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Then, as fate would have it, just before sitting her Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) external exams in Grade 11, someone was invited to give a career talk. The keynote speaker shared with the class how important a career in finance and accounting was for anyone who wanted to live well in life. This talk changed her life. She realised at that moment that she wanted to work in finance and accounting. She pulled herself up just as she was about to fall from the precipice of despair and despondency. She did very well on her CXC examinations. This success was a wakeup call that no one controlled her destiny.
After leaving high school she worked hard at getting herself accredited in accounting. This said however, there were numerous setbacks. She was unable to grow in her career in Jamaica. With Cherise unable to see any clear paths to success although she was putting in a lot of hard work, she decided to further her studies in England.

Similar to her very first days in high school, Cherise had a pop test very soon after starting classes at her university in England. She aced it scoring a perfect 100%. This brought her confidence back. She initially started out in law but then decided to switch to accounting. Despite financial difficulties and the challenges of working to self-finance her degree, Cherise focused on her studies and graduated as one of the top students in her graduating class.

Fresh out of university, Cherise was ready to start working in the financial capital of London. She sent out lots of applications but was unable to get a job. By this time, many of her cohort with much lower grades had already received very good job offers. All these cohorts who had secured the top jobs had inferior grades to Cherise’s were Caucasians. To compound the concerns Cherise had, unlike her, none of them had received their Chartered Accountant accreditations. [Chartered Accountant accreditations is the U.K. professional standard and is similar to the CPA in the U.S.A.]. It took her over a year post graduation to finally get a temporary job.

Her first job was as a contract (part-time) group accountant at the prestigious accounting firm which had huge interests in the Caribbean sugar industry. She remained in this position for six months before being offered a permanent position. At the accounting firm, she experienced first-hand racial discrimination from her immediate supervisor. She was often assigned projects which were to be done in at times in less than one-tenth of the prescribed time required both as the industry practice and the accounting firm’s own standards and practices. They wanted her to miss the deadlines in order to have solid grounds on which to fire her. Each time she was given these huge hurdles, she proved her critics wrong. After 4 years of this, and after having just successfully directed a special project in Chelsea, Cherise decided it was time to find her solace elsewhere. Besides, for her, this was just a stepping stone. She has always seen herself working on the top floor of one of the global accounting firms.

After leaving the prestigious accounting firm, Cherise founded her very own hair and cosmetics supply company in East London. Soon after becoming an entrepreneur in 2011, her agent informed her of an opening one of the world’s largest insurance and financial services MNCs. Although it was a side grade, Cherise knew this was a shoe into the financial services industry. She spent 4 years in a position she had originally intended to spend 2 years. During this time she successfully interviewed for the Financial Controller of Asia at its Hong Kong Headquarters. Once again she experienced racial discriminations. Her manager gave unsavoury feedback about her to the Hong Kong team which resulted in her losing out on the opportunity. Time after time this was the sequence of events.