The New York-based Amer­i­can Foun­da­tion for the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (AFUWI) says that for­mer Ja­maica Am­bas­sador to the Unit­ed States and the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS)  Au­drey Marks, will be among hon­orees for its 28th An­nu­al Schol­ar­ship Awards Gala, The Lega­cy Con­tin­ues, this week in Man­hat­tan.

AFUWI’s Ja­maican-born Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Ann-Marie Grant said that Marks, re­cent­ly ap­point­ed Min­is­ter of Ef­fi­cien­cy, In­no­va­tion and Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion, will re­ceive the Trail­blaz­er Award at the event on Fri­day.

She is re­ceiv­ing the award for her “ground­break­ing lead­er­ship in diplo­ma­cy, busi­ness and ed­u­ca­tion.

“As founder of Pay­mas­ter Ja­maica, she rev­o­lu­tion­ized the re­gion’s fi­nan­cial ser­vices and con­tin­ues to cham­pi­on eco­nom­ic em­pow­er­ment and ed­u­ca­tion­al ac­cess,” Grant said.

She al­so said William Mah­food, chair­man of WISYN­CO Group, will re­ceive the Chan­cel­lor’s Award for “ex­cel­lence in glob­al busi­ness lead­er­ship and phil­an­thropy.”

Un­der his di­rec­tion, Grant said WISYN­CO has be­come “a re­gion­al in­dus­try leader and boasts the largest list­ing on the Ja­maica Stock Ex­change”.

She said the com­pa­ny will al­so re­ceive the AFUWI Cor­po­rate Award for its “out­stand­ing com­mit­ment to cor­po­rate re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, set­ting the stan­dards for many oth­er in­dus­tries to em­u­late.”

At­tor­ney Cedric Gayle, a UWI alum­nus and found­ing mem­ber of its New York alum­ni chap­ter, will re­ceive the Pel­i­can Award.

“Mr. Gayle is cel­e­brat­ed for his dis­tin­guished le­gal ca­reer and ded­i­ca­tion to com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice,” Grant said, adding that Althea Brown will re­ceive the Vice Chan­cel­lor’s Achieve­ment Award for her “le­gal ex­per­tise, lead­er­ship in fi­nan­cial ser­vices and con­tri­bu­tions to com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment as the man­ag­ing di­rec­tor, chief le­gal of­fi­cer, and cor­po­rate sec­re­tary of LPL Fi­nan­cial.

“With near­ly one tril­lion dol­lars in as­sets un­der man­age­ment and known as a lead­ing in­vest­ment and busi­ness so­lu­tions provider, it is the largest in­de­pen­dent bro­ker-deal­er in the Unit­ed States,” Grant said.

She said Do­mini­can Olympic gold medal­ist, Thea La­Fond Gad­son, who was vic­to­ri­ous in the women’s triple jump at the 2024 Paris Games, will re­ceive the Salute to Caribbean Gold Award.

Grant said La­Fond Gad­son is cel­e­brat­ed for her “his­toric achieve­ment and for in­spir­ing pride through­out the Caribbean.

“This marks the first Olympic medal ever won by the is­land-na­tion,” Grant said.

She said the icon­ic Half Moon Ho­tel in Mon­tego Bay, Ja­maica will re­ceive the Pin­na­cle Award, and will be rec­og­nized for “ex­cel­lence in glob­al hos­pi­tal­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice, in­clud­ing sup­port for Corn­wall Re­gion­al Hos­pi­tal, SOS Chil­dren’s Vil­lage, and schol­ar­ships for un­der­served youth.”

Grant said the Awards Gala “cel­e­brates in­di­vid­u­als and or­ga­ni­za­tions whose lead­er­ship and phil­an­thropy have sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­pact­ed the Caribbean, the Unit­ed States, and be­yond.”

She said all pro­ceeds from the Gala will sup­port schol­ar­ships for “fi­nan­cial­ly dis­ad­van­taged yet high-achiev­ing stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.”

Since its found­ing, Grant said AFUWI has award­ed about 650 schol­ar­ships and bur­saries to stu­dents across the Caribbean.

“The an­nu­al Gala is a cor­ner­stone fundrais­ing event, gen­er­at­ing vi­tal sup­port for the next gen­er­a­tion of Caribbean lead­ers,” Grant said.

NEW YORK, Apr 1, CMC –

CMC/ad/ir/2025