COVER STORY
issues, offering mentorship, perform- ing community service, and providing leadership seminars and platforms for the younger professionals of the Virgin Islands. He also served on the Executive Board of the Young Democrats and other organizations where he was a tireless lobbyist for the improvement of life in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 2007, Governor Bryan was ap- pointed as the Commissioner of Labor by then Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. During his eight-year tenure, he implemented the Jobs for America’s Graduates Initiative for at-risk youth, secured over $14 million in additional funding for training and improvement of services at the Department of Labor, and $150 million in federal unemploy- ment benefits after the closing of the Hovensa Refinery. He also consolidated seven labor offices in St. Croix sav- ing the government $300,000 annu- ally and offering advanced access to client services. His approach of doing more through technology allowed the department to implement several new web-based tools for career preparation and job search including the Virgin Islands Electronic Workforce System (VIEWS) and Youthnet. During his tenure as Commissioner of Labor, Governor Bryan also served as Chairman of the Government Devel- opment Bank and, in his concurrent and parallel role as Chairman of the Economic Development Authority Board, ushered in new programs for the economic growth of the territory, including the first Tax Increment Fi- nancing project, the Small Contractors Bonding Program, and new levels of lending to catalyze the growth of small businesses. In 2015, with the change in adminis- trations, Governor Bryan returned to the private sector as an entrepreneur and not-for-profit executive. He was the President/CEO of Aabra Group,
a consultancy which focused on fostering and supporting innovative entrepreneurship opportunities and businesses in the territory. He was also the CEO of Master Strategies, a locally-based human resources recruit- ing firm. And, in keeping with his passion for young people, education, and entrepreneurship, he also served as the Executive Director of Junior Achievement of the Virgin Islands. "I was introduced to Junior Achieve- ment. At the time, I was a Commis- sioner of Labor and I volunteered. When I stopped being Commissioner, coincidentally, they were stopping the program because they couldn't find anybody to run it, so I volunteered to be the executive director. They paid me a small stipend. And I did that for four years because I wanted to see the knowledge shared with all our people here in the Virgin Islands. It is so important because, you know, it's one thing to have money but then it's knowing what to do with it once you get it. And it always amazes me how many people don't budget and plan, especially people of color, what they want to do. I plan everything from the list of the things that I wanted in the person I married, to the timing of my kids. I budgeted them before they were even thought about being conceived. And then I spread them apart five years so I wouldn't have to pay two col- lege tuitions at the same time. I built my house early in life, so that I would have the capacity to campaign later in life. My mortgage payments would be so that I could financially manage it. It sounds a little bit OCD, and every- thing doesn't always go your way. But you have to plan in order to do this." So, I embarked upon being Governor over 30 years ago. Like I said, from when I was a kid, growing up I knew I wanted to do it in high school. I started taking the speech classes and
running for office and mimicking politicians. In college, I took the things that I thought would improve that chance. I got involved early in the Young Democrats, started my own nonprofit organization with a bunch of friends of mine Generation Now! to impact change for young people in the Virgin Islands. The whole idea is to create a gov- ernment that is managed well and uses data to manage that supports the people of the Virgin Islands and helps to create a formative base that's going to make us progressive beyond my tenure as a government. In that package, is a lot of mentor- ing. We have a financial mentorship program now where we pay kids $55,000 a year coming out of the university for two years to work in the government and we take them all over the government and we were successful in getting free tuition for every high school gradu- ate from Virgin Islands high schools to go to college here in the Virgin Islands. It's the only History Black College or University (HBCU) that has free col- lege tuition in the country. So, you know, it's all that planning again. We studied the whole government for ways to ensure that we could figure it out and then set our- selves on the right course, because my whole campaign slogan was, 'Change Course Now.' So now we have the resources in terms of dollars, but we still lack human capacity in terms of people we need to get things done, the professionals. And so, another part about that about my being governor is exposing myself to African Ameri- cans, African American businesses and then letting them know what type of opportunities we have here as people who look like you. So, we have excellent opportunities in terms
THE JOURNAL ♦ SUMMER 2022 | 25
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