Ins & Outs of St. Vincent and the Grenadines - 2023

While there is ample evidence to support the popular adage that ‘success breeds success’, nobody should ever overlook the key characteristics that make any entrepreneur successful in the first place. Notably vision, creative thinking, risk taking, motivation, resilience, passion, and good old- fashioned hard work - the kind of adjectives that neatly sum up the personality of Vincentian serial entrepreneur Kelly Glass. As a young man, New Zealand born Kelly gained invaluable life experience while travelling around the world as a professional rugby player and later working as an Electrical Engineer in diverse countries ranging from Australia to Libya. It was only when he arrived in St Vincent in 1985 to take up a post at the Cumberland Hydroelectric Project that his wanderlust finally came to a halt. Smitten by the island’s charm and natural beauty - and yes, a Caribbean lady - Kelly planted his roots in St Vincent and set about turning the country’s obvious untapped potential into actual business opportunities. In a remarkable career spanning four decades, Kelly Glass has racked up a long list of outstanding business success stories throughout the Caribbean and beyond, predominantly in the infrastructural development sectors of telecommunications, construction, marine facilities, energy, and hospitality. Along the way, while working alongside leading international entities on an array of projects, he has been awarded prestigious accolades such as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Thanks to his innate ability to predict future trends, with the provision of cable TV via fiber-optic cable being a good example, Kelly has been able to successfully launch and develop companies, then on-sell them to competing giants in multi-million-dollar deals. Today, having accumulated significant resources over the years, Kelly Glass is ideally positioned to carry out a broad range of major work that will greatly benefit the Caribbean region in general, and St Vincent & the Grenadines in particular. Under the auspices of his umbrella company, K-Group, Kelly is currently overseeing multiple projects ranging from multi-million dollar investments in the production of medicinal cannabis to boatbuilding, to constructing ports, roads and bridges, as well as opening new hotels and developing marinas to service the yachting industry. Kelly Glass 22 INVESTMENT Mayreau Photo courtesy Mustique Airways By Keith Miller