Jamaican business leader developed her entrepreneurial skills in Toronto
December 11, 2019
The financial acumen that has made Thalia Lyn one of Jamaica’s most successful entrepreneurs was acquired while residing in Toronto in the late 1960s.
After tying the nuptial knot in 1966, she and her husband – Mike – moved to Canada’s largest city the next year for his commercial airline pilot training.
Not credentialed to teach in Canada though she was a qualified in Jamaica, Lyn’s first job was with University Savings Canadian Fund Equity (USCFE) that became Canadian International (CI) Financial.
“I knew nothing about investments, so I took the mutual fund and Canadian Securities courses that enabled me to become an investment dealer and that’s when I met Michael Lee-Chin who was with Regal Capital,” she recalled. “Michael’s first words to me were, ‘We are Jamaicans, so let’s help each other’. He started to sell the fund I was marketing and I introduced him to the Jamaicans I knew. We worked well together.”
Lyn also helped her late brother, Ray Chang, get his start in the mutual fund business.
At a business dinner just before returning to Jamaica, USCFE owner Bob McRae inquired about Chang who was then a consultant at Coopers & Lybrand.
“I told him Ray wasn’t happy there because they weren’t using him to turn around companies and Bob’s response was, ‘He is too bright for that and it may take him quite a while anyway to become a partner’,” Lyn, who has Bachelor of Arts degree from Manhattanville College in New York, said.
McRae left the dinner table and called Chang who, a few weeks later, joined CI Financial where he rose to the position of Chief Executive Officer.
Back in Toronto in 1974 and reunified with USCFE as Administrative Manager, Lyn soon began to feel the urge to be her own boss.
“Also, my family was in Jamaica and I wanted to be with them,” she said.
Thalia Lyn is the sister of late philanthropist Ray Chang
On the way home, Lyn spent a short time in Miami as a substitute teacher.
“Teaching would have been my career choice because I really loved it,” added the 2013 Immaculate Conception High School Hall of Fame inaugural inductee whose grandparents migrated from China in 1911. “But I was at a point in my life where I wanted to work for myself.”
With Jamaica unstable in the late 1970s, Lyn came back to Toronto in 1979 and was USCFE Marketing Director for two years before packing up and returning home for good to follow the footsteps of her late father who was a business leader. Gladstone Chang founded Valentine Bakery that merged with Powell and Huntington Bakeries in 1957 to become Consolidated Bakeries Jamaica Ltd.
Observing there was a need for soft service ice cream in Jamaica, Lyn started Dairy Castle in the 1970s.
“We weren’t making money doing ice cream, so we made hamburgers,” she said. “We then decided to do chicken and ribs, but quickly realized Jamaicans wanted more than bone.”
A restaurant selling fried chicken, Chicken Supreme, was launched that evolved into Island Grill which is a quick-service restaurant chain with 18 locations across Jamaica and one in Barbados at the Grantley Adams International Airport.
Island Grill has nearly 900 employees.
The Island Grill team
The expansion outside Jamaica was made after Goddard Catering Group (Barbados), which is the leading provider of airline, industrial and event catering services in the Caribbean and Latin America, approached Lyn and her management team.
“They wanted to collaborate with us to expand into the Caribbean and Latin America, but that didn’t happen because they are in catering and not the retail business,” she said.
Two Island Grill locations in Florida were closed about 17 years ago after a downturn in the American economy, the result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Using their own unique combination of spices in their meals to create an authentic Jamaican flavour, the culturally-inspired Island Grill menu features festival, burgers, soups, curry chicken, stew peas and jerk chicken that’s marinated for 24 hours before grilling.
With Lyn gradually sliding into the background to focus on philanthropy, her eldest son – he and his younger brother Craig, who is an Emmy Award winner, were born in Canada -- and daughter-in-law are the faces of the company.
Michael Lyn Jr. and his wife Denise Dubuque-Lyn
Michael Lyn Jr. is the Chief Innovation Officer while his wife – Denise Dubuque-Lyn -- has been the Chief Operating Officer since September 2018. They met while they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design.
“They have always worked with me, but they were never on the ground in Jamaica,” said Lyn who is in the process of certifying Island Grill under the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Gender Equity Seal. “They came back at the right time just over a year ago and have brought a new dimension of structure and discipline to the business. My son has already done research that shows Island Grill can grow to up to 40 locations and he’s determined to take us beyond a ‘mom and pop’ operation.”
An activist for gender equality and the disenfranchised, Lyn supports Mustard Seed Communities (MSC) which operates 14 homes across Jamaica. Initially serving as a home and school for a handful of abandoned children, MSC provides residential care for about 600 children and adults with disabilities.
The United Nations Women Win-Win Movement member was honoured at the MSC New York Chapter 29th annual benefit luncheon on September 29.
Lyn co-chairs the murals restoration project at Holy Trinity Cathedral which is a National Heritage Site and is the Chair of the National Commercial Bank Foundation that, since 2003, has raised over JA$2 billion in funding for education and youth development. She is also actively involved in the CB Group University of the West Indies 5k that has provided over 250 scholarships worth nearly JA$75 million for students seeking financial assistance to secure higher education.
On November 1, Lyn was conferred with an honourary degree by the University of the West Indies for her entrepreneurial success and tireless philanthropy. The honour was bestowed three days after she became the 27th business leader and second woman, after close friend Lorna Myers, to be inducted into the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica Hall of Fame.
Since 2003, the Jamaica Order of Distinction awardee and Justice of the Peace has been her country’s Honourary Consul General to Thailand where she was bestowed with the Commander of the Most Noble Order to the Crown in that country.
“Pat Francis, who was the President of JAMPRO (Jamaica Promotions Corporation) at the time, approached me asking if I knew anyone that would be interested in the role,” recounted Lyn who enjoys travelling, paddle boarding and spending time in her garden. “They were looking for a woman and I accepted.”
The licensed Canadian stockbroker has taken a Jamaican trade commission once to Thailand during her two visits.
Despite Lyn’s success in Jamaica, she cherishes her time spent in Toronto.
“I relished the opportunity I got to be there and if I were to live anywhere else other than Jamaica, it would be Canada,” she said. “When I come to Toronto, I must visit Kensington Market that I am attracted to because of its diversity of food and smell. I also get ideas for my business.”
Proof of Lyn’s love for Canada was demonstrated a few years ago when she relinquished her American Green Card, but held on to her Canadian citizenship.
