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This past week, the philanthropic arm of the Massy Group, the Massy Foundation delighted steel pan enthusiasts and Carnival culture aficionados with the premiere of the film “Souls of Steel: A Documentary about Massy Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra”.

The launch event and screening took place at the iconic Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook, Port-Of-Spain and attracted a unique mix of past and present Massy Trinidad All Stars players, supporters of the band, T&T cultural stakeholders and members of the local film, entertainment and media fraternity.

On hand at the event was Beresford Hunte, Manager, Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra who thanked all attendees for their presence on the momentous occasion and expressed his gratitude to the Massy Foundation for its steadfast support of the band throughout the years.  Echoing Hunte’s excitement about the film was Gaston Aguilera, Chairman, Massy Foundation who shared his and the Foundation’s enthusiasm to be associated with ‘Souls of Steel’.

Souls of Steel which was directed by regional film director and producer, Dave Cropper of Cropper Media Limited, was commissioned in 2013 by the Massy Group (then Neal & Massy) in honour of its 25^th anniversary as the Corporate Sponsor of the Massy Trinidad All Stars.  Cropper artfully wove together a mix of perspectives about Trinidad All Stars, its history, its achievements, its culture and values and its journey in the 2014 Panorama competition, offering a multi-faceted look at the famed steel band.

During the screening the appreciative audience at Little Carib Theatre enjoyed many interesting on-screen anecdotes from players who reminisced on the bands evolution over the last 3 decades, inspiring interviews with past and current members such as Leon ‘Smooth’ Edwards, Arranger, Dane Gulston, long-standing member, Jason ‘Stumps’ Lewis, Operations Manager, Neville Jules, Founder, as well as classic clips of the Massy Trinidad All Stars’ past performances.

The film’s content also includes footage from the band’s Panorama performance in 2014 – a contentious year for the band in which they placed second to Phase II Pan Groove in the Panorama Finals, missing the championship by only one point.  This production was timely as 2015 also marks the 80^th Anniversary of Massy Trinidad All Stars. 

The recent launch event not only provided invited guests with a platform for networking over delightful local delicacies and discussing the recent 2015 Panorama Semi-Finals which saw the Massy Trinidad All Stars triumphantly topping all the competition, but it also gave a first look at what can be deemed a true ‘piece of history’ about the 8 time National Panorama champions.

The launch and screening at Little Carib Theatre was one of several activities planned by the band to commemorate its 80^th Anniversary throughout the year.

View photos from the event at http://www.lime.tt/2015/02/souls-of-steel-screening/

The Massy Foundation will soon start the first ever Boys to Men Programme to be held in Tobago.  The programme will kick start with a stakeholder meeting on February 26, 2015 at the Buccoo Community Centre and then the first meeting with participants will be held on March 5, 2015 at 4 p.m. at the same location.  The Boys to Men programme is a leadership programme designed for young men between the ages of 14 and 21 years.  The programme’s lead facilitator, Ian Jeffers uses the tool of developmental conversations to focus young, male participants on pertinent leadership themes such as fatherhood, entrepreneurship, nationalism and conflict resolution.  The following outline other community programmes planned for the year:

• Port of Spain (start date – March 2
• La Brea (start date – March 7)
• Youth Training Centre (start date – March 7)
• Mayaro (start date – March 7)

Gallery Description 

On January 23, 2015, over 900 retired employees of the Massy Group (formerly Neal & Massy) gathered at the Centre of Excellence for an insightful and informative morning of reconnecting with each other.

Massy’s President & Group CEO, Gervase Warner, kicked off the morning with a presentation about the Group’s rebranding, explaining the reasons for the change.  His remarks were preceded by a short video which featured clips from various events in which the Group’s new corporate identity was unveiled.

Shortly thereafter, the morning’s feature speaker, Dr. Jennifer Rouse of the Division of Aging gave an inspiring speech about adapting to change.  Her address took a spiritual slant and she encouraged retirees to be active, mindful and open to change.  She left the audience to contemplate answers to a number of thought provoking questions such as: what’s your brand?, how do you want to be remembered? and how do you influence others?.

