Inside the Engine Room of Resilience
When the power goes out, most think of restoration crews and emergency lines. But behind the coordinated efforts of Jamaica Public Service (JPS) lies a structure of pre-emptive strategy, led by a man whose name rarely makes headlines—Roger Kennedy.
In his 33-year tenure, Kennedy has become the strategic constant through decades of system upgrades, policy shifts, and natural disasters. From the early ‘90s to now, his journey has mirrored the company’s evolution—moving from a young electrical engineer into one of JPS’s most relied-upon figures in continuity and crisis architecture.
The Silent Architect of Order During Chaos
Kennedy doesn’t approach emergencies as one-off events. For him, disasters are predictable phenomena—what matters is the preparedness before and the structure during. His domain is less about reacting, and more about ensuring everyone else already knows how to.
At the center of his leadership is an emphasis on system thinking—anticipating breakdowns, simulating pressure points, and refining internal lines of command across departments and stakeholders. His crisis model isn’t built on personality or panic. It’s built on institutional memory, operational cohesion, and the subtle but critical art of getting people to trust instructions—especially when emotions run high.
Culture is the Real Infrastructure
Kennedy’s real obsession isn’t just hardware, protocols, or grids—it’s behavior. He believes continuity begins long before a storm. It begins in the meetings, the drills, the memos, and the trust built among dispersed teams.
According to him, “You cannot fix disorder with noise. Calm is faster than panic. And only culture sustains calm.”
That mindset explains why his style rarely changes. His decisions are as methodical during a category four hurricane as they are during a quarterly audit. In both cases, he pushes for clarity, ownership, and alignment.
Turning Technical Fluency Into Practical Protocol
Kennedy’s depth of knowledge in transmission and distribution isn’t just theoretical—it translates directly into execution. He builds frameworks that don’t rely on his presence. Teams don’t wait on Kennedy to act—they act like him.
He trains his department not just to follow SOPs but to understand the logic behind them—why communication templates exist, why drill timing matters, why inter-agency alignment should be rehearsed in peacetime.
In practice, that means fewer delays when roads are impassable. Faster reroutes when substations go offline. And more importantly, fewer hands raised in confusion during moments that can’t afford hesitation.
A Philosophy Carved by Field Work
While his current role is corporate in nature, Kennedy’s thinking still draws from his early years in the field. He has walked the terrain of parishes, managed outages at the source, and spoken directly with affected communities. That frontline experience shaped his respect for detail, timing, and interpersonal awareness.
To him, resilience isn’t just mechanical—it’s human. That’s why emotional intelligence sits high on his criteria for leadership. His method: embed empathy into the system, not just into the individual.
Building for the Future, Not the Headlines
Kennedy isn’t the kind of leader who seeks profile pieces or praise. His reward is internal—when a district restores power faster than expected, when customers stay informed without confusion, when no one panics because the system already accounted for the unknown.
As JPS continues modernising its infrastructure, the quiet scaffolding Kennedy built becomes more critical—not just for restoration, but for reliability. In a future defined by climate volatility and real-time expectations, his playbook is becoming more relevant than ever.
Conclusion
Roger Kennedy may never be the public face of JPS, but inside its operations, he is the calm the storm must pass through. His legacy won’t be a monument or a press release—it will be the invisible rhythm of order when everything else is under pressure. A legacy not of reaction, but of readiness.
