President
Dr. Dawkins Brown’s life is a journey of experiences through which learning occurs. One experience leads to another thus creating a learning spiral which guides his growth and development. He uses this Experiential Learning to add value for his clients and create a global impact through his multidisciplinary professional service firm – Dawgen Global.
“Experiential Learning has been intrinsically rewarding and empowering for me. From an early age, I realized that I needed strategies to deal with these daily experiences, and thus decided to approach life with a learning attitude.”
Joining a Job, Discovering a Career
Based in Jamaica, Dr. Brown graduated from Kingston College in 1989 and was offered a summer job at the Jamaica Library Service in Kingston, thanks to the efforts of his Religious Education Teacher, Mrs. Hoo-Sang. While there, he developed a penchant for Accounting. After completing the gruelling ACCA Level 1 and a certification in Business Studies from UWI, he accepted a position at Lee Clark Chang (EY Associate Firm in Jamaica) as Trainee Auditor with a 30% salary cut.
Working with all he got, Dr. Brown was promoted to EY Jamaica (now BDO) Consulting Department as a Management Consultant by 1996. Just before his 26th birthday and two months before his ACCA Final, his father passed away in October 1997. Failure was not an option anymore. When the ACCA Final results were declared in 1998, Dawkins’ name was published on the list of finalists, making him a Chartered Accountant at the young age of 26.
In an effort to broaden his horizon, Dr. Brown joined a petroleum distribution and marketing company as Financial Controller in 1998. Working closely with the Owner and the Managing Director of the firm, his entrepreneurial dream began to sprout wings.
Turning Entrepreneur with Dawgen Global
At the turn of the new millennium, Dawkins and his brother took their 1st step towards becoming Entrepreneurs and established an Accounting School (Corporate Business Institute) in 2001, and an accounting firm named Dawgen in 2002. In its 2 decades of successful practice, Dawgen Chartered Accountants has represented several international associations and networks, and most recently operated the Crowe Global brand in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.
In 2018, the firm in Jamaica (Crowe Jamaica) was rebranded as Dawgen Global to cater to an ever evolving world and serve as an integrated multidisciplinary professional service firm providing a wide range of services including Audit, Advisory, Tax, Legal, and Risk, with a team of 105+ employees. With Dr. Brown at the helm of affairs as Founder and Executive Chairman, they’re well on their way to cover all Caribbean Islands over the next couple of months, in addition to their US operation.
“My inspiration has always been the desire to help organizations and individuals create wealth for all stakeholders. It’s no secret that an effective leadership strategy can be the difference between an organization that flourishes and one that fails. My goal is to create a Team of Leaders within Dawgen Global to ensure we are known as the firm that focuses on adding value to our clients.”
Carrying forward that thought, Dr. Brown developed an Experiential Learning Model (ELM) at Dawgen Global in 2019, after studying the works of David A. Kolb, John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget. This Experiential Learning Model helps develop staff into future leaders.
In addition, he is also a member of several important professional bodies such as Chartered Management Institute (CMI), Institute of Internal
Auditors (IIA), American Planning Association (APA), and others.
Planning for a Sustainable Future
Yet, the journey to become an entrepreneur is not a piece of cake, he tells us: “You will be doing something that no one has done before. On top of that, you will have no one to go to in trying times. I had to rely on effective leadership principles to make the most of the opportunities and create sustainable growth for the future. I had to deal with all the risks and mistakes that affect growing businesses – Keeping up with the market, Planning ahead, Cash flow and financial management, Problem solving, The right systems, Skills and attitudes, and Welcoming change.”
With sheer grit, Dr. Brown overcame them all. Simultaneously, he earned his Doctorate (Ph.D.) in the field of Accounting, Finance, and Management from Rushmore University. His mission now is to provide the best business solution service in the industry and help other businesses grow. He is dedicated to exceeding clients’ expectations and improving all aspects of customer care. He’s also passionate about creating Leaders; he takes pleasure in seeing young people transform to become highly skilled professionals.
However, he would like to tell those very youngsters not to fall victim to the rat race. “Get a career, not a job. If you enjoy what you do, it will no longer feel like work,” he surmises.