Damian McKinney

Born and raised in Kenya, educated in the United Kingdom and a former Royal Marine Commando, Damian McKinney is a citizen of Barbados who has lived on the island for almost 20 years. During that period, Damian first ran his own company, McKinney Rogers, before selling the business in 2017, and later accepting an invitation to become the Global CEO of the internationally acclaimed Stoli Group. In both cases, Damian managed operations from his home base in Barbados. After stepping down from his position at Stoli, he launched DioniLife, a company specializing in non-alcoholic adult beverages.

Damian McKinney

My career had reached a pivotal point where I wanted to build a profitable company that could improve people’s quality of life, not just focus on commercial success. So, I created DioniLife with the goal of developing a new mindset, whereby choosing a non-alcoholic beverage is not just a way to protect our health and wellbeing, but also a cool thing to do. Life is for living, so let’s live longer and have fun along the way.

To raise the capital to get the new company up and running, I had to sell our house, so it made business sense to relocate to the UK for a few years where I could immerse myself in the market and build the necessary momentum. Moving to Barbados is one of the best decisions I ever made, and our young family has its roots in Barbados, so none of us wanted to leave, but it had to be done. Fortunately, that is a temporary measure.

My plan is to bring DioniLife back to Barbados.

linkedin.com/company/dionilife

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