6 days ago
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Faced with plummeting revenue, entertainment company and modelling agency Pulse Investments Limited is searching for solutions on how to reinvigorate the business in the wake of the passing of founder Kingsley Cooper, and has called in the experts.
A high-powered team comprising King’s Counsel Denise E. Kitson, business development specialist Courtney Brown and business transformation expert Dionne Gordon has been retained to advise the board of directors on the formulation of a plan for the company that has more than $8 billion worth of investment property on its books and a reputation for nurturing some of Jamaica’s best modelling talent to world acclaim.
In the meantime, daughter Safia Cooper remains as managing director of Pulse, but no longer shares the position with Romae Gordon, who resigned as co-managing director and company secretary, effective March 31, 2025. Gordon remains a director of the board.
Over the past weekend there were reports of Gordon’s impending departure, but nothing was said officially. However, her resignation was subsequently confirmed at Pulse’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, April 9, which was held at Pulse’s Villa Ronai property at Stony Hill, St Andrew.
Cooper said at the meeting that Pulse was in transition, and that her father’s passing had left a gap in the company’s operations and called for understanding on the part of shareholders, and other stakeholders in the search for solutions. Kingsley Cooper was executive chairman and the main driving force of the operation.
“We’ve expressed just how much of a gap, a void, the death of our founder has left in the business. We have gone as far as to bring into our space high-level consultants to help us to deliver what we can say is a business that we all want to be a part of,” Cooper reported to shareholders.
Gordon was absent from the AGM and was reportedly away on personal business.
“I think she just needs the time and space to just step away and process all that has happened, since it was a bit much,” said Chairman Justice Hillary Phillips on the sidelines after the meeting.
Phillips had earlier told shareholders that following the founder’s passing, the company needed to regroup in a way that would be sustainable for the long run. She said the two largest asset, the Pulse complex in New Kingston and Villa Ronai at Stony Hill, accounted for $8.42 billion of the $12 billion of company assets.
“Really, the issue is in relation to this property (Villa Ronai). As you can see, it’s a majestic property. So the question is really how we develop it,” Phillips told shareholders as they probed the likely fate of Pulse’s holdings.
She added that the Pulse board was in discussion with several interested parties, with a decision to be taken on whether to proceed with a joint venture development, fulfilling the founders dream, or selling outright.
Pulse acquired the nine-acre Villa Ronai property in 2021 from majority owner Kingsley Cooper, to be used for development of the Pulse Suites and the 100-unit Pulse Homes projects. Approvals were secured in 2022 and preliminary work was under way when sudden illness took Cooper’s life in June 2024.
Since that time, Pulse’s flow of income has nosedived. For the six-month ended December 2024 the $268.36 million in revenue was less than half of the flow of $552.21 million for the similar period in 2023.
Safia Cooper said Pulse’s representation of models would continue.
“It is part of the company’s DNA,” she told shareholders.
English (US) ·