walk in off the street, take a few hun­dred dol­lars from their pock­et, and in­vest it. When they did, they would be greet­ed by staff who be­lieved in re­spect and love.

In 1992, Dun­can vir­tu­al­ly cre­at­ed the lo­cal mon­ey mar­ket with the in­cep­tion of Ja­maica Mon­ey Mar­ket Bro­kers Ltd.

With­in no time, her com­pa­ny be­came Ja­maica’s biggest mon­ey mar­ket trad­er.

“She was not the cook­ie-cut­ter im­age of the fe­male cor­po­rate ex­ec­u­tive. Once, she was a strug­gling sin­gle moth­er with five mouths to feed. It was her will to make a dif­fer­ence that guid­ed her to do great things. She built her way up from a hum­ble cred­it of­fi­cer to cre­ate the in­sti­tu­tion re­spon­si­ble for the de­vel­op­ment of the sec­ondary mar­ket in debt se­cu­ri­ties in Ja­maica,” JMMB stat­ed.

When Dun­can died at the age of 58, her dream had re­alised a sol­id cap­i­tal base of $190 mil­lion and boast­ed four branch­es with over 20,000 ac­counts.

“Her un­com­pro­mis­ing will and strong in­tel­lect helped her build JMMBTT, but the true suc­cess stemmed from her pro­found spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and love. To this day, we car­ry those val­ues for­ward, with her el­dest daugh­ter, Don­na, serv­ing at the helm,” it stat­ed,

Though Joan Dun­can has end­ed her jour­ney now, in Don­na’s words, it was “Mis­sion Ac­com­plished”.

The JMMB Group ex­ec, Dun­can-Scott, out­lined that she was proud that the lega­cy of her moth­er lives on and forms the ar­chi­tec­ture of the com­pa­ny’s cul­ture as team mem­bers seek to dai­ly live true to the vi­sion of love.