Hugh Scott

By: Urban Hustler Staff

Company: KES Development Company Limited

Position: Chairman

Industry: Construction

Country: Jamaica

Hugh the third of six children was born on December 22, 1956 to George and Clover Scott in Greenwich Farm, St Andrew, Jamaica. His father who was a carpenter and labourer lost one leg to cancer when Hugh was 6 years old. He then lost his mother at age 9 making life for his family even more difficult than it already was. After the passing of his mother his family was split up, with some of his siblings going to live with his grandmother while he and two others when to live with his grandmother's sister. Once settled life got back to normal but was still very difficult because of a lack of money. Hugh however excelled at school and was able to attend community college before going to the U.S. to attend Howard University in Washington DC to pursue an engineering degree. To complete his degree he required 62 credits over four semesters but decided to speed up the process by completing the requirements in only three semesters in order to reduce his tuition cost. He graduated at the top of engineer class in May 1981.

After graduation, Hugh moved to Florida where he married his girl friend of 10 years. After relocating to Washington DC, Hugh started his first company, Asco Construction. The company specialised in winterising homes but because of bad financial management he lost everything. Returning to Florida in 1984 and doing odd jobs for an engineering and architectural firm, he experienced his first taste of racism.

He was hired as a vice-president at Solo Construction, at that time the largest block construction firm in Florida. From 1985 to 1988, he was chief engineer at the Fulton County’s Public Works Department in Atlanta, while running two nightclubs and a restaurant on the side.

Returning to Jamaica in 1988, he became chief engineer at Jamalco where he worked for 14 months while running Sports Rock Café on the side. He worked at the National Housing Corporation for 4 year before starting KES Development with his wife in 1996 using US$100 000 in savings and loans to buy a half acre property. They then had to borrow more money to develop the property into 8, 1 and 2 bedroom apartment units. The development then ran into problems with local authorities and the interest rate on their loans climbed to 60%. This loan would be with them right up until 2003 when they were able to reach a settlement with the financing company.

KES Development Company Limited is today one of the biggest Construction and Real Estate companies in Jamaica, designing and building 228,000 square feet of housing and office space in 2004 with market value of over US$16 million. KES Development is now an integrated company providing engineers, architects, project management, building contractors, building material, construction equipment leasing and real estate development.

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