THREE Islanders have been recognised in the New Years Honours list for their services to the community.
Kevin Keen (pictured above) has been made an OBE, Michael Blackie an MBE and Peter Tabb has received a British Empire Medal.
Kevin Keen: OBE
There are very few senior roles within Jersey’s business community that Kevin Keen (65) has not held at some point or other.
During his varied career, he has been (to name just a few) finance director of Le Riche Group, managing director of Jersey Dairy, chair of Jersey Water, and chief executive of Jersey Post.
Having developed a reputation as a fix-it man, Mr Keen specialises in generating insights into what makes some organisations succeed while others fail.
He has also been involved with many Jersey charities and organisations over the years, including as president of Jersey Chamber of Commerce, honorary treasurer of Family Nursing & Home Care, treasurer and trustee of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and interim chief executive of Durrell and JSPCA. He is currently the chair of the Association of Jersey Charities.
Recently, he also founded the not-for-profit initiative, Leadership Jersey, which aims to provide a programme of speakers and events that are available to access for all, with profits going to local charities.
Despite all these achievements and roles, he said that receiving the award was a “massive surprise” that he was “still trying to get [his] head around”.
Mr Keen continued: “People who know me will tell you that I’m very rarely speechless, but when His Excellency called, I was mumbling on the phone, I just didn’t know what to say.
“Shortly after I got off the phone, I wondered if one of my friends had performed a massive prank. It’s not something I ever expected to happen to someone like me.”
Born in Jersey, he is the eldest of six children. His first job was as a paperboy earning pennies per day, before he entered the world of employment at 16 for Alex Picot Chartered Accountants.
He said: “You try and help people when you can, and I’ve always tried to do that.
“I’ve met lots of people over my career who have really helped me and that developed a desire to pay back and help others.
“I have taken an interest in the Island’s organisations that were having a problem for one reason or another, and I felt like I might be able to help them and I tried to do that, but always along with other people in the organisation who wanted the same thing.”
Mr Keen said the secret to his success was “mainly luck, meeting great people and being able to work with them”.
He thanked his wife, Christine Keen, for her continued support and patience as he “jumped from one job to the next, sometimes finding myself unemployed for a while”.
He added: “It would be a very long article to thank everyone, because there are so many people who have got me to where I am.”
Michael Blackie: MBE
When Michael Blackie accepted an invitation to become a vice-chairman of the Jersey Eisteddfod in summer 1999, he did not know quite what he was letting himself in for.
It would, the previous chairman John Harper told him, just be a matter of attending four meetings a year.
“I said: ‘all right then, put my name forward’. Then, in the spring of the following year, John rang me up again and said: ‘I’m going to Bermuda’. I said: ‘Oh, that’s nice’. He replied: ‘No, I’m going to work in Bermuda. You’ll have to take over as chairman.’ I had to learn pretty quickly,” he recalled.
Twenty-three years after his appointment, the chairman of the organisation’s executive council has been honoured with an MBE for his services to the community.
Although Mr Blackie had been a participant in the Eisteddfod’s performing arts festival since 1979, he admits that he had a lot to learn taking over as chairman, applying experience from the John Lobb Memorial Trust on which he served under the late Sir Peter Crill and the late Reg Jeune.
Mr Blackie has also been a trustee and treasurer of the Opera House charitable trust.
His early Eisteddfod meetings included a large cohort of section chairmen and secretaries, as well as the treasurer, the trustee of trophies and the chairman of friends. “There were about 30 of them, all of whom would have opinions which, of course, they would voice,” he said with a smile.
It was a very different organisation from the one which existed in the early decades of the 20th century when Islanders would compete against each other in classes that included cake-making, shorthand and laundry, the latter “suspended” in 1933. “It’s only been suspended but I don’t think we are going to resurrect it,” Mr Blackie said.
What has appealed to him has been getting to know many of the dedicated people who make the Eisteddfod a success, and seeing the amount of talent that exists in Jersey.
“The adjudicators who come for the first time are amazed by that talent, and they appreciate that it’s there because of the quality of the tuition that’s available here,” he said.
He wants to stress that the organisation of an event involving thousands of Islanders is very much a team effort.
“They are volunteers and most of them have done it for a long time and absolutely understand how it works,” he said, adding that the introduction of new classes such as those for rock and pop, for signing choir and for Young Actor of the Year competition reflected a concern to embrace new generations of competitors.
One of Mr Blackie’s own recent personal experiences of the Eisteddfod as a competitor confirms that. He was taking part in the class for spontaneous public speaking.
“I won last year. I knew I would win because I was the only competitor.
“This year, there were just two of us in it, and the age gap was 62 years, and she won – and quite rightly so,” he added, without hesitation.
Peter Tabb: BEM
For someone who has been a member of a club whose motto is “to serve the local community” for half a century, it should come as no surprise that he has been recognised for his service to the community.
That said, Peter Tabb (79) was “quite stunned” and “floored” when the Lieutenant-Governor took him aside at an event he was due to speak at and told him that he had received the British Empire Medal.
He said: “That didn’t help with the nerves before my speech. But of course, I was very pleased and proud to be nominated for the honour. There was a bubble of pride in it somewhere.”
Born and raised in Jersey, Mr Tabb joined the Lions Club 51 years ago, with the goal of serving his community.
While cultivating a successful career in advertising, marketing and PR, which began at the JEP in the mid-1960s, he has been involved with the Swimarathon (one of the Island’s most successful fundraising events) since its inception in 1972, and he co-founded Diabetes Jersey and Genuine Jersey.
He said his communications background helped him to act as a publicity officer for the various charities he was involved in.
Mr Tabb continued: “None of us join an organisation like the Lions with a view to having some sort of recognition, but it’s nice for it to happen.”
His recent achievements include overseeing the £3.5 million refurbishment of Maison des Landes in St Ouen as the president of trustees. The site remains the only hotel in the Channel Islands that caters exclusively for people with disabilities.
“That was of great importance to me, because of the people who will benefit from that,” Mr Tabb continued.
“The hotel will now cater for both local people and tourists, and it will be a community hub, where these individuals can meet people who are disabled, disadvantaged, infirm, lonely. That’s the mark of success, the number of people who have been helped.”
He added: “Ever since I joined the Lions 51 years ago, I have wanted to serve the community, and it all stems from that one wish. The ethos of the Lions is exactly that, and I suppose there is a satisfaction in helping other people too.”
He was recently awarded a Melvin Jones Fellowship from the Lions Club which recognises his long service.
“It’s the equivalent of the highest honour in our club,” he explained, referring to a plaque he received to mark the award.
Like Mr Keen, Mr Tabb thanked his wife Thérèse Tabb, adding: “I’ve always been able to rely on a remarkable team of people around me.
“I am so grateful to those teams, to my wife and family for tolerating the fact that I was sometimes out spending more time working in community than with them.”
