– Says CEO of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital

By Telesha Vidya Ramnarine
SHE comes across as a no-nonsense individual who is unyielding, and at first glance, to many, she is intimidating.You may think to be on your Ps and Qs if you want to get into a conversation with her. In fact, she doesn’t ramble on if asked a question but chooses to get to the point on every subject.
But Ms. Helen Ann Browman, interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Georgetown, can be quite different when she is off the job.
“Some would say I am extremely serious; some would say I can be intimidating because of my height and serious face,” she said in a recent interview with Sunday Pepperpot.
“For those who know me really well, [they] know that I can be a little crazy, in a good way, enjoying life and always very positive about life.
“But when it comes to work, I am very serious about work. When it comes to play, I enjoy it. I believe in a mixture of both. But work is work.”
Ms. Browman, 44, was born at the Davis Memorial Hospital and raised in Georgetown by caring and supportive parents Harcourt Edward Browman and Bernice Angela Browman.
She spent her nursery and primary school years at the New Comenius school in Queenstown. The school no longer exists, having been destroyed by fire. She spent a brief period at the North Georgetown and Richard Ishmael Schools before pressing on to St. Joseph High School.
After school, she first gained employment at Hand in Hand Insurance Company, but eventually leave to pursue studies at the University of Guyana (UG).
“My father sat me down and said you either study or work. But if you are going to study, I will support you, which he did, and I went to UG for four years. I got a Bachelor’s Degree in Management.

“Be positive no matter what. There are challenges, [but] you can overcome them. I do believe that life is short and you have to make the most of it. Working at the hospital really brings this home.”

“My parents always encouraged me to do my best and to always be professional; to always do what is right. Integrity and honour are the two things they left with us (children).”
Henceforth, she worked for some ten years at Courts Guyana Inc. and in 2008, moved over to St. Joseph Hospital as the CEO.
“I joined the Company as CEO in 2008; but I later stepped down in fairness to my studies. And after the CEO left last year, I was asked to come back as CEO,” she informed. She recently completed her Masters in Management at the University of the West Indies.
At the hospital, a typical day for Ms. Browman is unpredictable. “There are always calls; always something happening at the hospital. I can get a call that something is happening with the elevator, something has happened with the water, something with a patient or with a staff.
“When I come in, [there is] always something happening. To get most of my work done, I would stay back sometimes in the afternoons when it’s quiet.
“So it’s either I come in extra early when it’s quiet, or afterwards, to get done the work I planned. I also make sure there is competent staff to take care of people.”
Ms. Browman definitely believes that she is at that point in her career where she would have liked to be. “I mean, how many persons can say they are CEO of a company? I never dreamed that I would be here as the CEO. I think I have reached all the things I can reach in terms of career wise for now. But I am open to another career somewhere. They say you must have three careers. So I’ve heard. So I guess I still have one more to go.”

A Job that Helps
Ms. Browman can list the number of occupations she dreamed of as a child. These include becoming a police officer, an airhostess, and a doctor.
“Those were the key things.
“I remember my father saying to me one night when we were sitting down and I said I wanted to be either a police officer or a soldier.
“My father was in the Army; he was an aeronautical engineer attached to the Guyana Defence Force and then Guyana Airways Corporation, GuySuCo and then Roraima Airways.
“He said ‘no, that’s not for you; something else.’
“I wanted to be a doctor but somehow I am working at the hospital, so I came to it in another direction I would say.”
Ms. Browman deeply believes in helping people. Asked where she sees herself in about five years from now, she responded: “If not in this job, in a job that helps people. And I think that’s the big attraction here, that of helping somebody. I’m not sure whether I will be here or abroad, but definitely in a job that helps people. Helping people is the most beautiful thing you can do.”
She observed that there is always someone who is in need of help and so believes in doing anything she can to make their life easier, even if it is in a small way. “Even in the simple way of giving someone a cup of water or food, or being a listening ear; it really makes a difference in someone else’s life. And I have found that out,” she expressed.
Ms. Browman, who described herself as a simple person, said she is always trying to do her best, to do good, and to make the right decisions for herself and other people. She often thinks about her Mom, whom she lost in death two years ago, but who continues to provide inspiration to her.
“Be positive no matter what. There are challenges, [but] you can overcome them. I do believe that life is short and you have to make the most of it. Working at the hospital really brings this home.”