Greetings from Barbados

Nearly one year after starting Vortolo, I’ve found myself reflecting on where this adventure really began.

The name itself didn’t originate from me. It came from my great-uncle, Frank Rickwood, who used “Vortolo” years ago here in Barbados as the name for a holding company he established while living on the island.

At the time, he was being practical. His company allowed him to purchase property and to operate locally, as many expatriates did here.

But behind his corporate sensibilities was someone I deeply admired.

He was a business leader working internationally in the energy sector during a very different period of history. Oil, whatever we think of it today, powered an enormous phase of global industrial growth and transformation.

The world is now moving through another transition entirely, but he belonged to an era that helped build the modern one.

What stayed with me most, however, was never status or industry. It was his mindset.

He was modest, well-travelled, thoughtful – and unasummingly wise. We had many conversations together.

Looking back now, one of those conversations probably changed the direction of my life more than I realised at the time.

More than twenty years ago, he helped move me away from a path focused purely on the arts and toward the world of business, communication, leadership and human dynamics.

And during all those years, I kept returning here.

Barbados became a place of reset. Reflection. Distance. Perspective.

A place to think.

So, returning now – almost a year into building my own company under that same name – carries a certain importance for me.

Vortolo is young. Still evolving. Still finding its shape.

But I’m grateful.

Grateful for the opportunity to build something of my own.

Grateful for the people who shaped my thinking long before I understood where it would eventually lead.

And grateful, sometimes, simply to pause long enough to recognise the continuity between past and present.