THE Caribbean’s leading financial and insurance company, Sagicor, has entered 2021 committed to further improving the experience of its clients and the lives of those in the communities within which it operates.
This focus was recently highlighted by Mr. Robert Trestrail, during his first official address to the company as the new President and CEO of Sagicor Life Inc., a position he took up effective January 1st, 2021.
Speaking during the company’s annual, motivational team meeting, called “Ignite”, which was held virtually this year due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trestrail delivered a message to Sagicor’s team members in Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Curacao, the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, Trinidad & Tobago and Panama, which focused on the meeting’s theme of “Stronger Together”.
He made the point that throughout 2020, Sagicor pulled out all the stops to ensure the company continued to deliver on its promise to its clients. “Our various teams and departments came together to ensure we could indeed make good on our promises, quickly transitioning to a work from home environment, while executing a variety of administrative moves, system and technological rollouts, especially during the early stages of lockdown, which allowed us as a company to achieve pleasing results in 2020”, said Trestrail. “Despite the many, significant challenges posed by the pandemic, we continued to meet and, in many cases, exceed the expectations of our clients, which will once again be the focus of all that we do in 2021.”
The 20-year Sagicor veteran, stated that “the global and regional environment will continue to evolve, and we are prepared to evolve with it. We look forward to getting into new markets that we haven’t penetrated in the past, bringing new products to the market, along with embracing and continuing to lead the innovation that will be coming through the various digital frameworks being worked on.”
Regarding Sagicor’s Corporate Social Responsibility response to the challenges created throughout the region by the COVID-19 pandemic, Trestrail said that the company’s efforts came as a natural response and helped to live out the Group’s Vision.
“Supporting our communities is a major part of our DNA. Our efforts were therefore squarely focused on ensuring that our clients, team and the wider community of individuals and families in each territory that we call home, received critical support to help them make it through and overcome the challenges presented.”
Sagicor partnered with several NGOs and community organisations across the region to supply groceries and other essential items. The company’s commitment to education and youth development was also displayed through its donation of electronic devices to facilitate remote learning for those without the equipment, in addition to creating its own Sagicor branded online programmes to keep children engaged and entertained during lockdown.
He pointed to the fact that very early in the pandemic, Sagicor committed US$1 Million to support Caribbean governments’ fight against the spread of the virus, along with providing assistance to those individuals and families who were most vulnerable to the negative, and in many cases, crippling impact of the virus. This assistance, which varied from country to country, included the donation of “walk through” and handheld scanners to assist with detecting potential carriers of the virus; personal protective equipment for use by frontline workers; along with critical medical supplies to help fight the virus.
“Moving into 2021, we at Sagicor will continue to seek out ways in which we can improve the lives of those in the communities within which we operate”, said Trestrail; noting that much more needs to be done to aid the Caribbean in defeating the pandemic and for its citizens to return to a life of normalcy. “We will continue to focus on our communities, because when we grow our communities and impact them positively, the rewards that come from that are unimaginable.