MP Brison brought Fredericka Ford to St. Maarten
PHILIPSBURG – Ethegrity Healthcare Consulting’s appearance in a parliamentary committee for public health has triggered a tidal wave of questions. Was its director Fredericka Ford in this meeting to provide support or was she there to sell the services of her company? Her presentation had all the hallmarks of a sales pitch. Now it appears that Ethegrity did not fall out of the sky: at least one parliamentarian knew Ford already back in April 2018.
On May 2, 2018, an article appeared in The Daily Herald. It featured a photo that showed Fredericka Ford, Wesley Mason and Pat Charles together with Member of Parliament Rolando Brison. The story was about the development of a VH1-series called Icon of the Islands – a concept similar to America’s Got Talent. The series was “underway” and St. Maarten was to become “part of the islands music competition.”
According to the newspaper report “Healthcare tycoon and new owner of the Icon of the Islands series Wes Mason and his wife Fredericka Ford-Mason held a business meeting at the Sunset Beach Bar on April 28, together with executive producer Pat Charles and MP Rolando Brison who invited them while working as Tourism Director.”
Filming will begin soon the article stated – rather optimistically as it turned out. The filming never started.
Wes Mason did not only have a big finger in the pie of Icon of the Islands. His name also appears on a business proposal from Ethegrity to the Mental Health Foundation. At the end of the proposal there are two contact-options: Wesley Mason III and Fredericka Ford.
Mason is also a partner in W&M Consulting Solutions; its web site touts Mason’s expertise in “healthcare, entertainment and logistics.” W&M reportedly offered St. Maarten a rapid testing solution for its COVID-19 crisis – an option that was pushed by MP Rolando Brison.
Ethegrity’s first contact with the Mental Health Foundation occurred in 2018. This appears from an email Ford sent to the Grisha Heyliger-Marten, faction leader of the UP on September 25, 2020: “Over two years ago we talked with MHF and SZV to examine improved healthcare service delivery.”
This is rather odd, because according to bizapedia.com Ethegrity did not exist at the time – at least, not formally. The company was duly registered as a limited liability company on September 5, 2019, in Brentwood, Tennessee; the name Fredericka Ford-Mason appears on the registration.
On the day of Ford’s email, Heyliger-Marten emailed Parliament asking it to contact Ethegrity “to see if they are available to do a presentation in a VSA committee meeting.”
Fredericka Ford was in that zoom meeting earlier this month, where she said repeatedly that she had taken “copious notes” of questions posed by members of parliament; yet she asked those same MPs several times to repeat their questions.
Research into her background shows that Ford operates as a Jack-of-all-trades. In October 2015 Antigua and Barbados’ Minister of Tourism Asot Michael posted an article on his website about the construction of a “modernized chicken processing facility.” Later reports mention the construction of a $75 million poultry farm but there are no reports about the realization of this project.
The article mentions Fredericka Ford-Kolade as the CEO of the chickenfarm operator Browneford Farms Cooperation – based in St. Johns, Antigua and Barbuda – and as the sister of Joel D.M. Ford who served in the senate of North Carolina from 2013 to 2018.
Ford also appears in search results as Fredericka Ford-Owner, the CEO of C&M Flooring, a construction company established in 2006. Wes Mason is listed as its director of contracts.
Ford held several functions on a senior level at five different organizations since 2010. On February 4, 2020, Unity Psychiatric Care, a division of American Health Partners sent out a press release that named Ford as the administrator of its Clarksville, Tennessee location. The release seemingly puts Ford’s current position at Ethegrity in question: “Ford joins Unity Psychiatric Care from Ethegrity Healthcare Consulting where she was Chief Executive Officer.”
Ford appears also to be involved with a company called Waste Environmental Management as its president and Chief Executive Officer. The website of this company describes her as follows: “With over 18 years of experience in operations management and quality assurance she has particular focus on waste management, medical surgical operations, acute, psychiatric and substance abuse facilities.”
Furthermore, this website notes that Ford “has a personal passion toward healthcare access and disparities and works closely with Project Cure in furnishing medical supplies and care to underserved populations throughout the Caribbean and Africa.”
Ford is listed as a member of six organizations. Two of them are healthcare-related: the American College of Healthcare Executives and the National Association of Healthcare Executives. She is furthermore listed as a member of the Solid Waste Association, Women in Solid Waste, the International Solid Waste Association and ReCaribe, a renewable energy organization based in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
Photo caption: The Daily Herald published this photo on May 2, 2018. From left Fredericka Ford, Wesley Mason, MP Rolando Brison and Pat Charles.
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