Jearlean john biography actor

At 65, when many are preparing to close the chapter on their working lives, Jearlean John has written a new one—stepping into one of the nation’s highest offices as Acting Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago during Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s absence.

Once facing an uncertain political future after her defeat in the La Horquetta/Talparo seat to People’s National Movement’s (PNM) Foster Cummings in the 2020 General Election, John made a comeback five years later in Couva North, the symbolic heartland seat once held by UNC founder and former prime minister Basdeo Panday.

“JJ”, as she is fondly called, won the seat with 13,201 votes to the PNM’s 3,094 and now represents 30,681 members of the electorate and their families in Parliament, a victory that furter cemented her influence within the party.

John had already established herself within the UNC as a key figure through her appointments as a temporary opposition senator in 2018, then a full-time senator, eventually being named one of the party’s deputy political leaders.

He asked us to continue to support her because she would make us proud,” Shelton recalled.

Jearlean was only about eight years old at that time and the surprises have not stopped coming, he said.

She attended the Charlotteville Methodist School and later Roxborough Composite, where she displayed a knack for debating.

The talent, she once said, was learnt from the men in her hometown.

“Charlotteville men on the whole were debaters,” John had said in an interview several years ago.

“They’d be on the sand arguing about everyone from Churchill to Martin Luther King to Hitler.

Mc Kenzie said John was one of several Charlotteville residents who had distinguished themselves nationally and was honoured at a reception on January 24.

Pathologist Dr Eslyn Mc Donald Borris and Senior Counsel Amelia Carrington, of the Unit Trust Corporation, were also honoured for their contribution.

“Charlotteville has given a lot of top people to the country,” Mc Kenzie said.

After the UNC lost office, John left politics, opting for a life away from the glare of public scrutiny.

She joined the private sector in yet another high-profile portfolio as chief executive officer of the Pizza Boys Group and had set the company on a growth path.

But, as fate would have it, John has now returned to public life and can be considered to be in the hot seat at Udecott, a company that remains at the heart of national debate and controversy.

As Works Minister in the Panday administration, John had oversight for the controversial Piarco Airport Development project and had been summoned to testify during the commission of inquiry into the project.

She once famously described the project as “a feeding frenzy”.

“There had been some difficulties in getting the project on a smooth footing because there had been cost overruns and she was reputed to be some kind of whiz kid in terms of management,” Sudama recalled on John’s influence at that time.

She previously served as the UNC caretaker for the constituency spearheading numerous charitable and social projects over the years.

Most recently Project Hope has been a major initiative launched and guided by JJ as she works towards enriching and uplifting the community of La Horquetta Talparo. She ent toeing no line that she doesn’t agree with.

“She will give it her best shot, but if there are too many unnecessary stumbling blocks she will leave it alone.

And I’d sit there and listen.”

Her skills, it was said, had come to the fore during discussions with the American College in Pennsylvania on behalf of her one-time employer, the Institute of Business (IOB), when the college’s president broke the flow of the discussions to inquire as to where she had learnt to negotiate.

Working at the IOB appeared to broaden John’s scope and sense of purpose, prompting her to regard Trinidad as a “land filled with opportunities.”

The IOB, in many respects, was her gateway to the world and its then executive director Dr Bhoe Tewarie proved to be good mentor.

He once told her, “Do everything for the right reason and the world will come to you.”

John worked as the manager of the IOB’s international MBA programme in the late 1990s and was revered as an astute planner and organiser, before securing the job at the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC).

The mother of one daughter had been employed at the School of Business and Computer Science (SBCS) as an academic manager, prior to her moving to the IOB.John, who had acquired an advanced diploma in management through Heriot Watt University and Edinburgh Business School, later developed the institute’s financial and insurance programme.

Tewarie, now the Director of the Institute of Critical Thinking at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, recalled that he had worked closely with John at the IOB for several years.

“I found her to be very competent and able,” he told Sunday Newsday.

In 2018, the High Court struck out the case, refusing to grant the State further extensions to file its full claim, citing delays in serving the lawsuit and insufficient grounds for secrecy. She was a respector of ability but no respector of position, status and post,” the former leader of the Independent bench recalled.

Mc Kenzie, a highly-respected educator, also said that John was very straightforward, forthright and proactive.

In addition to addressing mounting calls for the entire Udecott board, who served under Hart, to step down, contractors are also urging her to quickly publish the Udecott accounts for 2007-2009.

With the repeated calls for Udecott to clean up its act, John, apart from seeking to streamline its affairs, is also being pressured to restore the public’s confidence in the company.

It’s a tall order, but one which John is quite capable of handling – and conquering – her father Shelton John said recently.

“She would manage it.

John sued the State for wrongful dismissal.