CIBC FirstCaribbean CEO Mark St Hill, along with Nigel Holness, managing director of the bank’s Jamaica operations, and several executives and team members, walked 10 laps at Emancipation Park in New Kingston on January 18 in response to the CEO’s charge to “improve your state of wellness and wellbeing”.

The Barbados-based CEO put out the challenge to the country managers in the 15 countries of the Caribbean in which the bank operates to join the CIBC FirstCaribbean Regional Walking Club and walk every Thursday in a bid to “improve brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease and strengthen bones and muscles”.

Noting that “we have to keep our bodies well-tuned and healthy, to be able to manage the fast-paced and demanding lives we lead these days”, St Hill told his team to “take stock, listen to your bodies and resolve to become involved in some activity that will improve your wellness”.

Said the CEO: “We tend to make time for everyone else – children, spouses, parents, friends, colleagues – but we rarely make time for ourselves.”

Pointing to walking as “a great way to relax and unwind and get in some exercise, St Hill told team members in Barbados “every Thursday I am going to wait for you – staff, friends, family, whoever wants to join me in the car park of the Michael Mansoor Building at 4:30 in the afternoon. This is not just a Barbados activity, and I am encouraging every country manager to do the same and wherever in the region I happen to be on a Thursday at 4:30 pm, I will join.”

Visiting Jamaica last week, St Hill kept his promise.

Emancipation Park is a familiar “walking ground” for CIBC FirstCaribbean Jamaica – it is where the bank has hosted its ‘Walk for the Cure’ with staff, sponsor companies and community members walking or running to raise funds for cancer care. The Jamaica Cancer Society and education programmes and care facilities are the annual beneficiaries.