Ainsley Deer

Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer

THIS IS the job he embraced with nothing less than scientific precision.

Ainsley Deer, who holds MPhil in Occupational Psychology from the University of Nottingham, England, and an MSc. degree in Medical Parasitology from the University of Salford, Lancashire, England, approaches fatherhood with what looks like clinical obsession.

"I don't want them to enjoy life vicariously ... watching other people paint, watching other people excel in sports. They all have hidden talents which, when discovered, will help them to be participants, not watchers."

He leads by example. The trainer, motivational speaker and international management consultant who introduced psychometric testing (assessing a person's ability, personality and interests for recruitment and career decision-making) to Jamaica, also runs five miles every day, plays the guitar to a professional level and has earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

"My son Sean participated in the Guinness Road race at age 10. Instead of idolising others, I want my children to become achievers too."

When Deer's first wife returned to her home abroad because of ill-health and then died, he spent some years raising his first children - Sean and Natasha - alone.

"I was mother and father to them," Deer recalls. "I could have never wished for better children. I enjoyed it. I had to plan and organise my life carefully."

When they were teenagers, Deer got married a second time, but this marriage was not to last and he fought hard for custody of the children from the marriage Ainsley Jnr and Debra.

NOT A BED OF ROSES

"Life was not a bed of roses. I could have sent them to stay with their in-laws. But, (I believe) if you have kids, you should take care of them. I did it and now I am glad," the father states.

Deer exchanged vows again, this time with Janet in 2002 and he says he is third time lucky.

Janet, a design consultant, takes pleasure in mothering both Deer and his brood, the last of whom is 10-year-old Imani, a student of Stella Maris Prep.

Son Sean is now resident in the UK. Natasha is living in Atlanta, Georgia, and Debra in Canada. Ainsley Jr. playssoccer for Florida International University. Son Damien works locally as a Fedex employee.

At age 10, Sean Deer was running marathons. At the same age, Ainsley Deer was experiencing the last of primary school in Jamaica and preparing himself for the long trip to the United Kingdom to live with his mother and grandmother. The women, he said, were hardworking people who were very entrepreneurial in their outlook, an aptitude that he was to inherit.

The women also carefully inculcated in the young boy a sense of destiny, which was to defeat the unconscious racism of the English school system.

In Nottingham, Huntington Secondary School for Boys was one of the worst schools that his mother could have chosen to send him. But, it was the one she could afford.

"We never had any playing fields. We borrowed them."

In the resource-strapped institution, the decision was taken to place him in the D Stream although he was an A student. It was only at his mother's insistence that they put him into a B stream. By the end of the year, Ainsley was first in everything in his grade, including English Language and went on to become head boy of Huntington.

Deer states that he was the first student of this school and the first Jamaican to play cricket for Nottingham city schools. Even though he was head boy, the school's administration was reluctant to make it official by publicising his activities.

Deer moved on the People's College of Further Education where he was the first student to graduate with a distinction in Botany.

The Jamaican student was swimming against the tide in a culture of under achievement and he himself almost succumbed.

"I had no intention of going to university," Deer confesses.

The day he changed his mind was when one teacher at the college was heard telling another that "West Indian students are just not university material."

PROVE THEM WRONG

Deer decided to prove them wrong.

He first thought of doing Art at which he excelled, but later turned to the sciences which he did equally well, because he said, he did not want to wait until death to be recognised.

"I wanted my rewards now."

He matriculated for Salford University where he completed a first degree in Botany and Zoology and then moved on to secure a Masters in Medical Parasitology. His intent was to work either in the Caribbean and Africa.

Deer's theory, he recalls, was that the South American parasite Tripanoma (which causes heart disease in humans and which was present in South American countries) might also be in Jamaica. He wanted to investigate.

Were it left to the Jamaican authorities, however, he might have ended up in Africa. They did not respond with interest on receiving his first written enquiries.

PERSISTENCE

But, his persistence led to a job with the Ministry of Health. Settling in the country with his first wife and two children, he was later assigned to the Ministry of agriculture. Working alongside the late Dr. Tommy Farr from the Institute of Jamaica, they conducted research which led to the confirmation of the South American parasite in Jamaica. "We were able to demonstrate the actual parasite in the gut of mice," Deer recalls. The vector is a triatomid bug species of which were found in Mandeville and Kingston.

This, however, was the high point of his career as a parasitologist.

Deer realised, he said, that the government service was a dead end. He regrets that Jamaica fails to create the "space" for its gifted people to excel.

By 1977, the scientist was making plans to return to the UK, but he changed his mind when he was approached by Imperial Life Assurance of Canada which wanted an administrative head in Jamaica. They must have seen, he said, something which he did not, but he accepted the challenge and spent four successful years there before moving on toLife of Jamaica insurance company.

Ainsley Deer moved into the area of training in response to needs in the insurance industry. He began to conduct weekend training which was highly effective and so much in demand that soon he was able to leave his full time job and set up shop on his own.

Building on a minor in Psychology, he also pursued further studies and research in occupational psychology which led to the grant of a post graduate degree in occupational psychology .

Management Training was born as the consultant engaged in research and applied solutions which benefited the business community. Today, he is the chief executive officer and founder of Training Dynamics and Consultants Limited (TD&C), a premier management consultant firm, and Deer Consulting Services which operates in the UK and North America.

ENCOURAGING

Deer wishes that Jamaican parents would be more encouraging to their children.

"We curse our kids and tell them they are no good. Even when this is not said, we behave in such a way that the poor children feel that they do not stand a chance."

The trainer states that one research project which tested 31 areas of personality shows that Jamaicans score higher in 22 areas than the British.

The British did better in decisiveness, emotional control and adherence to traditional principles. Jamaicans, however, he said, were more creative, innovative and more resilient. These qualities, however, rarely emerge until they go abroad and receive opportunities to excel.

"We like to see each other suffer too much."

Both parents and national authorities, he feels need to give young Jamaicans space to excel and to become the stars they can be instead of simply watching others do well.

He is intent, Deer says, on exposing his sons and daughters to all of life's enriching experiences in a way which will leave them saying that they have fully lived.