Chairman of NCB Financial Group and Portland Holdings Michael Lee Chin was feted and honoured during a sumptuous banquet, held last night (October 20) at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, as he was inducted into the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica’s (PSOJ) Hall of Fame.

He is the 28^th inductee.

Lee Chin, born in Portland in 1951, is one of Jamaica’s most successful business leaders. He acquired NCB in 2002 and, over two decades, transformed it into Jamaica’s leading bank.

His business interests are wide, including energy, tourism, healthcare, media, financial services, and insurance. He is undoubtedly Jamaica’s leading business mogul.

The mercurial and inspirational Lee Chin was greeted as a returning son, and the Pegasus ballroom was a place of pride and bonhomie.

In his acceptance speech, Lee Chin paid tribute to his recently departed mother, Gloria, his family and the values his parents instilled that set him on his journey.

He also recalled his early days in Canada and how he secured a loan to begin his mutual fund company, AIC, which went on to have Cdn$14 billion under management.

Despite the success and the blessings, he credited Jamaica for what the country has given him and enthused about his need to give back – Prosperitas cum caritate.

Many people are looking to get money from the very rich but the wise place greater stock in a tip. What must be done and how arduous will it be?

The rich, particularly in Jamaica, are not very generous in sharing the recipe. Michael Lee Chin has over the years shared his observations and mantra and he did so again last night.

He has always stressed the value of having a role model and, in his case, he chose the world’s greatest investor, Warren Buffett. Lee Chin said the key is not to change the recipe -it has already been proven.

“Warren Buffett once said, ‘To be successful over the long run we therefore need two things: make decisions by sound frameworks and control your emotions’. I really took those words to heart.”

Lee Chin added that, in business, one should see to it that integrity, intelligence and passion are aligned. Again, he noted that one has to stick to defined principles and that wealth is created by investing and growing assets.

Speaking with Our Today, Lee Chin said: “You cannot go wrong by following the three Ps:

1.Predict what is going to happen

2. Plan and make your preparations

3.Persevere with your plan.

“You love football, the great strikers are always putting themselves in a position to score, getting in the box.

“The great ice hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, once said, ‘I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been’. So it is with business.”