Jessie "Bonnie"MACKAY

Jessie Mackay

Jesse's 2011 Autobiography

Education: Bay Path College AS, Oglethorpe University BS

1979-84, Consultant with Aubrey Daniels International - Behavioural Management Consulting, Atlanta, Georgia

1984-1995, Owner of Pinpoint Strategies LTD, England - Behavioural Management Consulting in the UK

This work involved installing systematic, data-oriented, behavioral management systems in business and industry. From '79-'84 my work was in the US with Ford Motor, VW, Pabst Brewing, as well as smaller companies seeking to improve their bottom line (productivity) through incorporating an understanding of behavioral science in their management techniques.

In l984, I moved to England where I started Pinpoint Strategies Ltd. I loved living there, had a small farm in the Cotswolds, worked in London and primarily in the Midlands. Clients included BP, Windsor Life Assurance, various potteries in Staffordshire, TI Apollo, Fafnir Bearings, and The Bermid Qualcast Group, (While with them, the BBC in conjunction with The British Institute of Management made a film of my work at a foundry, Sterling Metals Ltd.) At this time, these industries had few or no women in either management or shop floor. I loved the work, and, at times still miss it.

In l995, I had an offer from someone to buy me out, and I was ready for something new. I next studied for a year at the C.G. Jung Institut in Zurich, Switzerland, needing a bit of an antidote to behavioral psychology... whilst there, I made the decision to become a full-time painter. I had been painting for years and having shows, but knew that doing it full time would mean a sizable cut in income, so had put it off.

So, from l996 to present, have been painting. (see website: jessiemackayart.com. Galleries that show my work: The Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA. The Southport Galleries, Southport, CT., The Lagerquist Gallery, Atlanta, GA., The Depot Gallery, Ennis, MT., The Sage Moon Gallery, Charlottesville, VA.

My other passion is doing volunteer work in Tanzania, Africa. For the past four years have been going there with a friend in summers. I teach at a Primary School, started some micro-financing projects for women in villages which have no electricity, running water (subsistence farming being their way of life), other women's empowerment projects, grants and funds for food, scholarships. I would say education and women are the focus of our non profit company KARIMU. It has been fascinating, learning about their culture, the people whom I have really come to love, as well as the more prosaic things like forming a 501(c)(3), grant writing and fund raising.

Jessie’s Update (2021)

I live in Pinehurst, NC, with my husband Doug Roper. I continue my work for Women’s Empowerment in Tanzania. Started this project in 2008 by loaning 49 women in Ikowa Village $500 to create a project of their own invention that would help them earn money. These women live in a subsistence farming village, you can see the typical housing in the background of the photo, where there is no electricity or water. They elected to raise piglets, breed them and sell the offspring. They repaid the loan the following year and I gave the money back to them with an additional $600 and told them to give loans to a sister village, making them the moral guarantors for the subsequent groups. Every year when I returned, the loans would be repaid and given to new groups. As of this year, we have 3,651 women earning incomes such that their children have been able to

go to school, they have built more substantial housing, able to meet their basic needs. Children from the first groups have completed primary and secondary education and some have gone on to university where three have become teachers, six nurses, one a commercial airline pilot, etc. Before the projects run by their mothers, they would not have even been able to afford primary school which is free, but parents have to buy the uniforms and books.

In 2009, I created a 501(c)(3) KARIMU TANZANIA, and through donations, grants, my friend, Tally Bandy, and I have raised about $600,000. Not a lot by many standards, but it is just the two of us. On my 2018 trip, we started working on stopping FGM (female genital mutilation) in the northern areas of Tanzania as well as gender based violence. Due to Covid, we have not been able to return, but hope to be able to this coming summer.

Prior to this, my background included Performance Management Consulting, I lived in England for 11 years where I had my own consulting firm (also had dual citizenship as my parents were from the UK). Specialized in heavy industry, and worked with various auto manufacturers, Ford Motor Co., and Volkswagon in the US, and The Rover Group in the UK. I loved working with steel mills, iron foundries, etc. In 1995, I sold my small firm and then studied for a year at the C.G. Jung Institut in Zurich, Switzerland. After that, I returned to the US and started to paint full time. My website is: jessiemackayart.com

I am so fortunate to have had (and continue to have) a wonderful life.