Celebrating women’s achievements gets (R) Evolutionary this year
At the press conference this week: The organisers and judges. Pic by Indika Handuwala
It’s time once again to recognise and celebrate the achievements of women in their respective fields in the tenth edition of the Top 50 Professional & Career Women Awards Sri Lanka 2020. The awards are hosted by Women in Management (WIM), in partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC) for the sixth consecutive year.
Nominations for the awards will be open until September 15, and can be made through their website www.womeninmanagementawards.org
With over 420 past award winners, the Top 50 Awards recognise women in a wide array of professions and industries, such as banking and finance, hospitality, media, legal, logistics and supply chains, and many more.
This year’s theme is ‘She is (R)Evolutionary’ – celebrating the advancement of women’s roles in society, while highlighting and promoting present and future women in leadership rather than dwelling on the past. “We are a country proud of history, not yet ready to make history today,” says Founder and Chairperson of WIM Dr. Sulochana Segera.
In this spirit, the Top 50 Awards will demonstrate the significant role women play in bringing about transformational change as employees, entrepreneurs and business leaders. WIM and IFC have also run programmes for gender equality in leadership, skill building and training opportunities for women in senior and middle management as well as entrepreneurs in small and micro-businesses, career mentoring for women and career awareness for schoolchildren and teachers.
“Many of the winners have made a drastic impact to the country’s economy and society, directly and indirectly,” Dr. Segera adds. “We are not just celebrating women’s positions or successes, we are finding women who can take the next leadership of driving the country’s economy, and also changing society towards positive gender equality for everyone to feel respected and accepted.”
2020 also marks IFC’s 50th year of operations in Sri Lanka, and their support for the Top 50 Awards forms part of their Women in Work partnership with the Australian Government, says Programme Manager for Women in Work Sarah Twigg. Through Women in Work, IFC and DFAT are working with private sector companies, regulatory bodies and key partners like WIM to close gender gaps and improve business performance across Sri Lanka.
The judging panel for this year’s awards include Chairman/Managing Director of Jetwing Travels (Pvt) Ltd and Chair of the Judging Panel 2020 Shiromal Cooray, Australian High Commissioner David John Holly, Executive Vice President John Keells Group Nadija Tambiah, CEO of Clootrack Sri Lanka,Maldives & Pakistan Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Programme Manager for IFC’s Women in Work programme Sarah Twigg, Editor of the Financial Times Nisthar Cassim, Managing Director of Hayleys Agriculture Holdings Ltd Jayanthi Dharmasena, Marketing Consultant Kumar Samarasinghe, Associate Director Corporate for Regulatory Affairs & Consumer Care and Fontera Brands Lanka (Pvt) Ltd Thamari Senanayake, and CEO of Shippers’ Academy Colombo (Pvt) Ltd. Rohan Maskorala