With the possibility of Jamaica’s current Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith taking on a new role, names are already being touted as to who will replace her as Minister.
Senator Johnson Smith is nominated for the post of Secretary General of the Commonwealth, to be decided in June. According to the Jamaica Observer newspaper, two senior members of the Jamaica Labour Party want Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks to replace Johnson Smith, should she be elected.
“At this stage, and as more days go by, it seems that Kamina could become the next secretary general of the Commonwealth, and that will create a space in the Senate and in the Cabinet. To me, the best person to become foreign affairs minister is the woman that we have in Washington now representing Jamaica’s interest, and that is Audrey Marks. If the right moves are made, she could return home and assume a post that will make it good for Jamaica,” read a quote in the local newspaper.
This is Audrey Marks’ second term as the Jamaican ambassador. She previously served as ambassador from 2008 to 2012 and again starting in 2016 under Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ administration. She is Jamaica’s first female Ambassador to the USA and the first individual to hold the position twice in two separate terms.
Prior to assuming her ambassadorial role, Ambassador Marks had several entrepreneurial endeavors, following the path of her Jamaican parents who were both small business owners.
Marks was born in St. Mary in 1968. She attended Marymount High School in Highgate and later attended and graduated from Immaculate Conception High School in Kingston in 1986. She earned a B.A. in Business Management at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica and later left for Florida, where she completed her MBA at Nova Southeastern University in 1991.
Marks worked for Air Jamaica for 10 years while also studying for her undergraduate degree. She entered the company, working as a filing clerk and rose to the positions of accounting clerk, and assistant to the vice president for marketing and sales. After leaving Air Jamaica, Marks founded six businesses, including a banana plantation, a real estate development firm, a transportation company, and a venture capital operation.
Marks’ biggest entrepreneurial success came in October 1997, when she founded Paymaster (Jamaica) Limited, the country’s first consolidated bill payment agency. The company later became the first multi-transaction agency in the Caribbean, with over a million customers and billions in annual revenue. In December 2015, she sold 80% of her ownership in the company to the Digicel Group but remained its chairman.
After selling the majority of her shares in Paymaster, Marks served on the boards of several private and public sector companies in Jamaica, including the Tourism Product Development Company, the Urban Development Corporation, Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI); National Health Fund (NHF); and the University of the West Indies (Mona School of Business), among several others.
In 2003, she became chairperson of the Tourism Product Development Company. She was also the first female President of the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica, an organization which promotes investment and trade between the United States and Jamaica.
In May 2010, Marks became Jamaica’s permanent representative to the Organization of American States shortly after being appointed as Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States by then Prime Minister, Bruce Golding. After the former Jamaican ambassador to the U.S. Stephen Vasciannie stepped down in 2015, Marks was reinstated to her former role by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
In October 2021, Ambassador Marks assumed the Chair of the Permanent Council for a three- month period.
Marks and her husband, electrical engineering consultant Jassel Dunstan, have two daughters, Morgan, and Madison.
