- Thu, 2010-09-23 09:59
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Overview
Dr. Marcia Forbes is a communications specialist and media veteran. She is well known in Jamaica for successfully transforming the 40 year old Government owned Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) into the privately owned Television Jamaica (TVJ), the industry leader in free-to-air television broadcasting in that island. After several years at the helm of TVJ she left to pursue her PhD.
Following a packed one year as Permanent Secretary (referred to as Vice Minister in some countries) in service to her country, Forbes returned to the private sector, pushing her family business, Phase Three Productions Ltd., to the next level while also working assiduously to publish media-related books. Her first book, Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica, was published toward the end of 2010. It is now recommended text at the University of the West Indies for Gender Studies as well as by the Caribbean Examination Council, CAPE Level Sociology. Her second book which examines mobile, social media lifestyles is now in progress.
Phase Three Productions Limited
Dr. Forbes, a self-confessed workaholic, is part owner of Phase Three Productions Ltd., a company she established with her husband over 25 years ago and which now stands as one of the leading multi-media production entities in the English speaking Caribbean. The company operates from three different office locations, each one tailored to meet the needs of a specific segment of the television production market in Jamaica. In addition to post-production facilities, Phase Three offers a fleet of news and field production vehicles, including a state-of –the-art fully digital, high definition, multi-media field production unit. The company services local, regional and international clients.
Television Producer/Director
For over a decade Marcia Forbes was a stalwart in the family business, getting it firmly established as a force to be reckoned with in the local television industry and serving the Jamaica Film and Video Producers’ Association. Her creative roles spanned producing, directing and scripting, even as she functioned as Phase Three’s General Manager.
Wild Gilbert Music Video
She has a vast array of productions to her credit, including the popular music video, “Wild Gilbert”, which she scripted, produced and co-directed. The video artfully synchronized with the song, bringing laughter to the faces of those ravaged by the hurricane, despite depicting scenes left behind from the devastation of Hurricane Gilbert which struck Jamaica in 1988. In the masterful style of Lloyd Lovindeer the song-writer and singer, Jamaicans were able to ‘teck bad ting mek joke’. Wild Gilbert was awarded ‘Best Music Video’ for 1988 by the Jamaica Music Industry Awards as well as the ‘Prix Special du Jury’ by the 1990 Images Caraibes Festival in Martinique.
Clafy Comedy Series
Forbes is also to be credited for a 6 part comedy series and one hour drama, Clafy, for which she fondly recalls functioning in just about every role, including producer, talent and location scout, set designer, wardrobe mistress, gofer and marketer, just to get the series aired on television. Although heavily pirated in places such as the UK, USA and Canada, the series and the spin-off movie starring Volier Johnson along with other stalwarts such as Blacka Ellis and Marjorie Whylie, have been shown on television stations in the English-speaking Caribbean and also packaged for in-store distribution.
The TVJ Years
No one thought anyone could do it, but she did! Marcia Forbes turned a loss-making, second place television station into the market leader by media survey as well as wide public acclaim. Facing down the odds, Forbes whipped the competition into submission, earning the name ‘iron lady of media’ by some. She adroitly used her communication and marketing acumen to rebrand and reposition what was the Government owned JBC into an exciting, agile and much admired TVJ, while displaying business savvy which drove the station to profitability.
Exclusive Broadcast Rights
Throughout her six year leadership, Television Jamaica chalked up numerous firsts. These included negotiating exclusive broadcast rights for several premier sporting events such as the West Indies Cricket Series and World Cup Football. She remembers a 6am meeting in Trinidad with Austin Jack Warner of Concacaf, when, to beat him at his game, she arrived at 5:30am. She fondly remembers that Warner referred to her as the hardest working woman in the Caribbean.
Awards and Recognitions
Under her leadership, Television Jamaica, received numerous awards and recognitions. None pleased Marcia Forbes more than the 2000 Caribbean Broadcasting Union’s (CBU) Award for Best Broadcaster which named TVJ as the leading station throughout the Caribbean region. Jamaicans who watched the live broadcast from Barbados were proud of the station’s achievement. Reminiscing on the event Forbes remembers how the Barbadian women expressed support and solidarity and effused over her powerful impact.
New Programmes
During her years at TVJ, Forbes introduced several new local programmes, including ‘News at 10’. She was also instrumental in the introduction of packaged and independently hosted business and sports commentaries during the Prime Time News. While not on board to see the Junior Schools’ Challenge Quiz take to air, it was under her tenure that the programme was conceptualized and it was she who negotiated with the then Managing Director of the National Commercial Bank for its sponsorship. The 1st season aired within weeks of her departure.
