Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer 
Hector Donalds, director of H&B Tiling Services in London, England, responds in an interview at 22 Dunrobin Park on Thursday, May 5. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
HECTOR ST. Aubyn Donalds arrived in Jamaica recently to bury his father and to close one chapter in his life. Earlier visits by the man, who is now a resident of the United Kingdom, were happier ones, with many made since 2000 to recruit good tilers.
Hector Donalds is a master craftsman in tiling himself.
The 32-year-old Jamaican, who lives in London with his mother, his two daughters Heaven and Marisa and a 17-year-old brother, is also the managing director of H&B Tiling Services, perhaps the only black-owned tiling company in the England. He also owns another entity which retails Italian flooring products.
Wealth of experience
Through his company in the U.K., he has completed projects at Heathrow Airport, on residential houses and many commercial buildings. The London-based company is only three years old, but he has been involved in tiling in Jamaica for over 15 years.
Earl G. Rowe of E.G. Engineering in Kingston says of the businessman, "Hector Donalds is a very good tiler, maybe the best that there is in England right now.
"We met in the business over 10 years ago when he was one of the best, especially in marble tiling. I have seen some of his work in the UK and it was really good. He has worked on a number of high profile projects there."
While Hector Donalds has managed to prove his mettle to many in the industry both here and abroad, people meeting him for the first time will be taken aback by his youthful appearance.
He told Outlook that frequently in the board room, those with whom he meets ask, 'where is your jacket?' and 'where is your father'? They believe that he must be the son in a father/son business collaboration.
His co-director frequently represents him at meetings because of this. This man is an Australian who feels quite comfortable in coat tie and carrying an attaché.
Donalds who now owns several homes feels fearless about the future, but it was not always so. His childhood in Jamaica was not a happy one. He is the first to admit that he was a drop-out from school.
Born at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital in 1972 to mother Maude Lindsay, Donalds recalls that he was constantly at war with his father Dalton Donalds.
His grandfather, Lionel Donalds, was a builder of houses all over the island, but his Dad was a forklift driver on Kingston wharf who reserved his approval for his daughters, withholding it from his older son.
"We could not agree. Because of this he would withhold my lunch money," Hector Donalds recalls.
His father would frequently told him that he would become a thief and a criminal. Feeling that he was always unfairly punished and disliking the fact that his sisters had everything they needed while life for him was such a struggle, he left home in Kingston to stay with relatives in Calrendon before coming back to see if he could find a home. At age 14 he was out of school and seeking any work he could find.
The boy that his father said would become a criminal was not afraid of hard work, although by now he despised school. In Kingston, he met a man, a Mr. Denzil McKnight, who gave him a hammer and chisel to chop concrete on plumbing jobs. By the end of the first night, his hands were sore, but he persevered.
Even though the work was a hard and for the first six months and he was given no money he learnt from McKnight who was also tiler. It was the tiling aspect of the building trade that Donalds decided to make his business.
Over time, he honed his skills and by age 17 he was working on Urban Development Corporation projects. By age 19, he had developed quite a reputation, especially in marble tiling which he had come to prefer.
With the help of one of his mentors, Evelyn Reittie, a businesswoman in Kingston, he also opened his own company, Beautiful Floors. One of his biggest projects was the contract to complete 700 houses in Old Harbour.
In the mid 90s, when work in Kingston became less available and "at least half a dozen men" were depending on him for employment, the idea of going to England occurred to him. He did so on vacation and secured work by sheer perseverance on a building site where Jamaicans did not have a good reputation.
It took a great deal of persuasion and trial and errors, but soon Donalds proved his worth and expertise by completing bathrooms at a faster rate than the contractors had ever seen before.
In the UK he entered the government a one-year school programme and completed his City & Guilds certification. He also took courses in computer literacy. He was eventually, permanently employed by the company which first hired him as casual labour. Donalds was the only marble fitter among seventy-five tilers.
With his trademark charm and persistence, he worked his way into the system and by 2000 was more than ready to launch out on his own. But, making his name in London, he notes, has not been the easiest thing to do, as the biggest contracts sometimes appear to be reserved for favourites.
However, he has his own style of getting things done this seems to please some contractors who recommend him for other jobs.
Earl G. Rowe, of E.G. Engineering in Kingston notes that Hector Donalds is a very calm man who can be relied on to walk away from trouble. "While he was here, there were a number of times when he was not paid or underpaid and he just walked away instead of creating a fuss."
At H &B Tiling Services in London, Hector Bernard now manages a core staff of 17 which he hopes to increase to 50 by the time the year is out. He is also involved in training tillers to City and Guilds standards for the British government, so the goal is not an impossible one.
Says Evelyn Reittie, "Hector seemed to have natural business acumen. At age 19 he was managing men aged over 40 and 50. In order to deliver on his jobs, he would put some of the men on night shift and some on day. I marvelled and asked him where he got the idea to do that and his reply was that it came naturally since he had a deadline to meet."
Reittie adds that Donalds likes nothing better than working. "I remember one morning at about 2:00 a.m. he was locked in a building trying to complete a job before daylight. He fainted as a result of the fumes from his tiling machine and had to be taken to the University Hospital."
Donalds is still a workaholic who admits that he has no hobbies but his work and prefers to be on site than in the boardroom. On site, the men with whom he works frequently do not know that they are toiling side by side with the man who pays them at the end of each week. He likes it that way.
His future plans include establishing a foundation in the United Kingdom for young men who cannot read and write and "feel that there life ends there and turn to crime." He plans to re-educate them and provide training in marketable skills including tiling.
"It hurts to know that there are so many black guys in the UK and in Jamaica who feel that they have no hope. There is not a lot of training stuff for them either." This is what he hopes to change.
