Camille Facey Contributes Over 4 Decades to Jamaica’s Corporate Governance Framework

Attorney-at-law Camille Marie Facey, on October 20, received the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander (CD) for her contribution to law, corporate governance, public policy and leadership.

As she stood among fellow honourees, immaculately attired in a royal blue ensemble, the insignia placed upon her reflected decades of service, now being publicly acknowledged.

Yet, in her humility, her first reaction upon hearing the news that she will be receiving a national award, was disbelief.

“I was so surprised, very surprised, and then I felt very honoured,” she stated.

Her family, however, had no such reservations. “They were thrilled to bits, I think they were even more pleased than I was,” she noted.

Initially, Mrs. Facey, who is a past student of the St. Andrew’s High School for Girls, wanted to become a judge, to protect the vulnerable. However, her career, led her away from litigation and into corporate law.

With just one year out of law school, at age 22, she was invited to join the Board of the National Foundation of Jamaica, an organisation focused on providing loans to micro-entrepreneurs, often overlooked by traditional financial institutions.

That early exposure, alongside prominent figures such as distinguished businessman Danny Williams, ignited a lifelong dedication to serving on public bodies.

“I have literally spent my entire working career also doing voluntary service. It gives me great reward when the initiatives I’m engaged in help other persons and make lives better,” she said.

Throughout her career, Mrs. Facey has held senior legal and executive roles in telecommunications, finance, and corporate leadership.

However, she is perhaps best known for her transformative work in corporate governance.

As Chair of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Corporate Governance Committee, she helped spearhead the revision of the Jamaica Corporate Governance Code and the 2024 update of the PSOJ Handbook.

“We did the code because it’s important for all countries to have governance code by which their private and public sectors operate. In Jamaica, we have the Corporate Governance Framework for Public Bodies. Jamaica is leading in the Caribbean when it comes to governance. That existed already in the private sector. But what we wanted now was a code which set out the various principles of governance that would govern all of the entities in Jamaica, including now private sector,” she said.

“The Jamaica Corporate Governance Code was put out so that persons could read this code, understand what this governance thing is all about, understand what are the principles that they should be trying to adhere to. Hopefully, this would make their organisation stronger more profitable, more sustainable; obviously also it deals with corruption because the code provides for things like transparency. It’s how you do things in the correct way,” she added.

Throughout her four decades of service, Mrs. Facey has remained grounded in a set of unshakeable leadership principles.

“Excellence and integrity. Where you have the privilege of being a leader, you also have the responsibility for your people and their development. The creation of leaders has always been one of my goals. I am so proud of so many of the persons who I have mentored,” she stated.

Mrs. Facey shared that one of her greatest achievements is the work that she undertook as a board member at the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) for the period 2015-2024.

The entity, at the time, was experiencing some challenges, with financial statements eight years behind, and a fire and water damaging computer records.

She noted that during that period, auditors refused to associate with the agency for fear of reputational damage.

“You cannot manage an organisation if you don’t have the financials, you don’t know what is happening. So of course, the first thing we had to do was to bring the financial statements up and we are talking about eight years of financials,” she noted.

Despite initially thinking they could start fresh, the accountants advised that they had to reconstruct all prior years.

Under the leadership of then Chairman Dennis Chung, management went to the banks, rebuilt the accounts from whatever records they could find, and eventually secured auditors, despite initial refusals due to reputational risk.

“The first audits received disclaimers, then later qualified opinions, and by around 2021, we achieved unqualified, up-to-date audited accounts tabled in Parliament. Today, NSWMA is among a number of entities fully compliant, even earning multiple public-sector corporate governance awards. It was nine challenging years, but transforming the culture through governance was incredibly rewarding,” she said.

When the government changed in 2016, she and several board members were reappointed, an affirmation of their non-partisan dedication.

“And that’s also something that we now have as part of our regulations in Jamaica, where you have to keep at least 1/3 of the board or three directors if an administration changes. Your loyalty is not to a political party, it is to the entity,” she emphasised.

What kept her going through the storms was her faith in God. “I am a strong believer, and whenever the problem is too great for me, I just say, ‘Father, you take this one, because I cannot manage’,” she says.

As she reflected on receiving a national honour after more than four decades of service, Mrs. Facey sees it not just as a personal accolade, but as a reaffirmation of purpose.

“Don’t compromise your values, speak the truth, even when it is difficult. Be consistent. Integrity, transparency, honesty, these must guide every decision. This national honour tells me that my work and contribution are recognised and that is a very good feeling,” she stated.