Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
Alia Atkinson now a GKMS ambassador
Jamaica Observer – GRACEKENNEDY Money Services (GKMS) has now broaden its sponsorship deal in sports to include swimming, in the person of Alia Atkinson, it was announced at a conference Thursday at the Knutsford Court Hotel.
Speaking at the conference, GKMS’s CEO Michelle Allen said that she was pleased and very excited to announce her company’s commitment in endorsing Atkinson.
Michelle Allen (left), CEO of GraceKennedy Money Services (GKMS) holds the GKMS jacket with new GKMS ambassador, Alia Atkinson (centre) and Natalie Neita-Headly (right), minister without Portfolio with responsibility for sports. Also in picture at the back, to the left is Mike Fennell, president of the Jamaica Olympic Association and Martin Lyn, president of the Jamaica Amateur Swimming Association. PHOTO: GARFIELD ROBINSON)
“I am very excited to be here today (Thursday) to announce GKMS’s commitment to the phenomenal athlete that is Alia Atkinson,” the GKMS executive said.
Allen revealed that it was Atkinson’s fourth-place finish performance in the 2012 Olympics that caught the eyes of the sponsor to make her an ambassador for its brands.
“It was the 2012 Olympics and all eyes were glued to, not the track as is customary but on the pool. Our hearts were racing as our Alia was about to take on the world in one race. We watched this young lady deliver a fourth-place finish that felt like first place… and we knew she was something special,” Allen said with obvious joy.
In making the formal announcement Allen said: “It is with great pride that we invite Alia to represent all our GKMS brands, namely, Western Union, FX Traders and Bill Express. This arrangement will see her becoming an ambassador for all our brands in all nine of our markets across the Caribbean (Jamaica, Guyana, Antigua, Trinidad, Anguilla, St Kitts, Montserrat, St Vincent and the British Virgin Islands,” she explained.
Atkinson is now the second Olympian to join the GKMS family following in the footsteps of Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce. And accordingly that they will continue to support her as she has placed Jamaica on a world map in swimming.
“Alia now becomes the second Olympiam that we have signed in the past three months. Only in Christmas did Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce join the GKMS family. The new GraceKennedy ambassador was very upbeat about the endorsement from GKMS.
“I am filled with pride, very pleased and honoured to be a part of GKMS who is committed to sports by their support of athletes.
“GKMS have now opened many more opportunities for me as I am on a mission to place Jamaica on the world map of swimming. Opportunities like this will allow me to see a better future for myself and Jamaica, this is the turning point for swimming and I truly thank the GKMS family for their support and will make them proud,” the Olympic swimmer said.
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