CTC, Nestlé Lanka and Unilever Sri Lanka launch WICE to promote women as future leaders
View(s):Multinationals Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC), Nestlé Lanka and Unilever Sri Lanka recently launched WICE (Women-Inspire-Connect-Empower) to promote the interests and rights of women as future leaders of their organizations.
A joint media release by the organizations said Sri Lanka is currently ranked 55th among 136 countries across the world in terms of gender gap, down 16 places from its 2012 position according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013 released by the World Economic Forum.
From left: Felicio Ferraz (MD & CEO - CTC), Nilanthi Sivapragasam (Group CFO - Aitken Spence Group), Ramini Fernando (Founder - Ramani Fernando Salons), Anirvan Gosh Dastidar (CEO - Standard Charted Bank), Shazia Syed (Chairperson - Unilever Sri Lanka), Smriti Daniels (Moderator), Sandya Salgado - (Snr. External Affairs Officer - World Bank) and Ganesan Ampalavar (Managing Director - Nestle Lanka PLC)
It said WICE aims to enhance the professional development of women by providing them with opportunities to engage collectively, and learn from and support each other. The network is structured around two key pillars:
‘Professional Development’ and ‘Support and Engagement.’ ‘Professional Development’ focuses on sharing thought leadership, insights and advice on career growth of females. ‘Support and Engagement’ will look at a broader spectrum of success through a balanced work-life approach which will focus on women’s health and well-being, family, networking and connecting with female communities in the wider society and CSR.
WICE was launched in March 2014 under the theme “Inspiring Change”. The event was sponsored by Dialog Axiata, Amanté and LoveEssence and included a panel discussion on the topic ‘Women as agents of change for success and career advancement’; featuring Anivaran Ghosh Dastidar – CEO, Standard Chartered Bank, Nilanthi Sivapragasam – Group CFO, Aitken Spence, Sandya Salgado – Senior External Affairs Officer, World Bank and Ramani Fernando – Founder, Ramani Fernando Salons. The panel discussion shed light on many aspects of gender diversity including progress made in Sri Lankan corporates for female empowerment, challenges inhibiting women’s progress and potential initiatives to accelerate women’s advancement.
Felicio Ferraz, Managing Director and CEO of CTC at the launch said, “It is a pleasure to have initiated this project with two prominent companies. With our similar backgrounds, business structures and international exposure, it is indeed a good match. We look forward to sharing best practices and promoting the ideals of this network together.” Shazia Syed, Chairperson of Unilever Sri Lanka, delivered the key note address where she strongly emphasized the importance of loving what you do, believing in yourself, and being unapologetic for who you are. She added “WICE is an opportunity for lady leaders from three strong multinationals to connect on a meaningful and engaging platform. We are committed to ensuring that WICE will enable professional and personal development of our lady managers, and remain relevant to support their needs to lead organizations towards growth”.
Ganesan Ampalavar, Managing Director of Nestlé Lanka PLC stressed the importance of gender balance for Nestlé “Gender balance makes perfect business sense. Women comprise the majority of newly educated talent in the world today and I am a firm believer that the complementary thinking of men and women lead to better business decisions. Gender Balance therefore makes sure we have the best leaders and the best talent, who can best respond to our business needs.” More recently WICE organized a Forum on ‘Women and Mobility,’; taking a closer look at some of the key challenges faced by women when required to make themselves internationally mobile to perform senior roles, the solutions available to them and how companies could help women overcome these challenges.