Paula Rajkumasrsingh, Group CFO, Massy Group closed off the morning with heartfelt ‘thank you’s’ to all in who contributed to the success of the event, in particular, Amanda McMillan, Employee Benefits Manager and her team who worked tirelessly to ensure that attendees were duly appreciated.

The Massy Foundation supports various NGOs across Trinidad & Tobago through the disbursement of annual grants.  These grants are intended to offset some of the administrative costs associated with running the operations of the NGOs we support.

“What a lot of people don’t know is that we’re not just about giving out charity but we’re involved in a number of long term programmes as well.” So says head of the Salvation Army Major Emmanuel Supre, while commenting on the NGO’s multi-faceted work and deep rooted history in Trinidad and Tobago.

Located on Henry Street Port of Spain, The Salvation Army has been serving the people of Trinidad and Tobago for more than one hundred and fifteen years.  As Major Supre sees it, “we’ve been around for a very long time and we work really hard to assist persons from all walks of life.”

The Salvation Army was established to help the most disadvantaged and affected citizens. Some of the services include homes for senior citizens, kindergarten schools, a feeding programme for the homeless and a disaster relief programme. The NGO also provides counselling for persons living with HIV/AIDS and victims of domestic abuse and has developed programmes to assist with youth development.

Although Major Supre’s stint will end in three years, he is determined to make a big difference while in office. “I have a mandate to fulfill and even though I won’t be here for a long time, I am committed to saving the lives of as many people as possible.”

For the last nine years the Massy Foundation has provided annual grants in support of the NGOs work.  

The Massy Foundation supports various NGOs across Trinidad & Tobago through the disbursement of annual grants.  These grants are intended to offset some of the administrative costs associated with running the operations of the NGOs we support.

In 1953, the Princess Elizabeth Centre embarked on a journey to care for physically disabled children.  

Now more than sixty years later, Princess Elizabeth has a new CEO and a new vision for the organization. Head of the institution Jan Sirjusingh, began her tenure in January 2015 and is already working toward establishing the centre’s first code of ethics and policy manual. “I am very excited to make an impact here and I think one of the things we need to focus on is driving strategic planning and promoting ethical decision making.”      

Situated on Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook, the Princess Elizabeth Centre caters for approximately one hundred and twenty special needs children ranging in ages four to seventeen years. They are provided with primary education, physiotherapy, speech therapy, dental and surgical care. Princess Elizabeth runs a very dynamic surgical programme for kids and is the only centre in the country able to offer treatment, on a large scale, to patients diagnosed with the spinal condition, scoliosis.

Ms. Sirjusingh wants to be able to boast that her organization is the Caribbean’s leading centre with the capacity to treat a larger number of cases.  As she concedes though, “this vision requires a lot of work and support from corporate citizens.”

In 2014 for the United Way Day of Caring intervention, Massy Ltd., Massy Finance GFC Ltd. and Massy United Insurance Ltd. came together to provide the centre’s recovery room with a major uplift. For the last nine years the Massy Foundation has provided annual grants in support of the centre’s work. 

On October 29, 2014 Massy launched our new corporate identity in Guyana.

The Massy brand is now affixed to all our companies in Guyana.

At the launch, our President & Group CEO, Gervase Warner delivered the presentation regarding the rebranding journey which resulted from the strategy exercise a few years ago.  His presentation was followed by feature remarks from The Hon. Dr. Ashni Kumar Singh, Minister of Finance, Republic of Guyana who endorsed the Group’s contribution to business in the country over the past 45 years.  Deo Persaud, CEO, Massy Guyana Group delivered the welcome remarks and Roy Prasad, CEO, Massy Distribution (Guyana) performed as Master of Ceremonies for the evening.