Positioning TVJ in North America & the Caribbean
While at TVJ, Forbes ramped up the sale of programmes to North America, with over 5 hours weekly on cable TV between USA and Canada. A devout regionalist who recognized the value of integration, she ensured that Jamaican programmes were broadcast to the wider Caribbean through the Caribbean Broadcasting Union. In 1997 she created television history by negotiating the live satellite transmission of Jamaica’s national elections to several Caribbean territories and the USA.
In a 1998 address to the Kiwanis Club of Liguanea, Marcia Forbes noted that TVJ was “committed to act as the catalyst which will work to speed up the process of Caribbean integration”. She further remarked that “we intend to act as that link which will help to bond Jamaicans and Caribbean people in the Diaspora.”
Health Care Professional
Having started work-life as a Registered General Nurse, something she pursued as a teenager to please her then boyfriend, now husband of over 30 years, Marcia Forbes has never regretted her nursing days. In her view it has given her a solid foundation on which to build and works in synchrony with her communications training. She served as Ward Sister on a paediatric ward at the University Hospital of the West Indies while still in her 20s, something virtually unheard of it those days, and is a qualified Registered Midwife, Critical Care Nurse and Nurse Educator.
Throughout her nursing training Forbes excelled in all her courses, always top of the class and receiving numerous awards and commendations. It was while pursing training as a Nurse Educator in 1984 that she was awarded the University prize for Use of English, scoring highest in this course for entire university. In the early 1980s she was selected as Nurse of the Year for the University Hospital and recognizes that she was being groomed for nurse-leadership. But the pull of business was strong. It won out over nursing and by the mid 1980s she left nursing to work fulltime in the family’s growing television production business, Phase Three Productions Limited.
Forbes the Academic
UWI Graduate & Fulbright Scholar
Marcia Forbes balances her work experience with formal training. She is an extraordinary scholar. Having achieved a Bachelor’s degree with 1st class honours in mass communications from the University of the West Indies (Mona) where she also received the Dean’s Award for excellence for two consecutive years, she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue her Masters degree.
Emerson College Graduate
Majoring in global marketing, communication and advertising at the prestigious Emerson College in Boston, USA, Forbes graduated summa cum laude, having received straight A grades throughout her entire Master’s programme, including all coursework. She was inducted into the National Communication Honor Society in the US, Lambda Pi Eta, by the Gamma Chapter at Emerson.
PhD
Forbes' PhD thesis explored the influence of television, music videos specifically, on adolescent sexuality in Jamaica. Her first book is largely derived from that body of work.
This hybrid business woman cum scholar has presented academic and industry related papers at numerous regional and international conferences, including those hosted by the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Caribbean Studies Association (CSA), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA). Participation at this level has taken her across the world including Africa, South America, North America, Europe and throughout the English and Spanish-speaking Caribbean.
Publications
Her academic presentations, articles and speeches have been published both on and off-line. Coming out of a European Union commissioned research study, in 2004 Forbes produced a limited edition publication titled, ‘Does Watching Today’s Music Videos Influence the Sexual Behaviour of Jamaican Adolescents? Her 2006 IAMCR presentation, ‘Cable TV and the Music Videos Jamaican Adolescents Watch: Issues of Images and Identity’ was published by that organization in their conference book. Newspaper articles written by Marcia Forbes and which highlight some of the findings of her research can be accessed via the Jamaica Observer.
Lecturer—University of the West Indies
Almost single-handedly Forbes ran the television programme at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) for an entire semester in 1996. She revised the curriculum and introduced site visits to production entities. Lisa Hannah, now opposition member of parliament, and Dr. Hume Johnson were members of her class. Over the years on an ad hoc basis Forbes serves as adjunct lecturer at the University of the West Indies.
Board Directorships
Private Sector & Voluntary Organizations
Marcia Forbes has served on several Boards spanning the private and public sectors and voluntary organizations. She is particularly committed to the United Way of Jamaica, on the Board of which she has worked continuously for well over a decade. She also served on the Board of Directors for the Council of Voluntary Social Services and is a founding member of the Women’s Leadership Initiative and of Women Business Owners, Jamaica.
For many years Mrs. Forbes served on the Board of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union as Vice President Television and on that of the Media Association of Jamaica. She served as well on the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (based in the UK) and also on the Board of Directors of Television Jamaica.
