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Presents BUILDERS OF TORTOLA |
Graham Sedgwick Graham Sedgwick was born in Cheshire (UK) of Yorkshire/Staffordshire parentage, growing up near Stoke on Trent. His grandfather (Herbert Amos) once played cricket for Yorkshire, and this sport remains a keen interest for Graham as it does for many other British Expats. Graham lives with his wife Alex in the Waterfront Apartments near “The Pub” in Roadtown, which provides a convenient location for both his professional and social life. He has lived in a number of other Roadtown locations (e.g. Tobacco Wharf, McNamara) during his 34 years in the BVI.
Graham worked for a British bank in East Africa for five years before coming to the BVI in February 1975 to work on a “special project” – the Prospect Reef hotel complex and resort. He remembers arriving in a much smaller airport in a much less economically developed country where paved roads were few and wind-up telephones were the norm. He prepared a report on Prospect Reef for its owner, which led to him being hired to run the resort for the next 23 years. Over the years Prospect Reef’s fortunes fluctuated considerably. At one time it owned and operated Air BVI (using Douglas DC3 “Dakota” aircraft) as one way of controlling the flow of tourists to the operation. But Prospect Reef was never an easy operation to keep successful, and currently government owned and operated, its future is again in flux.
In the late 1990s Graham retired from Prospect Reef but the thought of the continued idleness that is attractive to many others was not his ‘cup of tea’ and one week later he opened his accounting business, Vigilate Financial. This company still remains as one segment of “Stuff Ltd.” the business Graham has operated with Alex out of the Abbott Building in “Downtown Roadtown” for the past few years. It offers various business services, and temporary staffing services, in addition to chartered accountancy. Graham is also a member of a number of boards of companies in the financial sector of the BVI economy.
Of course Graham has witnessed huge changes in over three decades in the BVI. The growth in traffic is one of the most noticeable, as is the increase in the number of relatively large buildings in what had been a low-height town when he arrived. Graham cites the quality of building construction as one of the important and valuable changes on the island, and as a contrast to other countries in the Caribbean where hurricane-proof structures are much less prevalent.
Although he managed the Prospect Ref complex for many years, Graham feels that this operation is now past its “sell-by” date. In fact it was always arguably a problematical operation, given its size in a small town on a small island that has little land-base tourism. If he was “doing it again” he would prefer smaller “boutique-style” hotels, that would cater to the wealthy tourists that the BVI government is targeting. Having said that, the Prospect Reef operation did have a number of significant positive impacts on Tortola. For instance it did stimulate the tourist sector of the economy, provided many jobs (e.g. 250 at Prospect Reef), and was the springboard to success for a number of businessmen in the building trades, and led to the importation of new equipment that helped successive building operations. He also notes that “changes in red tape” and the “movement of the goalposts” have made the operation of companies such as Prospect Reef more challenging.
Apart from his obvious economic contributions to the BVI Graham has also been active in local charities, has been an active member of the Royal BVI Yacht Club, and has been heavily involve with VISAR (http://www.visar.org/). He was also involved as a consultant at an early date with the international business company legislation that was implemented in the BVI over the years and became one of the bases of the current financial sector of the economy. If his life was rewound, Graham wouldn’t do much differently in his professional life – he has always done “what is needed”.
Graham’s future lies with Alex in the BVI and in southern France where they have bought a property in a town near Bordeaux. They hope to spend an increasing amount of time there – especially during the hurricane season!!
Draft of April 17th, 2009 of interview of 3rd April 2009.
Builders of Tortola Guide