The event also doubled as the official opening of the Guyana Group’s new centralized warehousing facility.  The Group has a long history of marketing and distributing food and pharmaceuticals in Guyana and in providing the agricultural community with machinery, product support services and  crop protection solutions.  The facility is a US $12 million dollar investment and features:

• 75.000 square feet of  fully racked warehouse space ,including modern, fully racked, chilled and frozen facilities
• Vastly improved productivity levels via a computerized warehouse management system .
• Safer and much improved employee facilities
• Training facilities for improving management and employee  competencies

The facility has now centralized all the distribution warehousing operations in the Georgetown area and  facilitates further expansion in the business, to enable the company to better serve its customer base across the country.

Contact Information for Massy Distribution (Guyana) Inc.:

D4 Starlite Square

East Coast Demerara, Guyana

T  592 220 8198

UnitedDayOfCaring from Massy Group on Vimeo.

Saturday May 18, 2014 saw the fifth United Way National Day of Caring taking place in Trinidad and Tobago.  Employees of Massy Group in Trinidad and their families joined thousands of other volunteers across Trinidad & Tobago to dedicate a day towards giving back to their communities. Overall, the Massy Group undertook a total of 18 projects with an investment of over TT$360,000. The 306 Massy volunteers, representing 21 companies within the Group, covered the length and breadth of the country contributing towards schools, homes for the aged and differently-abled, and social welfare institutions. 

Companies carefully selected projects within their immediate communities, with several opting to continue programmes that were in progress such as the upgrading of bathroom facilities at the L’Hospice (Home for the Aged) and the building of book shelves and provision of books at the Pointe A Pierre Special Needs School.  Happily, many projects which were initiated on the day received enthusiastic commitment from employees for continued support in the long term.  Employees volunteering at the Couva South Government Primary School and All In One School Servol (Beetham) were moved to continue providing support to the schools on an ongoing basis.  One project at the Grace Community Complex for the Challenged, was completely funded by employees’ own fundraising activities.  Volunteers also supported the Les Coteaux River Clean-Up exercise in Tobago in conjunction with ScotiaBank. Speaking at the St. Barbs Government Primary School on the day, CEO Mr. Gervase Warner spoke of how the company identified with the activities of the day: “At Massy Group we’re about good business but we are also about great people and great communities and this is what building a great community is all about.”

Below is a summary of the organisations that received support from the Massy Group as part of the day’s activities:

Schools

1. Mafeking Government Primary School
2. Couva South Government Primary School
3. St. Augustine South Primary School
4. All In One School Servol (Beetham)
5. St. Barbs Government Primary School (Laventille)

Homes for the Aged

1. L’Hospice
2. Heph-Zi-Bah Glory Home for the Aged in Barataria

Homes for the Differently-Abled

1. Cascade School for the Deaf
2. Pointe A Pierre Special Needs School
3. Grace Community Complex for the Challenged

Social Welfare Institutions

1. The Memisa Centre (Home for socially displaced men)
2. The Shelter (Home for Battered Women)
3. Hope Centre (South)
4. Happy Home Children’s Home
5. Joshua Home for Boys
6. Princess Elizabeth Home

The project was executed a mere month before Massy revealed its new corporate identity.

On November 3^rd 2014, the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries (TTCSI) hosted their annual Excellence in Services Awards at the Hilton Hotel in Trinidad where Massy Technologies InfoCom Project Management Services was able to repeat its achievement to win for a second time in three years, the title of “Service Provider of the Year”

“We are proud of this team achievement and thank our clients for their trust in us, our employees for their contribution to achieving excellence and our leadership for their continued investment in the Unit,” said Owen Field, Regional Manager – Project Management Services, Massy Technologies InfoCom.

The TTCSI Excellence in Services Awards is the highest accolade given to local organizations for their achievements in quality and performance.

Awarded by a panel of judges for the Excellence in Services, this recognizes Massy Technologies InfoCom Project Management Services as a role model in the industry for quality and outstanding performance in the Services Industries in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Unit was evaluated by several criteria including its Management and Leadership, Information and Analysis, People, Problem Solving, Innovation and Improvement, Customer Satisfaction and Results.

