Alumni finds hard work in paradise

  Year-round warm weather, clear blue oceans, and pristine white sand aren't usually what most people have the privilege of calling their office.

   After graduating in 2006 with a degree in business, 26-year-old University at Albany alum Winthrope Wellington left the U.S. for Negril, Jamaica to work at Travellers Beach Resort, his father's hotel. Currently the general manager, Wellington manages a 50-person staff, doing all the accounting, taxes, payroll and administrative duties.

   At first glance it may seem like he's on a non-stop spring break, but he says the work, not the parties, are perpetual. Generally working seven days a week, he finds himself on call at all hours of the night and rarely takes a day off.

   "My life is my work right now, it's been that way for the last four years," explained Wellington, "It's very demanding and it's never ending."

   Despite visiting Jamaica often as a child with his father, when he opened the resort in 1992, Wellington said that the culture shock going from Albany to Jamaica was overwhelming. 

   During a business meeting, he accommodated one of his employees by letting her bring her infant, unaware that she would be breastfeeding while he was in mid-speech.

   "Nobody in the room flinched – it was just a cultural thing," Wellington said. "That's the type of thing that's normal here."

   When he comes back to New York to visit his hometown of Freeport, Long Island or to the Capital Region, he thoroughly enjoys being able to slip back into obscurity, something that is next to impossible in Negril.  

   Wellington credits UAlbany for giving him the solid background necessary to successfully manage such a demanding job. Despite being four years removed from the school, he still often reminisces with his friends in the states about their fun experiences even though he's living in a proverbial paradise.

   "I picked Albany because it was a good business school – it was just lucky I didn't even know it was a big party school so I got a good education and a great social experience," Wellington explained.

   Many of his fondest memories weren't at a bar or house party, but rather on the field during intramural football. His favorite activity while attending UAlbany, he remembers his teammates getting their football jerseys sponsored by Bogie's and the heated games on Saturdays and Sundays.

   That commitment to staying active is what he attributes being able to work long days on the resort.

   "You have to keep your mind and body sound. You never know when your next 12, 15 or 20 hour day is going to be so you don't want to get fatigued," Wellington explained.

   The spring break season is the most taxing for Wellington, with throngs of spring breakers flooding the resort and the occasional UAlbany student making their way to Travellers Beach.

   "I absolutely love spring break – that probably is the most work I do and probably the least amount of sleep I get," Wellington said, "but when all the work is done you can hang out with great people and you can have a great time."

   Wellington's island lifestyle will be ending shortly. He was recently accepted into Babson College's accelerated MBA program and will be returning back to the U.S. in a month.