He’s the kind of son most parents would enjoy calling their own.
For one thing, Lemuel Brewster, who will be 46 years old in a few weeks, is successful at what he does in New York. For another, he praises his mother and father to the skies for their guidance and inspiration.
Next he shows his interest in their well-being in tangible ways such as completing the construction of a two-family home along Deighton Road in St Michael in Barbados for his mum, and speaks with passion about his relationship with the extended family in Barbados, including “Aunt Dorothy” and her children “who were like brothers and sisters to me” all of my life.
“Lem” Brewster is director of public relations, financial and risk for the Americas at Thomson Reuters in New York. The senior communications executive who commutes to Manhattan daily from Mount Vernon, a suburb of New York City, creates and executes global public relations campaigns for Thomson Reuters’ clients, among whom are some of the world’s best-known financial services companies.
To come to grips with some of his responsibilities, it’s necessary to know something about his employer. Thomson Reuters is perhaps the world’s largest media conglomerate with a global workforce of 60 000 and it sells its services to news agencies, financial institutions and radio and television operations.
“Thomson Reuters is a huge organisation and an incredibly fascinating place in which to work. I love what I do because there is never a dull moment,” said the father of three children, whose ages range from 16 and eight to six years. From all indications, he is a top-notch public relations expert, so much so that when he isn’t practising his craft, he is teaching crisis communications as an adjunct professor at New York University, one of America’s best known and most expensive schools.
“All that I am and will be I owe to my parents, my family and my friends,” he said the other day. “We all need each other.”
His father is Lemuel Brewster snr, a retired Fordham University custodian, who worked at the Roman Catholic tertiary institution from 1970 until he retired last year. His mother, Inez Watts, was a domestic landscaper, who in Lem’s words “did everything to support her children” and to guide them.
“My mother and father set sound examples and encouraged their children to have hopes and aspirations. They certainly motivated me to do better at all times,” he said.
It’s that upbringing, plus extensive training and experience in public relations in New York that have enabled him to rise to the top of his profession and stay abreast of the news in the far flung corners of the world during the 24-hour news cycle.
Brewster is a former vice president of press and media relations at Deutsche Bank in New York and a senior account executive at Walek & Associates, managing press operations for Global Capital Practice Group that handled media relations for such leading financial clients as JP Morgan Asset Management, Dow Jones Indices and Stonebrook Capital Management.
A graduate of Fordham University which awarded him a master’s degree in public communications a dozen years ago, Brewster also attended Baruch College of the City University of New York from which he received a bachelor’s degree in business communication at the turn of the century. A product of Princess Margaret School and St Anthony’s in Barbados, he is at the top of his game.
So what does he think about the economic troubles in Barbados?
“I am not shaken by what’s going on in Barbados because who is happening there is similar to the events taking place in many other parts of the world,” he said. “In the end, I believe Barbadians will solve the problem without any major social disruption. I was recently in Barbados and driving around the country people were going about their business as if nothing untoward was taking place.”
Brewster believes he must give back something to the country he says gave him so much. So, he has established a US$10 000 fund in his grandparent’s name to extend a helping hand to needy Barbadian students.