Champion Team: (From left to right) Kisha Williams, Jius Jasper, Natasha Khan, Alisha Bertrand-Bostic, Kimbah Luces, Owen Field, Kern Charles, Acklima Ali-Surujnath

MASSY TECHNOLOGIES INFOCOM’s award-winning Project Management Services Unit is a leading Consulting Practice in Project Management Excellence and has expanded its professional services offerings with its EDGE Services designed specifically to give their clients a leading EDGE to value delivery and benefit realization. 

For further insights contact edge@massytechnologies.com

On Tuesday, November 11, Massy and Republic Bank signed an agreement to offer a Massy Credit Card – a credit card accepted at over 20 Massy merchants nationwide.  The participating Massy merchants, where the card will be accepted include:

• Massy Automotive Components Ltd.
• Massy Distribution (Trinidad)
• Massy Machinery Ltd.
• Massy Motors Ltd.
• Massy Stores, Massy Stores SuperCentre & Massy Stores Pharmacy
• Massy United Insurance Ltd.
• Massy Technologies (Trinidad) Ltd.

The Massy Credit Card will offer a revolving line of credit, issued by Republic Bank Limited in collaboration with Massy. The card will function as a dual purpose card, combining our first class Massy Card Rewards with the flexibility of a payment card. In addition to being eligible to receive exclusive offers from Massy Stores nationwide, Massy Credit Card holders will receive an additional 50% Bonus on Massy Points at Massy Card partners – cardholders will continue to receive 10 points per $100 spent from Massy Card plus an additional 5 points per $100 spent when payment is made with the Massy Credit Card.  

In speaking about the launch at the contract-signing ceremony, Gervase Warner, President & Group CEO, Massy commented that “after launching our new brand and our new identity, Massy, we decided that we wanted to revolutionise the way our customers interface with us.  We wanted to create new opportunities for the customer to be more than a customer but rather, part of our family.  This means that we have to continuously find ways of making our customer interactions meaningful and rewarding so we developed the Loyalty Card concept even further to offer a Massy Credit Card.”  

“As a Massy Credit Card holder, a customer will now have the flexibility to pay for their goods and services at over 20 Massy merchants nationwide, earn 50% more points than before and have the opportunity to redeem the points for attractive gifts at participating Massy merchants and other partners.  For example, a customer can buy groceries with the Massy Credit Card, accumulate more points than ever before and be able to redeem them for their next purchase at Massy Motors, in a shorter time frame.  This is the value of being part of the Massy family, as a Massy Credit Card Holder.  We saw Republic Bank Limited as a trusted partner in this venture, with the right combination of technical competence and a commitment to customer service,” he added.

The Massy Credit Card was launched publicly today with a media campaign.  There will also be a series of promotional activities in the month of November and December at select Massy Stores locations.  RBL representatives will be present to facilitate customer applications.  Customers can also apply for the card at Massy Stores West Moorings on November 22^nd, Massy Stores Marabella on November 28^th and Massy Stores SuperCenter Gulf View on November 29^th, 2014. For more information about applying for the Massy Credit Card, visit our website at www.massycard.com

The contract was signed by Mr. Warner and Mr. David Dulal-Whiteway, Managing Director, Republic Bank.  Other members of the respective teams were on hand to witness the signing including Earl Boodasingh, Executive Chairman, Integrated Retail Business Unit (Massy); Curtis Tobal, Chairman, Consumer Finance Line of Business; Jorrell Best, General Manager (Massy-Consumer, Finance); Nazra Ali, Head, Consumer Finance (Massy- Consumer, Finance Trinidad) and Derwin Howell, Executive Director, Republic Bank; Anthony Wong, General Manager, Electronic Channels & Payments Divisions (Republic Bank Limited) and Michelle Palmer-Keizer, General Manager, Group Marketing and Communications (Republic Bank Limited).

From left to right: Anthony Wong, General Manager, Electronic Channels & Payments Divisions (Republic Bank Limited); David Dulal-Whiteway, Managing Director, Republic Bank; Curtis Tobal, Chairman, Consumer Finance Line of Business (Massy); Derwin Howell, Executive Director, Republic Bank; Gervase Warner, President & Group CEO, Massy Group; Earl Boodasingh, Executive Chairman, Integrated Retail Business Unit (Massy)