Public Sector
In the public sector Marcia Forbes has served as Chairman of the Spectrum Management Authority and on the Boards of Air Jamaica and the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica. She is a member of the UNESCO Commission and Chair’s its Communications Committee. She also serves as Jamaica's representative to the International Programme for Development of Communication (IPDC), UNESCO.
Dr. Forbes regards herself as an unrepentant patriot and is always eager to serve her country, Jamaica. Married with one child who is now grown, she believes she has the time, experience and passion to make a difference.
Service to Country--Permanent Secretary Forbes
Marcia Forbes describes her one year stint as a public servant in the role of Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mining and Telecommunications and later in the Ministry of Energy and Mining as a tremendous experience and one she embraces for the way it allowed her to serve her country and the valuable lessons she learnt. The relatively time short did not prevent her from being able to accomplish a great deal.
Spectrum Band Planning
Dr. Forbes cites the work she undertook to ensure the reallocation of the 2.5 GHz band entirely for wireless broadband, after an earlier Cabinet decision to the contrary, as one of her key achievements in the Ministry of Mining and Telecommunications. In doing this she pulled on international contacts, including those at IDA and SingTel in Singapore and at Ofcom in the UK, to help to support the case for exclusive assignment of this band of the electro-magnetic spectrum for wireless broadband.
Recycle Cell Phones
She believes that Jamaica will benefit immensely from her environmentally aware suggestion regarding recycling used cell phones. Forbes is happy that Digicel moved rapidly with the suggestion and established a system for collecting these phones, shipping them overseas where they are refurbished and later sold to other parts of the world. Revenues generated from this activity go toward assisting the Jamaica Aids Support and specifically children with HIV/AIDS, the charity recommended by her to Digicel.
National Energy Policy
At the Ministry of Energy and Mining, Marcia Forbes led the team to revamp and revise the 2006 Energy Green Paper in record time and to produce the National Energy Policy 2009 – 2030.
Representing Jamaica Overseas
As Permanent Secretary, she had the honour and privilege of representing Jamaica in key negotiations/conferences including:
1. The Caribbean Telecommunications Union, Barbados, September 2008, where she presented at the 19th Executive Council Meeting and the 11th General Conference of Ministers on behalf on the Minister of Mining and Telecommunications.
2. Caribbean Telecommunications Organization, Trinidad, 2008, where she presented on behalf of the Minister of Mining and Telecommunicaiotns regardingtelecommunications in Jamaica.
3. Negotiating Team on behalf of the Government of Jamaica on bauxite/alumina industry matters—China, March 2009
4. The V Ministerial Council of Energy Ministers of Petrocaribe Heads of State, St. Kitts, Nevis, June, 2009.
5. The Americas Energy and Climate Symposium, Lima, Peru, June 2009, where she represented the Government and presented an update of the energy situation in Jamaica and the energy policy.
6. Negotiating Team pertaining to the Petrocaribe Energy Cooperation Agreement, Venezuela, July 2009.
Author
Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamacia was published in October 2010. Directed mainly at university undergraduates pursuing work in media, social studies, reggae studies, gender studies and or psychology as well as advanced level students sitting the Caribbean Council Examinations (CXC), this book is available at Amazon.com
Strength of a Woman
Dr. Marcia Forbes is a woman with an indomitable spirit, a warm and ready gap-toothed, dimpled smile and a passion for life. Never a wall-flower, she loves to dance and doesn’t care much whether the moves are right or not. Her music choice is varied, running the gamut of jazz, the classics, soul/R&B, reggae, dancehall, soca and salsa, depending on her mood.
She loves to travel to new and exciting places with trips to Egypt, Germany, France, Singapore, China, South Africa and Suriname holding special places in her memory. Being an island-girl, her heart is, however, firmly planted in the Caribbean which she travels extensively and always thoroughly enjoys, especially sailing through the Grenadines. For her, the USA and the UK usually involve great soirees with family and friends.
Service & Self
Dr. Forbes quietly mentors young adults, sometimes without even their full awareness. She particularly enjoys helping young women to chart a productive, professional life-course and is currently watching four of her protégées excel in their chosen fields, two of them pursuing PhDs. Marcia Forbes’ dream is to be lucky enough to have a couple of grandchildren while she is still ‘young’, two books in schools and universities worldwide and enough wealth and health to live a quality life doing the things she truly enjoys such as helping those less fortunate, travelling, collecting art and entertaining friends at home.
