Popular businessman Ken Boyea passes

Ormiston Arnold Ken Boyea, arguably one of the most popular businessmen in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), died last Wednesday, January 1, 2025.

Boyea is said to have passed away at his home in Prospect. He had been ailing for a while.

Boyea is credited for, among other things, introducing at least two international brands to SVG, namely Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in 1986, Pizza Hut, Radioshack, and  later, creating competition in the supermarket arena with the Aunt Jobe’s supermarket. He is also credited with building one of the country’s first underground parking lots at the supermarket and fast food business complex he operated in Arnos Vale.

Boyea is also a former manager of the Eastern Caribbean Group of Companies (ECGC), an entity with which he later ended up in legal battles. His business acumen also earned him the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (EC) in 2014 while he headed ECGC.

The astute businessman also had a foray in the political arena. After a fallout with the Unity Labour Party (ULP) and its leader Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, he ran as leader of the now defunct People’s Political Movement (PPM) in 2001 but was unsuccessful.

No stranger to controversy, Boyea, Dr. Gonsalves’ first cousin, appeared in cables on the whistle-blowing website, WikiLeaks, that a few years ago began publishing thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables. According to the cables, Boyea, in 2007, remained “one of the most outspoken critics, at least in private, of Gonsalves and his left-leaning tendencies” but endorsed Dr. Gonsalves publicly ahead of the 2010 elections in which the ULP secured a third consecutive term in office.

Boyea is survived by, among others, his wife Shanda, brother Keith Boyea, sister Ann Joshua, and sons Luke, Art, Miles and Sacha.