Helene Coley-NicholsonAvia Ustanny, Outlook Writer
HELENE COLEY-NICHOLSON, in a simple black dress characteristic of women in her profession, sports neat locks, is a study in contradictions.
Restrained gestures and a voice, which is never strident in tone, is not the image of the typical, driven Jamaican lawyer.
But, Coley-Nicholson is a powerful woman in her own right, working as group legal officer for the CVM Communications Group, which comprises CVM TV, Hot 102 FM, CVM Plus, X-News, The Teen Herald and CVM Productions Limited.
A self confessed multi-tasker, the lawyer practises the entire range of entertainment and media law including intellectual property and defamation.
Loudness is not her forte, but making her voice heard is not a problem. She is also currently a freelance talk show host for the programme 'Drive Time Live', which is aired on Hot 102 FM radio.
A kind of quiet persistence characterises the way in which Helene pursues her goals. She is also currently the head of the Ardenne High School Alumni Association. The lawyer admits that the school has challenges and its needs run into millions, but she states that she has every intention, working along with parents, staff and other alumni to do something about it.
Track record
Coley-Nicholson has a track record of raising over $12 million in two months for Jamaica Aids Support when that organisation was threatened by closure, running a radiothon sanctioned by the Hot 102 group and her co-hosts.
The target was to raise $20 million, and she and her colleagues only stopped when "the government stepped in and said that they would do the rest.
"Most people really want to do good, says Coley-Nicholson. "So, you appeal to this in order to do the things which need to get done and which reflect our common interests."
Helene Coley, the optimist, was born in Manchester to parents Altimont and Eunice Coley, but her role model while growing she says, was her grandmother Blanch Euter - a shopkeeper in Craighead. Blanche Euter, she said, had a home where everyone in the village converged in the evening. She cared for all the children whose parents were dead or who had migrated.
The example of caring impressed Helene, as did her love of the written word. "She would give me an exercise book, a pen and a busta (sweet) and say 'write', (and) because she said it I believed it. I got the belief that I could do all things and that all people are equal, from her. When she died, the church could not hold the people who came from all strata of society to see her go."
Coley-Nicholson attended Ardenne High School in St. Andrew and started in broadcasting in 1982 as a continuity announcer on radio at the now defunct Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.
"I never aspired to be a journalist or to be anything. I just loved to listen to and to understand people," she told Outlook.
Eventually, she would work on radio and television becoming television news anchor and, by 1986 was one of the first television news anchors who was also a reporter/ producer.
Among her mentors and those who trained her were Dennis Hall, who hired her and Barrington Gordon; Beverley Cole; Fae Ellington and others who 'mothered and fathered' her as a young reporter and presenter.
Not merely to make profit
She entered media, Coley-Nicholson says, at a time when the motivation was not merely to make profit, but to provide a service, and when radio and TV were supposed to reflect the Jamaican people. While at JBC she says, all the high points of the legislative year were covered. "It was not about what it cost to be there."
Coley-Nicholson worked as a broadcaster at JBC, JIS, RJR, KLAS and CVM. While at KLAS FM, she produced and presented the programme 'Tapestry' and later became head of news, sports and current affairs.
Shortly after leaving KLAS, she began a syndicated environmental programme entitled 'Nature Call'. The once-weekly programme was broadcast on HOT 102 FM, Love FM, and was published as a full page advertorial every Monday in the Jamaica Observer.
As presenter/producer of 'Nature Call', Coley-Nicholson was selected by the International Federation of Environmental Journalists in Paris to cover the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her reports were aired and printed in the local print and electronic media, as well as across the Caribbean, the African continent and parts of Europe.
She attended the University of the West Indies, was a Reuters journalism fellow to Oxford University in 1990 where she remains a life member of the Oxford Union Debating Society.
Coley-Nicholson studied law as an external student of the University of London, gaining her law degree with honours. In 2002 Coley-Nicholson entered the Norman Manley Law School.
With the skills collected in two decades of media experience, she was a perfect fit for her current position after completing her legal training.
Law, she says, has given her more leverage in terms of creating influence in media. But her first love remains journalism. "We are not getting the stories. We are dumming down the news," she laments. "I have a quiet, but strong personality and a view of how things should be done."
Helene says she has no problems taking the Ardenne Alumni, in addition to her career, and other activities. Her daughters, Zena, aged 14 and Laura, aged 18 are very independent girls.
Laura Nicholson commented, "She (her Mom) is kind of strict, but not too strict. Like she spends time with us. Like we talk about things. Like we do fun things together. When she became a lawyer we felt really proud."
Coley-Nicholson is married to Dr. Clive Nicholson, a former vice-president of Cable and Wireless and technical author for IBM Worldwide.
While with IBM's headquarters in England, Dr. Nicholson became their first systems expert (specialising in artificial intelligence) representing IBM at international conferences. He was a vice-president of the Jamaica Computer Society and is listed as one of the all time outstanding graduates of Kingston College in a book about the institution that was written by Senator Anthony Johnson.
Doing their own thing
As a couple they do their own thing, Coley-Nicholson states, saying that they lead fairly independent lives. Her hobbies include books of all genres. She is currently reading Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom.
She is inspired by those dedicated to freeing the human spirit and finds herself throwing aside a natural reserve in the quest to do things which are somewhat similar.
"I am not shy. I prefer to observe and understand," the lawyer states.
"I prefer not to rush to judgement."
She also prefers to apply her training to causes which will improve the lot of humanity and to change the quality of life of those most in need of this, believing that most people are willing to help in this.
"I try to get people to care about others, to see that helping other people is in their own interests. It's not about me. It really is about purpose, and accomplishing it," she states.
Quiet, yet persistent, she aims to succeed.
